Newcastle United are flying high in the Premier League right now, and that’s largely down to their smart decisions in the transfer market.
Recruiting the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Kieran Trippier and Sven Botman has been inspired, while Dan Burn and Nick Pope have both also been excellent.
However, while we could sit here and praise Newcastle’s incoming signings until the cows come home, the Magpies’ ability to cut the deadwood from their squad must also be commended.
Indeed, Eddie Howe has managed to get rid of most of the players he had no use for such as Isaac Hayden and Ciaran Clark, while it looks like Newcastle got rid of one player at the perfect time.
We’re talking about Dwight Gayle.
The former Newcastle striker left the club at the end of last season, and there can be no questioning whether or not letting the attacker go was the right decision.
Despite the fact he’s been described as an ‘immense’ attacker in the past, Gayle is yet to score a single goal for Stoke City in the Championship since leaving Newcastle.
Historically, Gayle has been a guaranteed source of goals at that level, regularly banging in 20-plus for the likes of Newcastle and West Brom in the past, but now, the goals have dried up.
At the age of 33, this may just be a case of time catching up with Gayle. He’s always been a player who has been blessed with quick reactions and based his game on good movement, but as he approaches the end of his career, those attributes have, and will continue to, desert him.
Gayle has been one of the Championship’s best strikers for a long time, but it looks as though his spell of dominance at that level is over.
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