The Deuce: It would take well over 100*

He's cleary good enough to be the primary striker at a top club so there was some thinking that he might want to leave given it looked like Newcastle might not even make Europe. Now that it looks like they're going to make the Champions League, that seems pretty unlikely to me barring a crazy bid by somebody.

His contract runs for another 3 years so Newcastle don't even have to worry about him losing value via running down his contract for a little while. It's possible he could want a move himself to challenge for the EPL or Champions League but I don't see where Newcastle would be motivated to sell him.

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But why is everyone assuming Newcastle would be looking to sell? The ownership has plenty of money, and they are in third only 2 points behind Arsenal. So why wouldn’t they be looking to keep everyone and add some pieces to make their own bid for the title?

Is it just that they aren’t a historical name club, and fans are still assuming they will behave like a small club, when in reality given the new ownership they are probably more similar to Man City than, say, Southampton?

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I don't think Newcastle would let him go and it would take an insane fee to get them to even consider it. Given there's already 60 million or whatever earmarked for Zubimendi, I don't see how they make it work.

I'm pretty meh on Gyokeres, I just don't know how well his numbers will translate and the Portuguese league is absolutely terrible once you get outside of the top 5-6 teams. He's also taken a ton of penalties this season that inflate his numbers, although his non-penalty numbers are still crazy good. I like Sesko's age profile better and he's been pretty productive given he's been 20/21 years old for his 2 seasons in Germany. I'd be ok with either but they both have questions marks.

Nico or Leao on the wing would be fantastic, I just don't know if they can overcome the wage issue with Williams. His fee would be reasonable so maybe they can just shift some of that to his wages.

I've also seen they want to sign a backup GK (Joan Garcia) for like 25 million; he's a huge prospect but that's a bunch of money to dump on a backup. Raya isn't old by GK standards so I'm not sure what the plan would really be, I guess loan him out for 2-3 years?

I'm interested to see if there ends up being a surprise sale this summer because if they bring all of Trossard, Havertz, Jesus, and Partey and sign a striker, winger, and Zubimendi the numbers don't seem to work to get them all time. Selling Trossard would make sense given his age but it sounds like they've discussed an extension with him.

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Zubimendi got the HERE WE GO official yesterday, which... fine. He's essentially 8-years-younger-Jorginho. I don't think he's a needle mover, but he will provide much needed quality depth in the midfield. To me, he's diet coke Declan- can play the 6, better suited as an 8. I don't know that he can be the midfield sweeper that Partey has been and the CL run showed how valuable that piece is to this team. But depth was clearly an issue for this team all over the field. Singing good players entering their prime windows is never a bad thing.

The bulk of the improvement this summer has to come on the attack. Having a holding midfielder play striker for the last four months of the season when you're "a contender" (MASSIVE quotation marks there) is inexcusable. Buy a real striker. Or two. I don't think we have a single one on the healthy senior roster. At best, Havertz and Jesus are decent false 9s - their best traits being link up play and willingness to work their asses off on the press. If you played two up top, both would be best at being the 2nd striker. Saka, Martinelli, Tross- all wingers. Nwaneri is probably best as a right winger, though I really would have liked to have seen more of him as a 10. Sterling was a used band-aid.

I think you need at least one striker and one more dynamic option on the left side. So which one or ones? I've seen so many "links" (which can be real or fanfiction- mostly the latter). Of the names I've seen, I'd have Isak at the top of the list. Big, fast, young, two-footed, and most importantly has proven to be a 20+ goal scorer twice in the Prem. I'd have Gyokeres right behind him. Really fast, big and strong. He's slightly older than Isak and hasn't shown he could translate his prolific scoring in the Portuguese league to the Prem, but I'd definitely be happy with the signing. Sesko was another option. I'd be least interested in him. Has a ton of upside but hasn't even proven it yet in Germany. I saw Jonathan David linked. Not too sure about that. He seems much more of a Gabby Jesus style player who is best through the build up, pressing, and counter vs. being a target man.

On the wing, I think Nico Williams is the main focus, but there will be a ton of competition for him. Rafael Leao would be an out of this world signing but is likely cost prohibitive. He would be my first, second, and third choice at winger.

Beyond that, the #1 priority needs to be getting a long term extension done for Saliba and Saka and a shorter one for Partey.