The situation at Newcastle United has become “ludicrous”, according to the Telegraph journalist Luke Edwards.
The Magpies have been heavily linked with a move for Steve Bruce from Sheffield Wednesday in recent days, but could face complications over how much his current employers are demanding in compensation, as reported by The Sun.
And Edwards believes that the hurdle is the icing on the cake of a summer that has stumbled from calamity to calamity.
Speaking on talkSPORT, he said: “I think they’ve gone for Steve in the end because of all the people who wanted it, he wanted it the most, so for there to now be delays over compensation really is ludicrous.
“To not have a shortlist in place because you were so convinced that Rafa Benitez was going to stay. For Rafa to then go. They haven’t signed anyone yet. It really is a mess.
“If they don’t recruit well this summer they’re going to go down, I don’t care who the manager is.”
OPINION
It’s hard to argue with Edwards on this one. The Magpies have slowly but surely descended into farce this summer, and even though it feels like a slim possibility, missing out on Bruce would be the final nail in the coffin. To go from an Arab buyout and talk of Jose Mourinho to another season of Mike Ashley and a manager poached from the Championship is almost laughable, or at least it would be if it wasn’t actually happening. The way in which this summer has been handled – losing Benitez, fobbing fans off over the takeover, selling Ayoze Perez and failing to land Salomon Rondon – has been the worst chapter in Ashley’s disastrous tenure. That truly is saying something for a club that have stagnated and regressed for the best part of a decade and a half under the controversial businessman’s ownership.
