With Dwight Gayle reportedly set for a move back to The Championship and now is the time that Newcastle United start looking for players who can possibly replace the striker. The 26-year-old had a superb season last time out as he scored 23 goals in 34 league appearances as he finished top scorer in The Championship and helped his side claim the title.
Newcastle do have other options in the final third such as Ayoze Perez, Joselu and Aleksandar Mitrovic, but they will still need to fill the void that will be left by Gayle’s departure. The forward has bundles of pace and energy and also is a lethal finisher in front of goal. However, despite having such amazing abilities, he has not been given enough chance to impress at St James’ Park in the top flight.
We take a look at five possible replacements.
1Islam Slimani
The 29-year-old striker only joined Leicester City last summer from Sporting Lisbon for a whopping fee of around £30 million but looks set for a move away before Thursday’s deadline. He has not impressed at the King Power Stadium and finds himself behind the likes of Jamie Vardy with little chance of breaking into Craig Shakespeare’s starting lineup anytime soon.
Leicester were hoping that they could offload the striker to AS Monaco who were reportedly interested, but they have since signed Inter Milan striker Steven Jovetic for around £10 million and are said to be no longer interested. Newcastle and Watford remain two clubs who are interested but the fact that Leicester want to recoup the majority of the £30 million they paid for the striker, any potential deal could be made very difficult for both of these clubs.
