While Alan Hansen was wrong to claim “you’ll never win anything with kids”, I think it’s fair to say that a team certainly won’t be radically enhanced by Danny Guthrie and Jonas Gutierrez. Yes yes, Newcastle fans, I realise your exciteable manager and hoardes of directors are probably working round the clock to bring new faces in, but we’re getting ever closer to the start of the new campaign and the Magpies will certainly not be finishing in the top six with their current squad.
Don’t agree? Setanta reports that Shay Given is hoping to have some new team-mates in the coming weeks if United are going to finish higher than last season’s 12th. Can the club attract the right sort of player to Tyneside?
”If you looked at our bench in the friendly at Hartlepool, there were a lot of young lads on there,” Given told The Telegraph. ”We need to get a few more players in before the window closes and the chairman and the manager are working hard on that.”
Newcastle endured a season of misery last term and Given admits it is tough to predict if there will be a marked improvement.
”It’s hard to say where we will finish because we need more players,” the Irish keeper added. “Our objective will be to finish higher than last season, when we were 12th.”
You might argue that Newcastle have been no quieter than many other Premier League clubs, there have just been less transfer rumours concerning the Magpies (apart from the one linking James Milner to a move away from St James’ Park). Are any Geordies concerned by this lack of transfer activity or do they trust the board to get it right?