Chris Waugh has written for The Athletic about why Dwight Gayle is not featuring under Eddie Howe at Newcastle United.
Newcastle went big in January to sign a striker once the extent of Callum Wilson’s injury was discovered, That led to them landing Chris Wood for £25m, despite him having netted just three times in the first half of the season and the Magpies already possessing an experienced Premier League striker in Gayle sitting in the ranks.
Does Gayle deserve more minutes?
Yes!
No!
Gayle was brought in to get Newcastle out of the Championship and his 23 league strikes certainly did that as the Magpies won the title, but since that season, his starts and minutes have dwindled for the Magpies.
Waugh has now explained why Gayle has not been getting a lot of game time under Howe, even when Wood wasn’t at the club and with natural winger Allan Saint-Maximin even being deployed through the middle at times.
He wrote: “A few Premier League strikes during the final seven games would help raise interest in Gayle, but whether he is afforded enough game time in which to do the thing he is at best at – scoring goals – remains doubtful.
“Although Gayle continues to overshadow his team-mates in training, clearly Howe wants far more from his centre-forward on matchday than mere goals, as incongruous as that sounds.”
TIF Thoughts on Gayle’s situation…
Gayle’s last season of playing regular first-team football came on loan at West Bromwich Albion, where he helped get the Baggies into the play-offs by scoring 23 goals in 33 starts, which certainly points toward the striker needing to drop back down into England’s second tier, although Waugh reported that his ‘top-flight wages’ could be a problem.
Come the start of next season, Gayle will have both Wood and Wilson ahead of him in the pecking order, and with a new striker likely to arrive after seeing links to players such as Darwin Nunez and Dominic Calvert-Lewin, it appears that Gayle may not even get a space in the squad next campaign, so a move away would work for everyone.
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