Newcastle need 17 transfers – otherwise there’s no chance they win league soon

Newcastle's new owners want to win the Premier League – but they might have to get out of the Championship first!

They are buying a club in trouble, and Mike Ashley is no fool. He’s getting out at the right time.

I wouldn’t be getting too excited about this if I was a Newcastle fan. They’re dreaming if they think the club is winning in the league in the next five years.

They need 17 players! If this was Arsenal or Tottenham getting taken over, you’d go: “Wow, they’ve got a chance, they only need four or five.”

Not Newcastle. Who’s going to go there anyway? They need players for a relegation battle.

You’ve got to buy a hero. The first thing you have to do is buy a big-name centre forward.

But that’s the end for someone like Callum Wilson then – and he’s one of the two best players at the club!

They’re just not buying the big, big stars. Harry Kane’s not going to Newcastle. Surely. He’s 28. His career will be over before they win anything.

They’ll go for people like James Tarkowski and Jesse Lingard. I’m not being horrible but Tarkowski isn’t getting into any of the top six teams is he?

Players like that are not winning you the league, are they? They're not getting you into the Champions League.

Plus, whoever goes there will get slaughtered for chasing the money.

Win the league in five years? Absolutely no chance. Not a chance. It’s impossible.

If Newcastle make it into the Champions League in the next five years I’d be shocked, I’d be amazed at the highest level.

You could spend £190m in January but who are you going to get? Everybody has big money now.

When Chelsea and Manchester City did it, the rules were different and you could spend what you like. You can’t do that now.

With Chelsea, it took them time. And nobody had that kind of money then so they were just outbidding everybody. It’s different now.

The moral side of it I don’t like either. Women have no rights in Saudi Arabia, do they? It’s not right.

But I’m not afraid to say I don’t know enough about politics to get into that debate. I’m just looking at it from a footballing perspective.

And I don’t think these owners understand just how difficult it is to get into the top four. You need a miracle.

Newcastle are in the bottom three. Look at their next six games. Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, Brighton, Brentford, Arsenal. They might only win one.

What big-name manager is going to take that job? Top drawer managers like Antonio Conte will get big money wherever they go.

They have professional pride and a winning record to protect. Newcastle haven’t won for seven games.

These are the teams they’ve played – West Ham. Aston Villa. Southampton. Manchester United. Leeds. Watford. Wolves.

Let’s be honest, only two of those are going to finish in the top eight…

Newcastle are in trouble. They are in a relegation battle. And three of their last four games are against Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal. Good luck!

Southgate proved right vs Hungary

Gareth Southgate will have watched England against Hungary and said: “I told you so!”

He won’t do that again. He won’t play all those attacking players together again. And he shouldn’t.

Hungary are a second-rate country. And we couldn’t get near them. We could have lost the game.

It’s not like it was Brazil doing that to us. It was Hungary! A better team would have caused havoc against us.

We need two holding midfield players. One hundred percent. Declan Rice was isolated and missed Kalvin Phillips.

It’s all very well people saying you have to play all your flair players. That doesn’t always work. You’ve got to be a team.

You can’t rely on individuals. If you put all your flair players on the pitch again like that, it’s going to be a problem.

Gambling is a killer – hopefully Premier League clubs will think twice after documentary

You might have seen me this week on a TV documentary about gambling.

Gambling is a killer. It’s an addiction that ruins people’s lives. I did the programme because I wanted to talk about it.

I spoke to people who had lost family members to a gambling addiction. And the gambling companies? They don’t care.

At the end, we asked some of the biggest ones for a comment and one of them didn’t even reply. That said it all for me.

I hope the documentary opened a few eyes. I hope it makes some Premier League clubs think twice about being sponsored by gambling companies.

You would like to think these clubs could afford to get sponsorship without getting into bed with them. This is the Premier League.

I hope it changes their perspective and in two or three years’ time we don’t see so many clubs with gambling companies on their shirts.

Finally, I also want to wish Bournemouth’s David Brooks all the best after he was diagnosed with cancer. My thoughts are with him.

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