Newcastle have been crying out for new signings all month long, and they’ve finally managed to secure one. Indeed, Miguel Almiron is officially a Newcastle player, and he looks like a brilliant player. He was fantastic in the MLS last season, and Rafael Benitez has consistently proven himself as a manager that is able to see fantastic talent from afar.
He’ll come in and add some real quality in the Newcastle midfield, and that’s much needed. They’ve lacked goals at points this term, and the arrival of the Paraguayan will certainly help provide both goals and assists.
In a bubble, this moves seems perfect. He’s a top player, and the club spent big to land a key Rafa Benitez target. However, all is not quite as rosy as it seems.
Whilst Almiron is obviously a great player, he doesn’t tick what is beginning to look like an increasingly significant box for Newcastle.
Salomon Rondon has been a good player for Newcastle this season. He’s scored goals, and he’s been a real nuisance for opposition defenders to deal with. However, it’s important not to forget one crucial thing – he’s only at St James’ Park on loan. Following West Brom’s relegation, they opted to loan out the forward, and Newcastle were the beneficiaries of that.
However, with no talk of a permanent deal currently in the offing, that begs the question: who will be our forward next season?
Almiron, of course, is a player that will look to work together with a striker to create magic going forward. But what is he going to do when he has no forward to play with?
From the outside, it makes little sense for the club to invest so highly in a sparkly new creative playmaker without a top class forward for him to play off of. Rondon’s here for a few months, but beyond that? Who knows.
It’s clear just how unwilling Mike Ashley has been spend big money over the years, and so there’s no reason to suggest that he’ll invest in the team and sign the top class forward that Newcastle may need.
Almiron will lose his effectiveness without a good striker to link up with, and that would make the huge financial outlay that the club have made to bring him in seem like a bit of a waste. You can’t imagine him having nearly as much influence when playing with someone like Joselu, so this is an immediate issue for the Magpies.
Ashley must work harder to bring in a top-class forward in order to best utilise his sparkly new signing.
Thoughts?
