When Newcastle signed Andy Carroll on transfer deadline day in the summer, there was a hug fanfare over the sentimental return of a local hero coming back to where he belongs.
While that may be true, the Telegraph’s report that the Newcastle medical team do not think Carroll will be fit enough to start a game until 2020, suggests the club have made a big mistake.
The mistake is not in bringing Carroll back to Tyneside, as proved by his ovation on Saturday, he was always destined to be back at some stage.
But they have blundered by not addressing the side’s need for immediate forward-line additions.
Having a new striker who had never played in the Premier League before was always going to take time, and it is almost always the case, whether he costs £40 million, or £4m.
So while they lauded all the talk of Carroll re-signing for his boyhood club, Newcastle paid no attention to the fact that both Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon had left, and Dwight Gayle – who already has huge question-marks to his name over his top-flight ability – was injured.
Yoshinori Muto has rarely – if ever – looked capable of becoming a top Premier League player, so the result is having just Joelinton to lead the line.
Newcastle are still woefully short of goals
Regardless of signing Carroll, Newcastle had to bring in another striker to help with the goal-scoring burden during the first half of the season, and they failed.
It left Steve Bruce praying for a miracle return to full fitness for Carroll as soon as possible, and that Joelinton would be the exception to the ‘bedding-in’ rule, and be banging goals in from day one.
The news from the medical team today, and the single goal to Joelinton’s name, mean he got neither, with the situation being compounded by the struggles of Miguel Almiron – just to add salt to his wounds.
It may have been the romantic footballing story of the summer, but sentiment aside, it was not the signing Newcastle desperately needed at that time.
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