Chris Waugh has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s Pod On The Tyne about all things relating to Newcastle United.
One of the topics that he talked about was the Toon’s performance in the transfer window.
He discussed the Toon’s move for Rob Holding, which had looked at one stage to be on, only for Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta to pull the plug and keep Holding at the Emirates Stadium to compete with the seven other natural centre-backs Arsenal have.
Waugh mentioned the potential deal for Holding while he was talking about the Toon’s centre-back situation.
It seems as if Waugh doesn’t understand how Newcastle’s centre-backs are never fit at the same time and discussed how close the Toon were to signing Holding from the Gunners.
He said: “It just seems bizarre that a club who has had six centre-backs for the last few years – yes, they’ve let Florian Lejeune go out on loan, but they still, in theory, have five centre-backs and they’re just never fit; the five of them are just never fit at the same time.
“Ideally they would have liked one, and they looked like they were going to get Rob Holding – that was close until Arsenal pulled it.”
Are you annoyed Newcastle missed out on Holding?
No, I am not bothered
Yes, we needed him
TIF Thoughts…
Since Holding’s move to Tyneside has collapsed, he has played three Premier League games, so perhaps he is an important player for Arteta this season.
Waugh’s point on the Toon’s current centre-back options is accurate because, since the restart of the 2019/20 season, Federico Fernandez is the only Newcastle player to have played every Premier League game.
Ciaran Clark and Paul Dummett have missed all of them (although Clark was on the bench for one game), while Fabian Schar and Jamaal Lascelles have also missed a few games, so you can see why the Toon might have wanted another centre-back.
Steve Bruce is set to be backed in the January transfer window, so perhaps if there is still a problem at centre-back in January, we will see Newcastle try and sign another central defender.