Alan Shearer is praying that Newcastle United are "on the up" this season after the club netted three signings in the space of a week.
Callum Wilson, Jamal Lewis and Ryan Fraser arrived at Benton ahead of the opener against West Ham to go with Jeff Hendrick and Mark Gillespie.
Shearer is excited by the signing of Wilson and feels Newcastle may have grabbed "a steal" this summer at just £20million.
Shearer, speaking to BBC Sport, said: "As for my old team Newcastle, well we are not going to be in the mix for the Champions League places but there have been some signs that things are possibly on the up at last.
"The signings that Steve Bruce has made so far are definitely encouraging - we desperately needed a goalscorer but buying Callum Wilson has covered that off.
"He is a player I think highly of and he is capable of scoring the goals to keep us out of another relegation battle.
"Our top league scorer last season was a midfielder, Jonjo Shelvey, with six goals so it was pretty obvious that our attack was somewhere we needed to improve. Ryan Fraser will help in that area too.
"Callum is 28 and a proven Premier League goalscorer - he was valued at around £30-40m a few years ago but Newcastle have got him for £20m, which is a steal. If he hits form he might just get back in the England squad too - I hope so anyway."
Shearer also says he tried his best to grab an assist in the signing of Wilson to help his old pal Bruce.
Shearer said: "He contacted me before he joined to ask about the club and the area.
"As you can imagine, I was very positive about it all.
"In fact, I would have given him a lift up to St James' Park to sign his contract, if he'd wanted one!
