Steve Bruce believes Newcastle United’s cautious stance on January business will pay dividends ahead of the 2020/21 season.
Bruce and his staff opted against bringing in a new centre-forward in the winter window despite being offered Crystal Palace’s Cenk Tosun and then missing out on Olivier Giroud of Chelsea who remained at Stamford Bridge.
Newcastle were only ever prepared to offer Giroud a short-term deal but the Frenchman stayed in the capital after the Blues were also hit by issues in the transfer market when it come to signing a frontman.
Perhaps the desperation of all clubs was summed up by Bruce’s old club Manchester United signing journeyman Odion Ighalo on loan from Shanghai Greenland Shenhua.
Bruce has previously stated that none of the players made available to clubs were better than Dwight Gayle, and so the Toon boss stuck with three loanees in other positions in Danny Rose from Tottenham Hotspur, Schalke 04’s Nabil Bentaleb and Inter Milan’s Valentino Lazaro.
It is believed that a host of offensive players from Spain, France and Italy told their agents they would wait until the end of the season before committing to a move to England.
When asked about the failed striker search at the start of 2020, Bruce told the Chronicle: “In January everybody was clambering for a striker.
“And we were the same.
“It was: ‘Can we find somebody for the top end of the pitch?’
“We could not get it (the right quality).”
Although, Bruce admits that Newcastle were offered a host of players who were just desperate for any type of move in January.
It was a road he refused to go down, and given Newcastle have wasted signing on fees in recent January windows on players like Islam Slimani and Antonio Barreca, Bruce feels it could be wise to keep his powder dry.
He added: “Of course we could have got a body in but it doesn’t improve you.
“We have that little bit of time now and get comfortable and look forward to the summer and try to get the right things.”
