Newcastle United journalist Chris Waugh has made a claim about some of the players and their emotions behind the scenes at the club following the transfer window.
Newcastle went through the window just signing the one player for the senior team. That came in the form of Joe Willock, with the only other signing of note being that of Santiago Munoz for the academy side, although most of the fuss surrounding that deal was due to him sounding like Goal! character Santiago Munez.
Speaking about the club’s window during a live stream for The Athletic, Waugh claimed that there were a number of players who might feel slightly aggrieved with how the club have conducted their business this summer:
“Before Joe Willock signed, I think there was a lot of concern, particularly from players like Allan Saint-Maximin and Isaac Hayden and Martin Dubravka – players who’d signed long-term contracts on the basis that Newcastle were going to make strong signings, they hadn’t done that.
“Willock arriving gave everyone a bit of a boost, but I think that there’s still frustration within the squad that they all want to improve and they don’t want to be labelled as this team who merely every year, it’s just about survival, which is the way it’s seen at Newcastle.
“But from the hierarchy, that’s very much the impression that’s given out, that survival is just good enough, and Steve Bruce has delivered that over the last couple of years.”
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You can certainly understand where the frustration from the players might be coming from, because Newcastle are basically the same team that finished last season, minus the likes of Andy Carroll and Christian Atsu, who left as free agents.
And that was a team that was being talked about as potential relegation candidates as far into the season as April.
A lot of hope surrounding Newcastle United right now, as Waugh hinted at, is that they just need to get through this season and hope that the takeover will go through in time for them to bring some better players in to help them but up a better show in 2022/23 and beyond.
But you just wonder if the club have done enough this summer in order to get them over the line and survive for that long, or if those players will turn out to be right and that there could be trouble ahead.
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