Newcastle United sources have played down the club’s reported interest in Charlton Athletic striker Macauley Bonne, according to The Chronicle.
The newspaper claims that the Magpies aren’t interested in the 24-year-old at this moment in time, despite talkSPORT claiming on Monday that they were leading the race for the Addicks star.
The Chronicle’s report claims that, while there have been approaches from the Premier League for Bonne, Newcastle aren’t thought to be one of the teams sniffing around.
That’s despite a move to the north east appearing to be of interest to the Zimbabwe international.
OPINION
This is probably for the best. Bonne is a decent young player, but he was playing non league football up until a few months ago. He’s made the step up to the Championship impressively, it’s true, but it’s still too soon for a team like Newcastle to take a punt on him. What’s impressive is that several of his goals have come against the cream of the second tier crop: West Bromwich Albion, Leeds United, Bristol City etc. The statistics show that he is certainly doing well this term. As per WhoScored.com, Bonne has scored six times and provided one assist this campaign. Furthermore, he is averaging 1.6 shots per game and even 1.1 clearances an outing. He’s a hard worker and he has demonstrated admirable predatory instincts and an impressive tendency to score in big games. However, it would be best for Steve Bruce’s team to wait to see a bit more from him in the Championship before making a move. It appears that that is what they are doing, here.
