Alan Shearer says who Newcastle United should target as it looks like they are to miss out on Benjamin Sesko
Newcastle United look all but certain to have missed out on signing RB Leipzig striker Benjamin Sesko as all reports point towards the Slovenian preferring a move to Manchester United.
Despite being an absolute car crash of a club in recent years, there's no denying the pull that Man United have as they continue to dine out on the legacy Sir Alex Ferguson built, whereas Newcastle, although heading in the right direction, clearly haven't done enough to prove to the top players that they are a consistent force. Ostensibly, it comes down to our sales pitch clearly being below par. If we can't convince players to join our project over 15th-placed Manchester United, then we're not pitching the club properly.
So, with Sesko potentially off the table, that leaves Newcastle with very few options to bring in someone capable of being Newcastle's new No. 9, with Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson emerging as the media's frontrunner, albeit for an incomprehensible £80 million fee.
Brentford's Yoane Wissa is desperate for a move to the North East, and it's widely expected he'll get his wish once Brentford bring in a new forward, but he will be the replacement for Callum Wilson rather than the new line leader to replace Alexander Isak.
Alan Shearer feels Newcastle should move for Ollie Watkins
Alan Shearer, however, believes Newcastle should focus their efforts on someone other than Jackson to partner Wissa, as he told Betfair (via NUFCBlog), and honestly, we've been pretty harsh on him in the past, but that was when we thought we had better options. As more targets pass us by and fewer strikers are available, Alan Shearer's suggestion of moving for Ollie Watkins makes more and more sense.
“If Newcastle were to get Yoane Wissa and Ollie Watkins, I think that would be two really good signings but I don’t think Aston Villa and Brentford fans would appreciate me talking about their players like we are.
“If those deals could be done, it’d be a huge plus for Newcastle and they need it. Even if Isak stays, they still need another centre-forward because they’ve lost Callum Wilson.”
Watkins and Wissa would see us through a season or two while we work on a big move
As a short-term solution, Watkins and Wissa wouldn't be such a bad move. They're both around a similar age, though, approaching 30, so they aren't going to be the solution for the future.
It would give us two Premier League-proven strikers for the next season or two while we search for our big new forward to take us to the next level.
The issue is that Aston Villa are likely to demand a big fee for Watkins, which would make it quite a costly move for a stop-gap, short-term strategy.
At this point though, my head is so battered trying to think of who we could get and for how much that we could sign someone from League Two and I'd be happy. I just want to see some movement.
