Jonathan Woodgate, who had spent 18 months at Newcastle between 2003 and 2004, spoke on BBC Radio 5 Live\u2019s Friday Football Social\u00a0about Newcastle United\u2019s pulling power under their new affluent owners.<\/p>\n
The Magpies are now the richest club in the country, with their new owners reportedly wealthier than all other Premier League club owners put together. That is a factor that should mitigate in Newcastle\u2019s favor in making the club a real dominant force in the coming years.<\/p>\n
In the wake of the take-over, the likes of Timo Werner, Mauro Icardi and Harry Kane have all been linked with the club, while on the lighter side of things, jokes surfacing on social media have urged the Magpies to make moves for Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Lionel Messi as well.<\/p>\n
Obviously, affordability is not the question anymore regarding the Magpies new-found propensity to pay for the above players but rather the question of whether any of these stars would agree to join the Magpies? Woodgate is unhesitant in saying not at all.<\/p>\n
The Englishman, a former Newcastle player, said: \u201cIf any player has got anything about him, he goes to Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United. No disrespect to Newcastle, he ain\u2019t going up the road to them.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard enough trying to get players up to the North East, I know playing for Newcastle, Middlesbrough, Leeds, it is difficult to get players up there. All the top players have got money, they want to win trophies, they want to play in European finals, they want to get to World Cups, they don\u2019t want to come to Newcastle.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo disrespect, but I am right.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Newcastle fans to think they are going to get Kylian Mbappe and all these top players, it is dreamland, you have to build it. It isn\u2019t easy, you can\u2019t just buy success. It doesn\u2019t work like that in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n
Undoubtedly and understandably, it is still way too early at this juncture in time to expect top players, if any, to fancy a move to Newcastle United as th ere\u2019s no denying that they are still a bottom-half feeder who still have a long way to go before they can compete with the best in the country, let alone the world, regardless of the spending power they now possess. Rome certainly wasn\u2019t built in a day.<\/p>\n
Newcastle\u2019s new owners have to make a whole universe of right decisions going forward \u2013 from their choice of the right manager and the director of football to the kind of infrastructure they\u2019ll need to build.<\/p>\n
A certain amount of credibility has to be built up before top-flight players would give any thought to joining their ranks and pull for the club. If the new owners can manage to put together concerted plans to build a sporting project that has weight and value, and not just build castles in the air just because the Saudi majority partners have pockets far deeper than anyone could ever imagine, then their spending power could convince the right players to sign up to help build the Newcastle brand anew.<\/p>\n
However, it\u2019s going to take quite a long while and their over-eager fans just have to be patient.<\/p>\n
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