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Newcastle fans will be delighted with Bruce’s exits plan

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Image for Newcastle fans will be delighted with Bruce’s exits plan

OPINION

There’s no doubt that there remains a fair bit of deadwood in this Newcastle United squad; players that you’d almost forgotten were still at the club.

Three of the names that that tag most applies to are Jack Colback, Henri Saivet and Achraf Lazaar, all of whom have proved to be below the standard required to succeed at St James’ Park.

The Toon Army will surely be jumping for joy, then, to know that head coach Steve Bruce is planning to offload the hapless trio. The Northern Echo reported on Tuesday that all three players are surplus to requirements under the new Magpies boss.

That is tremendous news, because these three guys have been chewing up the wage bill with next to no on-field production for quite some time now.

The trio have made just 120 combined appearances for the club throughout their time in the north east, with 102 of those being produced by Colback. The fact that they’ve all been with the Magpies since 2016 at the latest tells you all you need to know about their lack of production in a black and white shirt.

It’s good news that Bruce sees them as dispensable, it shows he’s got his head switched on correctly. None of these guys have shown they are good enough to make an impact at Premier League level.

Lazaar showed he was Championship standard at best during a loan spell with Bruce’s old club Sheffield Wednesday during the second half of last season, while Saivet found some success over in Turkey. Colback, like Lazaar, is a second tier calibre player, as he’s demonstrated with Nottingham Forest over the past couple of campaigns.

What’s clear is that none of these men have a real chance of making a first team impact with Newcastle, and so Bruce is making the right decision in trying to offload him.

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