As Newcastle United prepare for a season that’s likely to include Champions League as well as Premier League football, Eddie Howe, will need to strengthen his team wisely.
The Magpies have been brilliant throughout the 2022/23 campaign and a European season for them in 2023/24 would be a just reward for their effort and industry.
What’s likely to prove difficult for Howe is just who he brings in and in which positions.
Each player under his tutelage has flourished and it’s easy to see the team ethic and harmony in each game they play, particularly at St. James’ Park.
However, the last thing that the Magpies need is for the equilibrium to become unbalanced just when it appears that the good times are on the way back to Tyneside.
One player that appears destined to leave the club is Allan Saint-Maximin, but the exciting Frenchman will absolutely need replacing.
His mixture of pace and skill is difficult to replicate but one player that is of a similar ilk and of interest to Newcastle according to Estadio Deportivo is Villarreal’s Samuel Chukwueze.
Earlier in the current campaign, he ran Carlo Ancelotti’s Real Madrid ragged and scored a brace in a famous 3-2 win over Los Blancos.
Like Alexander Isak before him, Chukwueze is the type of player that gets people up off their seats but ensures that his skills are allied to an incredible ethic of consistent hard work.
With his contract thought to run out in a year, the Yellow Submarine could be forced to let him go for a bargain price, and Newcastle have to be at the head of the queue if that’s the case.
The most one footed player I’ve seen in 70 years watching football.