Advertisement

Welcome Andros Townsend

News has broke this morning that Newcastle United have finally agreed a fee with Tottenham Hotspur for their fleet footed winger Andros Townsend. The figure being mentioned is around the £12m mark, significantly lower than Spurs were hoping for (allegedly £14m) but it’s a fee that most magpies fans feel is a little too high for a player who has failed to break in to the Spurs first team in recent months.

That said, like Jonjo Shelvey, he is a current England international (or Spurs reserve depending on which reports you read) and he is the kind of player we have been missing. For too long Newcastle United have played a formation utilising wingers but with one thing missing; wingers!

In the magpies’ golden era of the mid to late 90′s we were spoiled with the likes of David Ginola, Keith Gillespie and even a little further back, Ruel Fox. Later on we saw the likes of Laurent Robert, Nolberto Solano and even for a brief period, dare I say Charles N’Zogbia; all out and out wingers and all capable of making darting, or in Solano and Ginola’s case, jinking and weaving, runs up the wing, flinging in an inch perfect cross on the the marauding Alan Shearer or Les Ferdinand’s forehead. It was the sort of football that Newcastle fans love and have craved for over a decade.

Now, I’ll not jump too far ahead of myself here as officially Andros Townsend hasn’t signed yet, and until I see him head to toe in Sports Direct and Wonga splattered garments, I’ll remain skeptical, but should the inevitable happen and he signs in the next 24 hours, he could play a vital part in saving us from relegation this season if he can find his old form that saw him break in to the starting eleven for his country.

In Aleksandar Mitrovic we have the perfect target man for crosses; he lacks the pace of the likes of Saido Berahino and Alexandre Lacazette, two other front men we have been strongly linked with, but he has the strength, power and height to get on the end of a pin point cross; something we have failed to provide him with for the majority of the season.

There is talk in the local press than even if/when Townsend signs, we are still looking at a striker and the two names mentioned above remain heavily linked; this is very encouraging although I do feel we need a strong central defender or left back to come in.

We failed to take the winning momentum from the home West Hame game in to the Watford match last weekend. A game which yet again proved there are two very different Newcastle United sides. Steve McClaren said we played well. Most fans disagreed, we were awful, unorganised and weak up front; something we have seen repeatedly under Steve McClaren’s guidance.

Our next game, just over a week away, sees us travel to Goodison Park to face Everton. I remember the Everton games well from previous years as we have often turned in our worst performances of the season, especially away, when we face them. It really has been a boys v men type encounter over the last few years. Will the break and new signings change that? We will see.