Newcastle United: Bumpy Road Ahead?

Newcastle United has made a decent raid of the transfer market this window, with the signing of three players. Georginio Wijnaldum, Aleksandar Mitrovic, and Chancel Mbemba. Fans have shown delight over these purchases, and they’re definitely going to make their mark in the upcoming season. But it truly is not enough.

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Manager, Steve McClaren, has a problem. It’s quite the dilemma you see. Three players in, yet, no players out. We’ve brought in what we call “solutions” but we have yet to get rid of “the problem”. A weak defense, a scoreless offense, and a midfield that is as empty as Chick-fil-A on Sunday. Newcastle United got off to a great start with the signing of Wijnaldum, a midfielder, who can attack on the pitch, and lead in the dressing room. They continued successfully with the signing of Aleksandar Mitrovic, a young striker, called the Serbian Messi, who has room to grow and is already a hot prospect. Then you have Chancel Mbemba, a great defender, and age controversy aside, he has room to grow in the Premier League, and will help fill in the gaps of the Newcastle United defense.

Great thing going on here. Three different positions, and three different players. But let me tell you something…

It’s not enough.

I don’t want to just see the club buying players. I want to see the players who looked like they didn’t care off the team. There needs to be a sale of players we no longer need as well. You can’t put everyone in your future plans, even if the player really wants it, and they think they deserve the playing time, you can’t please everyone.

Despite the signing of Wijnaldum, the midfield is still poor. Remy Cabella may show his worth in the upcoming season, and De Jong is definitely going to surprise us (if he can stay healthy), and I will say that our midfield is probably the best thing going for us. But it needs more depth, and that’s what we are currently lacking.

The acquisition of Mitrovic signaled Newcastle’s intent to become competitive. McClaren noted that the fans should be aware of the club’s intent to make a cup run, and soon, a league title run as well. Great to hear. But Mitrovic isn’t going to be our offense. We can’t rely on him to be the only one putting the ball in the back of the net. We have talent in Perez and Cisse, but Cisse is getting older and has become less reliable. And I’m not sure if Perez will remain in the picture much longer if the club really is continuing their pursuit of Charlie Austin.

Defense is the worst. Signing Chancel Mbemba was a start, but even then, Williamson is a poor centre-back and we lack any real depth within that position. Haidara I think may be getting the left-back position this season, but he has a lot of room to grow, and he won’t be a strong force until he matures and becomes more disciplined. Janmaat is the best thing about our defense, and is the most mature defenseman we have. But put them all together, and it’ll take them a while to mesh as one, and even then, who do we have to fill in the gaps for injuries?

Tim Krul is fine for now, but I’m not sure how much longer he’s going to take it. He needs a better defense in front of him, but it’s not just the defense. Krul isn’t the best goalkeeper Newcastle United has had, and he’s far from it.

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