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Graeme Souness says this Newcastle squad will go down and can’t believe lack of signings

7 years ago
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Graeme Souness has been talking about his old club and says Rafa Benitez is frustrated with the transfer situation and the club have to buy better players.

Souness believes that the jump is so big from the Championship and that unless further, better, signings are made, Newcastle will be back in the second tier next season.

The former Newcastle boss says Newcastle have a passionate demanding support and he is really surprised ‘there has been so little action so far’ on the transfer front.

There has been a mixed reaction from Newcastle fans as Rafa/Newcastle now have four new first team players, once Javier Manquillo and Jacob Murphy are formally announced.

Everybody understands the need for Rafa Benitez to build a squad, not just a starting eleven, but none of the four new players look certainties to be starters when the season kicks off.

One or two of them may start against Tottenham and certainly supporters will expect Jacob Murphy to have an impact over the course of the season, likewise they will hope Lejeune will make the transition from a decent La Liga season last year.

With Atsu and Manquillo, they look more likely to be on the bench.

So overall, whilst I don’t like Graeme Souness, I do also believe and expect two or three more proven, almost certainly more expensive, signings to arrive in the coming weeks – and that they are definitely needed.

I wouldn’t go as far to say that Newcastle would be certain to be relegated without more players added but I think it would very likely be a case of looking towards the bottom six and hoping to not be one of the bottom three of those clubs.

As for Souness, I think he lost his right to talk about Newcastle United and transfers, after the disastrous moves he made, along with Freddie Shepherd.

It is 12 years ago (August 2005) now since Souness signed Michael Owen and Albert Luque for a combined £27m, only four months after the equally terrible purchase of Boumsong for £8m.

That was £35m shelled out 12 years ago for three players who proved a total liability for Newcastle and only a very small fraction of those fees was ever recovered, never mind the cash wasted on wages.

Rafa Benitez has stated that he is bringing in players to do a job and that he is not claiming he is signing top class Premier League players. The fact that his quarter of signings so far will come in at around £32m in this current transfer market, only goes to prove that you can’t expect miracles from the signings already agreed this summer.

Graeme Souness speaking to Talksport:

“Rafa Benitez is frustrated with the situation.

“I think Newcastle have to buy players.

“It’s a big football club with a passionate support who are demanding.

“I don’t believe the group that they have will be good enough to survive in the Premier League, the jump is enormous.

“I am surprised there has been so little action so far.”

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