Newcastle United won the race to sign Sven Botman from LOSC Lille last week, beating out competition from AC Milan, and Gabriel Agbonlahor believes teams will fear the Magpies now they have pulling power in the transfer market.
Eddie Howe managed to bring in Bruno Guimaraes from Olympique Lyonnais and Kieran Trippier from Atletico Madrid in January. And now they’ve got the highly-rated Botman who had interest from the Serie A defending champions.
Newcastle aren’t done this summer either, as Howe could do with a midfielder, wide-man and striker. So Agbonlahor believes clubs will fear missing out on the same transfer targets as Newcastle because the Toon Army are an attractive destination.
He told Football Insider: “Botman is great signing for Newcastle, I rate him highly. It’s an area where they definitely needed to upgrade, he’s going to make them a better team and he’s coming to a team where other players have made that step now.
“Maybe he can see that he’s got a chance of really pushing for European places in the next couple of seasons with Newcastle. Maybe that’s the reason he chose them over AC Milan. Teams are going to be scared of Newcastle over the next few seasons.”
Newcastle finished 11th in the Premier League last season but are pushing for a strong top-half finish in 2022/23. Howe knows his side won’t dethrone one of Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham, Arsenal or Manchester United to get into the top-six, but his side could be the ‘best of the rest’ with West Ham United (7th) and Leicester City (8th).
The fact Newcastle can beat out a league champion to the signature of a mutual transfer target speaks volumes about their growing reputation.
In other news, Newcastle can survive without Allan Saint-Maximin
