Dwight Gayle – Middlesbrough boss replies to questions on interest in Newcastle United striker

It is now 15 months since Dwight Gayle last started a Premier League match and in the past 24 months, has only started four PL games in total.

Despite that, Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce made the bizarre decision towards the end of the 2020/21 season, to give the striker a new three year contract that would take him up to the end of June 2024.

Quite incredible, Dwight Gayle, despite rarely (if ever) playing, given a new deal that would take him up to just a few months short of his 35th birthday.

That contract for Gayle was just one of many that Bruce and Ashley gave out to existing players who should have been moved on, then replaced with Premier League level players.

This is just one of many issues that Eddie Howe and the new owners have been left to deal with.

So many players desperately needing to be moved out but very difficult due to the Premier League contracts Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce gave them. With room needed for those players, including summer signings, that Eddie Howe will want to use this coming season, the NUFC Head Coach has sent Dwight Gayle, Jeff Hendrick and Ciaran Clark to train with the Under 23s ahead of the new season.

Very difficult to get deals done and whilst both Freddie Woodman and Issac Hayden have been fixed up with Championship clubs, so many more NUFC players need to follow them.

Middlesbrough have been heavily linked with Dwight Gayle, Boro having finished seventh in the second tier last season and would surely have made the play-offs at the very least if having a striker. Their top scorer was midfielder Matt Crooks with eleven goals.

Only three weeks until they kick off the season against Steve Bruce’s West Brom and Middlesbrough boss Chris Wilder has been asked about the links to Dwight Gayle.

Chris Wilder asked about claims that he is interested in signing Dwight Gayle:

“There are a whole host of names we will get linked with.

“It is such a competitive market.

“Every club is after players who can make a difference, who can score 20 to 25 goals, we have to be creative.

“We will be competitive and we are looking around.

“There is a huge gap (for Middlesbrough) at the top of the pitch.

“We need a squad with depth and quality, especially at the top of the pitch, that gets us to be where we want to be, which is in and around the top of the division.

“We would all love to be in the position where there are two or three more bodies (already) in the football club but we have to be patient.

“It is a small market and we are after quality, it is no good going and getting someone and then not getting someone you really want.”

In his last two Championship seasons, Dwight Gayle scored 23 goals from 26 starts for Newcastle in 2016/17, then 24 from 34 for West Brom in 2018/19.

Dwight Gayle turns 33 in October and so any buying / loaning club will be putting faith in a striker who is getting on and has played very little football in recent years – 14 league starts these past three seasons since that year at West Brom.

With two years still left on his Newcastle deal, NUFC will no doubt have to compromise on the financial side of things if they are to get a Championship side to take him on.

Getting players out of Newcastle United this summer may prove just as tricky as bringing them in.