Former Newcastle United winger Chris Waddle says the Magpies still need a proven goalscorer despite Callum Wilson ending his goalscoring drought and Alexander Isak's arrival in the summer. The Toon have drawn five of their last six games but are still unbeaten in the top flight.
“Newcastle’s main problem at the minute is scoring goals and this is the big concern for getting top four in the Premier League. They just seem to have dried up at the minute,” Waddle told BETDAQ.
“Callum Wilson has done a great job for them but unfortunately for him he has been getting a lot of injuries. Alexander Isak has come in and is a great player, but he has had a couple of injuries already. It seems to happen with Newcastle centre-forwards a lot at the moment.
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“I still think they need a proven goalscorer, who is going to be out there scoring every week and creativity wise, I still think they can create a lot more. Defensively you cannot fault them.
"The trouble is they have spent a lot of money and fair play rules say you can’t keep spending money, but they are still going to need four or five players in and they are going to have to be good signings, big players.
“None of the signings so far have made us go, ‘wow that was an unbelievable signing’. They have bought in players who are very good players, but they haven’t bought in a superstar which everybody thought they would.”
Financial Fair Play has seen Newcastle limit their spending in January, despite being the richest club in world football. Dan Ashworth spoke about their winter business being limited with one eye on summer spending, but Waddle warned the Magpies might need to sign a superstar if they want to consolidate their place in the top-four.
He added: “Will they add a superstar or will they find someone who is playing in the Italian league who we think is decent that could score a few goals for them. I don’t know if they will go big, I don’t think they’ll go £80 million level yet, I think they will still be looking for bargains.
"I can’t see them signing a big-name centre forward, they’ll go for one with potential so if it doesn’t happen, they’ll get their money back on him; they go for potential. They haven’t taken a risk in the transfer market yet, they buy potential.
"Eddie Howe will hope that changes next season and he’ll know what he wants now, and he will be looking at players that can help Newcastle challenge for the league and certainly at a centre-forward. They signed Anthony Gordon but again he is potential, they need a proven player that has done it time and time again in the league.
"Does Howe think they don’t need those kinds of players or is he looking at players like James Maddison who has shown he can do it season after season? If he keeps signing these players like Gordon to develop them rather than go for proven players, they’ll always be on the fringe.”
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