Go For It Rafa: 2 Must Buy Championship Players For Newcastle United In The Summer Including Leeds Left-back

Newcastle Must Sign These Two Players From The Championship

This has been a particularly strong looking Championship year, with Newcastle having arguably the best player to play at this level in Jonjo Shelvey and undoubtedly the best manager to ever be involved in it, Rafa Benitez.

Dwight Gayle and Matt Ritchie both had firm offers to stay in the Premier League which underlines their quality too and yet still Newcastle cannot shake off Brighton and have not completely seen off Huddersfield yet either. It’s a good year, which also means that many a good player is playing in the division who could be snapped up come the summer.

Of course, a club can’t simply go around buying players just because they have the money and the potential capture of Tom Cairney is obvious and has been written about before. Any players Newcastle buy will need to fit into their ethos and be used to replace a current player or simply to improve upon them.  With that in mind, the Toon could raid Yorkshire for the following two players:

Tom Smith

Assuming his quite amazing stat of having supplied NINE assists from right-back this season isn’t a fluke – and I don’t believe it is – then Smith needs to be snapped up and taken to the Premier League immediately.

He can definitely defend as he’s been part of a solid, reliable, successful defensive unit at Huddersfield this season but given the increasing need in the Premier League for attacking full-backs, not signing Smith or someone like him will leave Newcastle behind the game.

Vurnon Anita, although capable and admirably consistent these days, is not the long-term answer in that position and so with DeAndre Yedlin away for most of the summer at the CONCACAF God Cup in the USA Newcastle really do need to think about this position.

Regardless of how well Yedlin copes with his return to the Premier League, having him in the squad alone will not be enough and the Toon need to think of the next few years. As much as it would be great to see Jamie Sterry given a chance to impress it’s clear that Smith, not much older than Sterry, is at a higher level right now and ready to do the business. If Huddersfield fail in their promotion bid, Newcastle should swoop.

Charlie Taylor

Another whom we’ve written plenty about, Taylor is Smith’s equivalent on the other side of the field. Part of a solid defensive unit, Taylor has also been impressive going forward from left-back providing 4 assists of his own and would be an improvement on Paul Dummett in advanced areas of the field.

Whatever happens, these two are destined for big things and so Newcastle should act while they can.