Callum Wilson remains in contention for a new deal at St James’ Park moving beyond this season.
The No.9 provided a timely reminder of what he can do when he is fit and firing with an excellent 54-minute contribution to the FA Cup win over Birmingham City. Wilson may have been unlucky to see a deflection fly off his boot in the first minute to put City ahead.
But he was on hand to supply the cross that led to the equaliser and then hook one home himself. Many fans have questioned whether the time is right to move on from Wilson after this season.
Yet Eddie Howe made it clear again for the second time in a couple of days that he wants to keep him. Howe, who was asked if it would cost him a big chunk of his next budget to replace Wilson if Newcastle let his contract simply run down, told Chronicle Live: “Yes – I totally agree.
“That’s why Callum is such a valuable player for us. It seems like the art of goalscoring and finishing is diminishing, I don’t see a huge amount of strikers in world football who can do what Callum can do.
“The big thing for us is can we keep Callum fit?”
Newcastle submitted a squad of just 19 outfield players on Friday and they have injury concerns ahead of Man City with doubts over Dan Burn, Anthony Gordon and Sven Botman.
Howe said minutes on the training pitch will be limited for some stars. Howe said: “It is probably the key thing for us now. We can talk about it, and we are aware of it, but you can’t necessarily control it. We can try to control the minutes in training and things behind the scenes.
“We just don’t want to go where we were last year. Then we could not really control our strength and we got hit several times.
“And obviously that weakened us massively last year.”
One bright spot was the performance of William Osula who again impressed from the start for United. Building from his goal against Bromley, Osula grabbed two assists on paper despite missing a sitter in the first half.
Howe said of Osula: “I think he can play any of the front three positions. I think anything that showcases his pace, I think that’s his best asset. You saw that with his direct running.
“I think he’s got goals in him, I think he’s a natural goal scorer. There’s a few rough edges we need to improve, keep working and developing him, but he’s a massive player for us now.”
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-united-boss-eddie-howe-30965783
