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News
Steve Bruce says he’s meeting Mike Ashley this week to discuss transfer targets
Newcastle manager Steve Bruce has said he will sit down with club owner Mike Ashley this week to discuss the club’s approach to the transfer window.
Ahead of the FA Cup third round replay with Rochdale, Bruce said that he will meet with Ashley in the coming days, halfway through the window.
As per the : “It’s been a while. But I’m meeting up with the owner in the next couple of days. It was his idea.
“He lets me get on with the job – which is hugely respectful – and our CEO [Lee Charnley] is my point of daily contact.
“But he just wanted to come in and see if he could give us a hand. He wants to have a cup of tea with me. If there’s someone that’s available this month and they can really make us better, I’ll ask the owner, who was very supportive in the summer.
“If we can get one or two with that quality it would be better than five or six. I’ll never be anyone’s puppet. I want what’s best for the club.”
TBR’s View – Why hasn’t this happened sooner?
The best, slickest Premier League clubs have their transfer plans laid out months in advance.
They go into windows with a clear idea of who they want and have scouted them extensively and done checks about their personalty.
Newcastle, on the other hand, have a manager happy to ‘have a cup of tea’ with their owner around halfway through the window.
It’s not an approach that befits the top flight and it doesn’t seem likely to get the players Newcastle need through the door.
Why has this chat not happened sooner? Newcastle fans have plenty of problems with Ashley already and this is just another.