Alan Shearer reiterates key message to Newcastle United board ahead of massive season for Magpies

Alan Shearer has been beating the drum that Newcastle United must strengthen in this window to keep up momentum.

It may be an obvious statement, and also one that has been echoed by the club anyway, but it's important to keep the message going after three poor transfer windows in a row.

Eddie Howe has worked miracles getting this Newcastle United team into the Champions League and guiding them to a trophy with so many players in the squad pre-takeover relics that Eddie Howe has transformed into quality players.

However, these players aren't getting any younger, and the average age of the Toon squad could do with being brought down a year or two, and the average quality raising a mark or two as well.

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Alan Shearer has shared how many signings Newcastle need to continue their trajectory

Everyone will have their own ideas of what and who the club should bring in this summer to truly kick on next season, and former Newcastle No. 9 Alan Shearer has his. While he hasn't gone into details, the Premier League's all-time leading scorer has given an indication of how many players Newcastle need to bring in when speaking to the Daily Mail.

“You have to strengthen when you’re at your strongest and Newcastle are in a really strong position by winning a trophy and qualifying for the Champions League.

“So I guess if they were to get three or maybe four players in that can play first team football or challenge to get into first team, then yeah, they can challenge. They’re not that far away.”

We believe Newcastle need at least four signings this summer

We'll go with four. The more the merrier. In truth, four is the number we, and indeed most other fans, will have in their head as an absolute minimum.

Goalkeeper, central defender, right wing and centre forward are all positions that need strengthening this summer. You could make an argument that if you find a player who can play wide right and centre-forward, you can save some money, but we still need more cover for each position, so one of each makes way more sense.

Perhaps we're just greedy or unrealistic, but that's how we see it. And we expect there could be a few more low-key additions beyond those main four. Again, probably just wishful thinking, but we're allowed to dream.