OPINION
Fulham have been frequently linked with making a move for Newcastle United attacker Dwight Gayle and a Daily Mail report suggests that they’re about to push their luck.
While the Express reported that Scott Parker’s side were plotting a £20million bid for the 28-year-old Magpies attacker, but the Mail reported that the London club were only ready to spend £10million.
The Mail’s report claimed the Magpies were open to offers, but surely the Premier League side won’t be expecting one as a low as £10million to emerge?
Gayle is clearly worth more to a Championship side then £10million as he is a proven source of goals that would boost any team’s promotion chances.
The 28-year-old scored 23 goals in 39 league games for West Bromwich Albion in his 2018/19 campaign to help them reach the Championship play-offs and previously scored 23 goals in 32 league outings to help Newcastle win promotion to the Premier League in his 2016/17 season.
Winning promotion to the Premier League is worth a significant amount of money, so surely Fulham are being cheeky to only want to pay £10million?
In the 2017-18 season, every club in the Premier League was handed £80.4million plus revenue from television, as stated by Hull’s Daily Mail, so it’s not insane to think Newcastle can demand north of £10million.
In fact it’s worth pointing out, that Gayle can take huge credit for helping give West Brom even a chance of being promoted last season, as they needed him due to cover up their poor defence.
West Brom scored 87 goals but conceded 62 in their Championship outings, and if Gayle wasn’t there, it’s highly likely they wouldn’t have finished fourth and perhaps they may have not even made it into the play-offs.
Given that Fulham’s defence was ripped apart last season, as they let in 81 goals in 38 league games in the Premier League, it’s highly likely they’re still not going to have a strong defence come the start of the 2019/20 campaign.
So they need someone like Gayle, who was involved in 36% of West Brom’s league goals last season (Source: Transfermarkt), to arrive to cover their potential defensive shortcomings.
