Newcastle United will smash their transfer record this summer, according to a reliable journalist.
Chronicle football editor Mark Douglas has written in a column for the newspaper that Newcastle will finally go beyond the £16.8million fee spent on Michael Owen, a club record that has stood for 13 years.
Douglas explained that Newcastle have “money in the bank and more to arrive via sales” and there is a willingness to back Rafael Benitez more this summer than was the case 12 months ago.
OPINION
It is music to the ears of every Toon follower that the club’s transfer record should be blown out of the water this summer. It is certainly perverse that, in an era of ever-ludicrous fees and inflated prices, that the most Newcastle have spent on a single player is well below £20million even though they have been a Premier League club for all but two years of the subsequent period. If, as seems inevitable, Newcastle are to splash out on a single player, he is most likely to be a centre-forward. There is always a premium on the blokes who put the ball in the back of the net and, with the margins at the highest level so small, they’re worth their weight in goal. As Benitez has said himself, the going rate for a prolific scorer from a major league starts at £25million, while £15million will only buy an “average” striker. That might do little for the confidence of Joseulu, Dwight Gayle and company, but the fact is 15-goal-a-season Premier League forwards cost big money.
