Callum Wilson desperate to make first Newcastle United start against lucky West Ham
Callum Wilson has now signed for Newcastle United.
Monday afternoon seeing the club confirm that the 28 year old has signed a four year deal.
As usual they have said ‘undisclosed’ on the transfer fee but widespread press reports had put the deal at £17m guaranteed and taking it up to at least £20m if various targets are met.
Callum Wilson will only have a few days training with his new teammates before the season kicks off but has already said which game he is targeting for his NUFC debut.
Wilson telling Sky Sports after signing: “I’m hoping to make my debut against West Ham on Saturday because I like playing against them. It gives me confidence having scored so many goals against them in the past.”
Not a great last 11 months for Callum Wilson, in the final 28 Premier League appearances of 2019/20 he only scored three goals. That had followed a very good start to the season with five goals in the opening seven games, culminating in a goal against West Ham in a 2-2 draw.
Callum Wilson has only scored 41 Premier League goals in total and more than one in six of them have been against West Ham, the striker with seven (so far!) against the Hammers.
Newcastle United have been forced to use Andy Carroll as the lone striker in the pre-season friendlies and he doesn’t have the mobility to do the job, when he hasn’t been on the pitch it has been left to the likes of Allan Saint-Maximin to be a makeshift centre-forward and needless to say, that isn’t a great plan. The French winger / attacking midfielder needing to play in his natural position.
It isn’t ideal for Mike Ashley to have as usual left key signings so late but Callum Wilson will surely start on Saturday, despite no pre-season with Newcastle or involvement in the friendlies.
West Ham is also a positive fixture for Newcastle to start the season off with, having won 3-2 on the last visit, one of the more convincing performances under Steve Bruce last season.
Indeed, it is remarkable how the fixture list has fallen, as the first nine fixtures this coming season, saw Newcastle pick up five wins, three draws and one defeat from those same nine games last season, 18 points from a possible 27.
Those nine results from the 2019/20 season:
West Ham 2 Newcastle 3
Newcastle 0 Brighton 0
Tottenham 0 Newcastle 1
Newcastle 0 Burnley 0
Newcastle United 1 Man Utd 0
Wolves 1 Newcastle 1
Newcastle 1 Everton 2
Southampton 1 Newcastle 0
Newcastle 1 Chelsea 0
Whilst Newcastle picked up 18 points from a possible 27 in these fixtures last season, they only picked up 26 more points from a possible 87 in the other 29 PL fixtures.
Here’s hoping Callum Wilson can continue his and Newcastle’s usual decent form against West Ham.
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