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After asking for Rob Holding loan, Newcastle now weighing up Callum Wilson move – Report

4 years ago
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Newcastle United are considering a move for Callum Wilson according to a new report on Thursday morning.

The 28 year old was relegated with Bournemouth six weeks ago and has been widely expected to leave.

However, Bournemouth have responded to claims of Callum Wilson and their other better players leaving, saying that there will be no fire sale and nobody will be leaving on the cheap.

With the massive parachute payments and a wealthy owner, Bournemouth aren’t a sitting duck despite relegation, whilst they were the Premier League club least reliant on matchday revenue from fans.

However, at the age of 28 it would seem inevitable that Callum Wilson will be insistent on getting a Premier League move. Having played for England as recently as October 2019, the striker will know that if he’s to have any chance of getting back into the national squad, he will have to play in the top tier.

The report from The Mail says that the injury to Dwight Gayle could be enough to help push Newcastle United to at last spend some money in this window. Ahead of having a scan on Wednesday, medical staff said it wasn’t looking good after the striker ‘hyper-extended his knee’ during the friendly against Crewe on Tuesday. It looks inevitable he will be out for a fair amount of time, possibly a seriously long absence.

In any case, Newcastle fans knew that at least one new striker was needed, preferably two, with Dwight Gayle seen as more of a back up forward by supporters.

Andy Carroll played 45 minutes and scored a very good goal in that Crewe friendly but it would be absolute folly to rely in any way at all, on somebody who can’t stay fit and injury-free and hasn’t scored a Premier League goal for 29 months.

To add to the total farce of NUFC’s pre-season preparations, neither Joelinton or Yoshinori Muto have taken any part in pre-season and the club are refusing to comment on their absence.

The season kicks off in two weeks time.

Callum Wilson has long been linked with Newcastle United and indeed it was during the 2016/17 promotion season when Rafa Benitez was said to be looking at the striker as an addition when coming back to the top tier. However, Mike Ashley of course refused to give Rafa any proper backing and only £5m was made available to bring in Joselu.

In his five seasons in the Premier League, Callum Wilson has scored 5, 6, 8, 14 and 8 goals.

However, he has had more than his fair share of injuries and with 41 goals in 109 PL starts (plus 17 sub appearances), averaging a goal every 233 minutes, that is a pretty decent record of scoring roughly every two and a half games worth on average.

With three years left on his contract, Bournemouth are in a comfortable position with Callum Wilson in that respect.

The Mail say that Newcastle have also contacted Arsenal to enquire about a potential loan deal for Rob Holding.

Whilst the centre-back has played 39 times in cup (domestic and European) cup competitions for Arsenal, he turns 25 next month and has started only 33 Premier League games. A player who is reaching the stage surely of thinking he has to make a career elsewhere, if any substance in the alleged interest, a loan with a view to a permanent deal could make sense.

Newcastle do have plenty of centre-backs but three of them only have a year left on their deals (Schar, Clark, Fernandez) and plenty of them have had injury problems, plus it is an ageing squad so maybe Newcastle needing youth and extra pace at the back as an option.

The big no-brainer essential is though of course a new credible goalscorer as an absolute minimum. If it isn’t going to be Callum Wilson then Newcastle need to find somebody else pronto, as going into the season with what they have got at the moment, is asking for serious trouble.

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