Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Bruno Lage has insisted Newcastle United are not safe from relegation in the Premier League despite their resurgence under Eddie Howe. Boosted by a takeover, Howe's arrival and several January transfer window additions, Newcastle have found form and managed to steer themselves away from the bottom three.
They currently occupy 15h place in the league and are seven points ahead of 18th-placed Burnley, meaning few are tipping them to make a return to the Championship. Lage, however, has claimed he would not consider Wolves safe if they had Newcastle's tally of 31 points.
After being asked if the Magpies were safe, he replied: "If I was in that position with 31 points I would say no. I prefer to win more points. I think with 34 or 35 points you can be safe, not with 31."
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Although he would not commit to marking Howe's men as safe, Lage did acknowledge Newcastle as being part of a raft of clubs behind Wolves in the table he claims are willing to invest to improve. His side currently sit in eighth and trail West Ham United in sixth by just two points.
He said: "Behind Wolves comes teams that are ready to invest a lot, like Aston Villa, Everton, Newcastle and Leicester. They are ready to invest and improve and fight for different competitions. The challenge for us is to create and build the right team, to fight against all the teams in the Premier League."
Newcastle's January investments have paid dividends in their ongoing fight to climb the Premier League table. Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Bruno Guimaraes and Chris Wood all arrived on permanent deals, meanwhile Matt Target was drafted in on loan from Aston Villa. Their impact has been clear for all, including Lage, to see.
As reported by The Express & Star, he said: "It’s easy to see how they changed, with the players they brought in January. I can see a left-back, a centre back, one top midfielder, a striker, so they changed a little bit. They are doing solid steps to come from the position they were at the end of the year. Now, they are more solid and maybe they need three or four points to continue in the Premier League.
"When you look at the performances they did, they know how to play, how to do it, so when you look at a team with top players and a manager with a lot of experience in the competition, you can see the game is going to be hard. They want to finish the season to start to prepare for the next one."
