Jason Cundy reluctantly predicted that Newcastle United will be relegated alongside Sheffield United and Norwich City in the upcoming Premier League season.
The talkSPORT pundit stated that the Magpies would go down in his opinion, but seemed reluctant to, after previously confidently sharing that the Blades and the Canaries would instantly return to the Championship.
Cundy referred to the fact the Magpies had bought Brazilian attacker Joelinton but suggested Steve Bruce’s side could struggle for goals with Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon no longer at the club.
“I’m gonna go Norwich and Sheffield United, I think Villa will stay up,” said Cundy on talkSPORT (12:44, Sunday, August 4th).
“I quite like the way Southampton ended the season, I like what they went through, I’ll just go Newcastle as well simply as…they’ve got the boy Joelinton who has come in and the front two they started with last season have both moved on.
“So replacing goals is going to be pretty tricky.”
OPINION
Cundy predicting Newcastle to get relegated isn’t something that will put a smile on the faces of Newcastle fans, but at least he hesitated. The pundit instantly named Sheffield United and Norwich as his picks to go down but didn’t seem as confident when naming Newcastle. Considering that Cundy is right to suggest the Magpies may struggle for goals after losing their two top scorers from the 2018/19 campaign, Rondon and Perez, it that doesn’t mean he’ll end up being right. After all, Joelinton could be a goal machine in the Premier League in the upcoming season, you just can’t confidently say that until he shows what he can do in England’s top-tier. The 22-year-old scored seven goals, while assisting five, for Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga last season and proved to be a powerful threat in the air by winning 2.2 aerial duels per game (Source: WhoScored). Given that being strong in the air normally is an asset for forwards in the Premier League, there’s no saying he can’t hit double digits. This is the case even though he only averaged a goal every 316 minutes, as per the BBC, which isn’t bad but it’s not spectacular either.
