10 Players Who "Could Be Like New Signings" For Newcastle Boss Steve McClaren

It's the phrase no fan wants to hear, but it will inevitably be said at some point...

It seems that nothing ever changes at Newcastle United. Despite Mike Ashley pricking up the short-term hopes of the Toon faithful by making public promises that "investment" would be made in the Magpies squad, still no signings have been announced by the club. Upwards of 80 players have been linked with a move to Tyneside this summer but, as of yet, not a single new face has arrived close to six weeks since the end of the 2014-15 campaign. In fact, following Sunderland's permanent acquisition of Sebastian Coates, there remain just two Premier League clubs who have yet to get a signing over the proverbial "line" this summer - Newcastle United and Crystal Palace. Thankfully for Eagles boss Alan Pardew, a failure to sign players quickly - or even at all - is something he will be more than used to by now. Having previously been in the Newcastle hotseat for more than four years, Pardew became used to endless transfer-window disappointment. In fact, it was Pardew who infamously repeated the phrase "he's like a new signing" to describe some of his players following the Magpies' failure to recruit adequately during successive windows. Pardew used the term in May 2012 to describe Sylvain Marveaux, in 2014 in reference to Papiss Cisse, as well as during the numerous other windows when he described the best piece of business the club have done was "not to lose our key players". So it seems Alan Pardew's successor Steve McClaren could learn a PR turn of phrase or two from his predecessor in case things fail during his opening Magpies transfer window. And here are the 10 players McClaren could plan to describe as "like a new signing" if Newcastle United fail to get their transfer business completed this summer...
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Contributor

NUFC editor for WhatCulture.com/NUFC. History graduate (University of Edinburgh) and NCTJ-trained journalist. I love sports, hopelessly following Newcastle United and Newcastle Falcons. My pastimes include watching and attending sports matches religiously, reading spy books and sampling ales.