Newcastle United journalist Liam Kennedy has been sharing his thoughts on Toon striker Dwight Gayle and his future at St. James’ Park.
This comes after Kennedy hosted a recent episode of the Mouth of the Tyne podcast from the Shields Gazette where he spoke about a range of transfer-related topics concerning Steve Bruce’s side.
On the subject of Gayle and what the current summer transfer window could hold for him, Kennedy had this to say on the matter.
He said: “If Andy Carroll stays, I don’t see a place for Dwight Gayle.
“I just don’t see the reasons as to why you would keep Dwight Gayle in the squad, and my instinct immediately would be I’m getting on the phone to Fulham and getting on the phone to West Brom, who in a matter of two and a half years ago were willing to splash out upwards of £15 million for a player.
“I’m saying, ‘look, do you want your ready-made promotion striker? Do you want somebody to come in and score 20 goals and get you right up in the top two or three places in the Championship?’
“Because that’s what Dwight Gayle does.
“So, I’m on the phone with them saying ‘look, you’re willing to pay £15 million-plus, will you take your ready-made Championship-winning striker, or will you take him for £10 million?
“And I think that’s an easy way for Newcastle United – even if it’s £8 million – it’s an easy way to boost the budget and ultimately drop a player out of the squad who didn’t add a lot of value to that 25-man squad last season.”
Newcastle signed Gayle back in the 2016 summer transfer window from fellow Premier League side Crystal Palace for a fee of £10.8 million.
Overall, the 31-year-old, who is currently valued at £3.6 million, has made 113 appearances for the Toon across all competitions in which he has managed to score 34 goals and provide 11 assists along the way (per Transfermarkt).
TIF Thoughts on Liam Kennedy’s comments on Gayle…
With Gayle having his best goalscoring seasons whilst playing in the Championship and not being able to score more than seven goals in one season in the Premier League, this says to us that Gayle is better suited to playing in the second tier rather than the Premier League with Newcastle.
Should Newcastle sell Gayle this summer?
Yes
No
In our view, Newcastle should do their best this summer to get Gayle a move to a Championship club and pick up as much money for him as possible because he definitely hasn’t been having a strong enough impact in front of goal for the Toon in the past two seasons.