Former Newcastle United manager Sam Allardyce has banged the drum for Newcastle United to sign free agent centre back Gary Cahill.
The two-time Premier League winner is available for nothing after leaving Chelsea at the expiration of his contract earlier this summer, and Allardyce believes he’d be a fine fit at St James’ Park.
“He should be snapped up already,” he told talkSPORT [24/07; 09:35]. “There’s somewhere he should be, somewhere like [Aston] Villa or Newcastle.
“He’s a super, super fit lad. He’s tried and tested. A lot of these new managers and owners and directors of football say to you ‘he’s too old’. I’d sign him tomorrow, any Premier League football club – get him,” he finished.
OPINION
Look, Cahill is still a decent player who can undoubtedly do a job at the highest level. His time at Chelsea has essentially only come to an end because the last manager, who is no longer there, didn’t fancy him. However, he’s obviously had a phenomenal career, is a serial winner, and is still able to give a year or two of quality service to any team who wants him. As Allardyce says, he probably should have been snapped up already. However, is he really needed at Newcastle? The answer to that question, you’d have to say, is probably no. When you look at his last full season of Premier League football in 2017/18, as per WhoScored.com, he didn’t really approach the heights of the Magpies’ starting three centre backs from the most recent campaign: Jamaal Lascelles, Fabian Schar and Florian Lejeune. He was there or thereabouts in most major defensive statistical categories, but with Newcastle also having Federico Fernandez, Paul Dummett and Ciaran Clark who can play at centre back, they don’t really need Cahill. In fact, neither do Villa after already signing four centre halves this summer.
