There may be 14 places and 23 points separating Newcastle and West Ham but Toon midfielder Jonjo Shelvey has said that on paper he feels that the Hammers are no better than the Magpies.
Speaking to talkSPORT, the stand in skipper said: “On paper, I don’t think West Ham’s squad is better than ours.”
👀 “On paper, I don’t think West Ham’s squad is better than ours…”
💪 “It’s something that we can do with the squad that we’ve got.”
Jonjo Shelvey doesn’t feel #WHUFC’s squad is better than #NUFC’s on paper & takes encouragement from their season pic.twitter.com/Bqwtle8nio
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) April 15, 2021
The Irons are fighting for a space amongst football’s elite in the UEFA Champions League whilst we are scrapping around to accumulate enough points to ensure we aren’t playing in the Championship next season.
With a squad that has players such as Callum Wilson, Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron, Shelvey is correct in his assertion that Newcastle are underachieving but the Hammers’ squad is full of talent and is arguably a lot more balanced than ours.
Ironically, the midfield area is probably the one that West Ham really outshine Newcastle with both Declan Rice and Tomas Soucek having brilliant seasons and being pivotal to their success whereas we are constantly lumbered with Shelvey.
With the addition of Jesse Lingard, West Ham have further strengthened and the in the hot run of form that he finds himself in, Newcastle will have to be very wary of the attacking midfielder.
His comments have bemused plenty Toon fans who have seen it as basically admitting the failures of the team and its manager, who Shelvey has always been full of praise for.
I have many problems with Shelvey but it encourages me to hear him speak so highly of the squad. All we need now is the actions to back up his words and we can do that by taking a huge leap to survival by picking up a result against West Ham tomorrow.