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Opinion

Escape route for Newcastle United with Joelinton – Sebastien Haller points the way

3 years ago
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It is now over 16 months since Joelinton signed for Newcastle United.

Steve Bruce was confirmed as NUFC Head Coach on 17 July 2019, then only six days later the club more than doubled their transfer record.

The transfer fee paid to Hoffenheim reported as £40m at the time but later Mike Ashley stating it had been £43m.

Fair to say things haven’t worked out too well…

With three goals in 53 Premier League appearances and 3,652 PL minutes on the pitch, each goal has on average taken 20 hours 17 minutes of football.

How we wish (Mike Ashley especially???) the clock could be turned back and Hoffenheim repay the £40m / £43m they banked and the Brazilian returned to Germany.

That is not reality of course, though it doesn’t change the fact that Newcastle United are desperate for an escape route, a way to get Joelinton out of Newcastle United and indeed out of the first team. It appears that no matter how badly the Brazilian plays and how little goal threat Joelinton has, Steve Bruce is either ordered by Mike Ashley to keep playing the striker, or simply feels obliged to do so. The ‘striker’ having featured in 53 of the 54 Premier League games since he signed, either as a starter or sub.

However, the way forward has been highlighted by events close to 300 miles down the road.

West Ham are widely reported to be set to sell Sebastien Haller to Ajax.

The striker was signed by the Hammers in July 2019 just a week before Joelinton arrived at Newcastle United and he (Haller) has been labelled as a massive flop.

With £45m paid to Eintracht Frankfurt 18 months ago, with ten goals in 48 Premier League appearances and 3,196 PL minutes on the pitch, each goal has on average taken 5 hours 20 minutes of football. Looking almost as prolific as Lionel Messi when compared to Joelinton!

West Ham are reported to be cutting their losses and selling Sebastien Haller to Ajax for £25m, this would mean the Hammers facing a £20m loss on their record signing after only a year and a half.

However, it simply hasn’t worked out, with only three Premier League goals this season he isn’t the answer, so you have to be pragmatic. Take the money, take the hit, move on and use the cash to help bring in a goalscorer who is good enough to be in first choice and score goals.

Joelinton has only one Premier League goal this season, Newcastle have only scored once in their last six and a half hours of football, the Brazilian doesn’t even get in the box hardly, never mind score goals.

It will always remain a mystery for NUFC fans as to why Mike Ashley insisted so much money should be paid for a striker whose best ever league season so had been eight goals in the weak Austrian league when on loan at Rapid Vienna.

I dread to think how much Joelinton is actually worth now but whatever it is, Newcastle United need to find a buyer, sell him and take the money, move on and buy another goalscorer so NUFC aren’t solely reliant on Callum Wilson.

Rafa Benitez refused to give permission for the purchase of Joelinton when Newcastle manager, telling Mike Ashley that if NUFC did eventually buy him that no more than £20m should be paid for the Brazilian, though in reality Rafa didn’t even think Joelinton was worth that much.

I reckon around £15m should have been the top price for Joelinton back then and now 18 months later, I would bite somebody’s hand off if they offered £10m.

Get him sold and get a chunk off the wage bill, then fill the gap with a goalscorer. I hate to say it but Joelinton is only going to decrease in value the longer he stays here and if we ever get a proper manager once again instead of Steve Bruce, Joelinton will be sitting on the bench at best.

He turns 25 in August and is getting worse not better, even less of a goal threat if that is humanly possible.

Now I know that you will be thinking, there is more chance of Donald Trump accepting responsibility for the shameful scenes in Washington, than there is of Mike Ashley being prepared to look even more stupid by accepting he needs to take a £30m hit on Joelinton.

However, with a team that can’t score goals or win (none in the last six matches), Mike Ashley has to be convinced that there is potentially a very real relegation threat. Ashley clearly is refusing to sack Steve Bruce and so if we are to have the best chance of relatively succeeding (staying up!) despite his (Bruce’s) limitations, we need to get more goals in this Newcastle United team.

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