The January transfer window is open, and Newcastle’s woeful New Year’s Day hopefully sent a message to Mike Ashley.
The Magpies picked up multiple injuries during the game – Jetro Willems, Javi Manquillo, Jonjo Shelvey and Fabian Schar were forced off, while DeAndre Yedlin played on with a broken hand. On top of that, a shattered Florian Lejeune had to play his fourth game in 12 days.
The Newcastle squad has been stretched past its limits in recent weeks, with the busy Christmas period tarnishing a positive start to the season for Steve Bruce.
Could Bruce have rested Lejeune? Probably, but that would have meant reverting to a back four. The last time he did that, we lost 5-0. While fans can criticise Bruce for how he’s managed his players, the root of the problem goes back to Ashley.
We’ve got players in our squad who were with us in the Championship. Yet they’re still being asked to do a job in arguably the toughest league in the world.
Bruce needs help from the owner. While Ashley probably knew Rafa would keep the Magpies up without massive investment, he can’t be certain Bruce can do the same.
We’ve looked pretty poor without Allan Saint-Maximin – our attack is completely reliant on him. When Christian Atsu and Dwight Gayle came on against Everton, we looked worse.
Ashley needs to invest this January and add extra quality to the squad. We need better players and we need them soon.
As it stands, it’s hard to see where our next win is going to come from with some tough fixtures coming up amidst this injury crisis. Ashley can relieve the pressure on Bruce if he puts his hand in his pocket.
But we’ve said this all before…
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