Many Newcastle supporters have been reacting on social media after West Bromwich Albion Technical Director Luke Dowling confirmed the Baggies cannot turn Dwight Gayle’s loan deal into a permanent arrangement, as per quotes by the Birmingham Mail.
Gayle had been a popular figure at the Hawthorns during the recently concluded season, as his 23 goals in the Championship helped Albion to secure a Play-Offs spot. But losing the two-legged Semi-Final clash to Aston Villa on penalties meant the West Midlands outfit will not be in a position where they are able to match his £40,000-a-week wage.
Albion were thought to have held the second-highest wage bill in the English second-tier following their top-flight relegation, and Dowling has warned there will have to be further unavoidable sacrifices after coming short of an immediate return.
“If you add the loan fees we paid for Dwight Gayle and Harvey Barnes, the fees we paid for Sam Johnstone and Kyle Bartley, and the money we paid for loans in January, financially we gave it our best shot this season,” Dowling conceded.
“Next season it will be slightly different. We’ll take the right risks in player recruitment that will benefit the club. If it means two, three, four, or five players move on, then they move on. We have to back ourselves to replace them.
“No-one would like to keep Dwight more than myself. We can all recognise what he gives us on the pitch and the way he conducts himself off the pitch in the local area. He’s brought his family down from Newcastle for the year, he’s brought into everything we want to do. Financially, we were prepared to pay the money for Dwight’s contract for this season. It hasn’t worked out [because we didn’t secure promotion].
“Dwight’s contract is a Premier League contract and we will pay Premier League contracts, but we’ll only do that once we’re back in the Premier League. We don’t want to keep players on big contracts and have to lay the general staff off and make people redundant.”
Gayle will now report back at Newcastle’s training facilities when the United first-team regroup on July 4, unless we are able to offload the 28-year-old, valued by TransferMarkt at £10.8million, before that.
You never know, a return to the Championship may be on the cards for Gayle, and former Leeds United right-back Danny Mills hopes the Elland Road outfit sign the London-born forward so that his side can go one better next year.
“Leeds need a striker this summer,” he told Football Insider. “Their top scorer is Kemar Roofe, who’s scored 15 goals in total, which is not outstanding. He’s done well, but it’s not enough.
“Leeds need a striker who can score 20-plus goals. You think of someone like Dwight Gayle, who is far more prolific, and he could make all the difference. He’s available as he’s finished his loan [at West Brom] and going back to Newcastle, where [Rafael] Benitez doesn’t really fancy him.”
One supporter on Reddit also suggested trying to offload Gayle to the Whites when many United fans reacted to West Brom’s Technical Director Dowling’s comments…
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card
Card