Newcastle and Steve Bruce will not stray from their transfer window plan over the next month, despite a number of injuries occurring to the defenders.
The Magpies’ injury crisis went from awful to beyond belief when four players sustained injuries against Leicester City on New Year’s Day. Three of which came to defenders in Jetro Willems, Javier Manquillo and Fabian Schar, while Jonjo Shelvey also hobbled off.
According to Premier Injuries, the club now have 11 injuries on the books. Eleven. It’s not as if these are inexperienced players miles away from the first-team, either.
So currently Jamaal Lascelles, Paul Dummett, Matt Ritchie, Allan Saint-Maximin, Ciaran Clark, Ki Sung-Yeung, Javier Manquillo, Jetro Willems, Jonjo Shelvey, Fabian Schar and DeAndre Yedlin are out at the moment.
But despite seven injuries to defenders, Bruce does not feel it is sensible to buy more back-ups.
Are you concerned by all the injuries we have suffered?
Yes, absolutely
No, it's part of the game
It was reported previously in the week by Sky Sports (via The Mag) that wingers and attackers were the main targets this window, so that should be staying the same.
When asked about whether the injuries will impact who they will target in the window, he said (via the Chronicle): “No, it’s not going to change my thoughts at all.
“As I said, we might get four or five back in the next week or two and I’ll say it again, if there is somebody out there that we can get and will make us better, then we’ll try that.”
Bruce also went onto discuss whether anyone would be back for this weekend’s FA Cup tie against Rochdale.
“Ciaran Clark, I can’t see it, and I can’t see Lascelles either, so out of six, we’ve got four missing.”, he added.
“It’s quite ridiculous, but it’s the way it is.“
Bruce is probably right when he says that they shouldn’t change their transfer targets because of this as they already have a large number of defenders in the squad. Yes, they do need players now, but once they are over the hump of the unforgiving Christmas period they should have some key players return.
Furthermore, buying more defenders is just likely to cause unrest when everyone is available, and it would be really difficult to get players to join knowing that they could be well down the pecking order when everyone is fit.
