Mark Douglas has been speaking on the latest edition of the Everything is Black and White podcast, and was joined by Luke Edwards and Andrew Musgrove to discuss all things Newcastle United.
One of the topics that came up was transfers and how Douglas thought the transfer window went for the Toon, and he revealed that the club looked at Ollie Watkins before deciding to buy Callum Wilson.
He also did not want to give the club too much credit for buying Wilson in the end because, in his view, it is just what a normal football club would do.
It seems as if the Toon looked at Watkins as well as other targets that were all more expensive than Wilson – and Douglas does not want to praise the club too much for signing the 28-year-old.
He said: “It was clear that Callum Wilson was the player that he [Steve Bruce] wanted. They looked at Ollie Watkins, they looked at players like this; they were a lot more money than Callum Wilson in the end.
“So, I will give them credit, I suppose, for [buying Wilson], but it’s only what a normal football club would do anyway.”
Do you think Newcastle made the right choice?
Yes, Wilson has been fantastic
No, we should have signed Watkins
TIF Thoughts…
The Toon were linked with a move for Watkins in the summer, but they went for Wilson in the end.
However, they did face competition from Aston Villa for the 28-year-old’s signature only for Wilson to choose a move to Tyneside.
Villa then bought Watkins for an initial £28m which could potentially rise to £33m.
Both Wilson and Watkins have had strong starts to the season for their respective clubs as the former Bournemouth man has scored four Premier League goals, while Watkins has scored three.
It is intriguing that the Toon looked at Watkins but in the end paid less money than Villa did for him in buying a proven Premier League goalscorer.
It will be interesting to see which player out of Watkins or Wilson has done better by the end of the 2020/21 season.