With the transfer deadline looming large on the horizon, Newcastle will find themselves being extremely busy over the next few days.
The Newcastle treatment table is seeing a lot of action at the minute with Jonjo Shelvey and Emil Krafth both long-term injuries and the likes of Callum Wilson, Bruno Guimaraes and Allan Saint-Maximin all carrying knocks that could keep them out of Wednesday’s trip to Liverpool. Kieran Trippier may also be a doubt as he appeared to be struggling towards the end of the Wolves game.
Losing just one of those players for a fixture like Liverpool would be seen as catastrophic, but to be missing all four is a terrifying prospect as our backup simply isn’t good enough.
Alexander Isak will likely feature on Wednesday in some capacity, but may be forced to start, which you’d think wouldn’t have been Howe’s Plan A. He could play alongside Wood up front in place of Saint-Maximin, but then we are left, once again, with no attacking options from the bench.
Who Is Our Transfer Priority?
Edson Alvarez
Conor Gallagher
Christian Pulisic
Other
However, it’s the centre of midfield where the real problems lie. Newcastle look lost without Bruno pulling the strings in midfield. We could have likely coped with losing Bruno if we had Shelvey fit, but with both of those two out, we are left with Willock and Longstaff, the latter of which is so far off the pace it’s not even funny anymore. There are talks that Newcastle are trying to sign Edson Alvarez from Ajax having already had a £30m bid rejected. We also still hold an interest in Chelsea midfielders Conor Gallagher and Christian Pulisic with loan moves more likely for either of those, however, it has gone a bit quiet on that front lately.
The likelihood of getting a midfielder in time to be able to face Liverpool on Wednesday is practically zero, but we only have until 11pm on Thursday to conclude our business. Time is ticking.
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