Newcastle United have recruited well this summer so far and now former boss Graeme Souness has picked one of the Magpie’s signings amongst his best of the summer.
Graeme Souness is not the most popular figure on Tyneside – is a sentence dripping with understatement – but even so, he has singled out one of Newcastle‘s summer signings amongst his top 10 Premier League signings in the Daily Mail.
When people think of Newcastle’s summer transfer business this year they will naturally bring up the big statement signing of Sandro Tonali from Italian giants AC Milan. Touted as the best midfielder in Serie A by Andrea Pirlo, Tonali is pretty much the complete midfielder and at just 23 still has a wealth of experience to bring to Newcastle.
Graeme Souness picked the Newcastle signing as fifth in his Top 10
However, that’s not the signing Souness has focused on. Instead the Scotsman has shone the spotlight on the £39million signing from relegated Leicester City, Harvey Barnes.
Souness used the comparison of Barnes versus the man he replaced, Allan Saint-Maximin to make his point about why the Barnes transfer took fifth spot in his top 10.
“As a manager, when you’re sitting in the dressing room at 2.30pm with your players, and you’ve got Allan Saint-Maximin in your team , you’re saying, ‘I don’t know what I’m going to get from him today — will it be the best version or will he disappear?’
“He was a maverick, and I understand why supporters liked him. He does excite you. But with Barnes, you know exactly what you’re going to get at 3pm.
“He will do the hard yards, back and forwards, and he must be a dream to work with. I hope he does well up there. He looks like the sort of boy you’d want to do well, because he looks like he doesn’t complain.
“So, if you ask me, Saint-Maximin or Barnes? I’m going for Barnes 365 days of the year.”
Barnes is going to impress a lot of people this season
Souness has nailed it with his assessment of Barnes. Yes, he’s far from fancy; you’re not going to get the exciting tricks that Saint-Maximin provided. However, if we’re being brutally honest, those tricks were so often followed by a poor decision it’s going to be better just to see Barnes use his blistering pace to blow past defenders and continue the attack.
Barnes is also my most exciting Newcastle transfer so far this summer, I think he’s going to bring so much to the side and will prove a lot of doubters wrong. Granted, I expect Tonali to be a bit hit too, but there’s just something about Barnes that’s got my mind racing.
I realise I haven’t mentioned Tino Livramento at any point and that’s in no way meant as any disrespect to him, I’m sure he’s going to be excellent for us too and will be a superb player for Kieran Trippier to hand the baton to.
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