Newcastle United have yet to make a breakthrough in the summer transfer window and Alan Shearer has called for 'more activity' from the Magpies
Alan Shearer
Alan Shearer(Image: YouTube)
Alan Shearer has admitted that he is a 'bit' worried about Newcastle United's start to the summer.
Eddie Howe stressed the need for speed internally ahead of the window even opening last month because the best options will 'usually move quite quickly'.
The Newcastle boss' words proved prophetic after Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Manchester United all made significant early additions.
Joao Pedro, Dean Huijsen and Liam Delap are among the targets who have ultimately ended up elsewhere while Bryan Mbeumo has intimated his preference is to join Manchester United.
As Newcastle players prepare to return for pre-season next week, Rest is Football podcast host Gary Lineker pointed out that Shearer was 'a bit worried' about his boyhood club.
"I am a bit," Shearer responded. "There's no sporting director, is there? The chief executive [Darren Eales] is going.
"They lost out on Mbeumo, they lost out on Pedro, they were heavily linked with James Trafford. I would like to see a little bit more activity in Newcastle."
There is still plenty of time left, of course, and Newcastle remain in a strong position to make a first major signing in nearly two years after some heavy losses dropped out of the club's PSR calculation.
However, Newcastle will still have to be smart to strengthen multiple positions as football finance expert Kieran Maguire explained.
"They have certainly got far more capacity than the last two summers," he told ChronicleLive a few days ago. "It's then a case of not falling into a trap of spending for spending's sake and I don't think that is the culture at Newcastle.
"I think they're using the Saudi tax argument as a means of just trying to dampen down the expectations among people saying, 'You are the richest people in the world. Why have you not spent a lot more money?' It's more of an expectations management issue than anything else."
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