The striker who always gets the bad hand in the deck or becomes part of every club’s bad batch. What next for this forward who appears to be Championship quality only?
Newcastle struggled for goals for most of the season and even though they were shockingly poor in front of goal, Dwight Gayle was rarely considered as an option.
The player was well-remembered for his time in the Championship and for how he was the nail in Liverpool’s coffin several seasons back when he was at Crystal Palace, scoring the equalising goal and stopping Liverpool from gaining the Premier League title in 2013/14.
Since then, the striker has had a turbulent time in and out the Premier League. His three seasons at Crystal Palace came with Little reward, forcing him to try out new options at a new club. The club next in line was Newcastle.
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After helping the Toon Army gain Premier League access, the English striker fell out of favour to World Cup player, Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Best tally as a Premier League striker
Gayle never hit double digits in The Top Flight, making seven goals his best in the league. Last season alone, during the 35 appearances, he only managed six goals and three assists.
This was sadly underwhelming. But I’ll get to that later why it was nowhere near what the man is capable of in the EFL Championship. If Rafa was to get any backing what so ever from the owner of the club, the number 9 area will be the first position he will bolster.
Therefore, this leaves the 27-year-old out of the plan for the following season, after the Toons did so well to survive.
Best decision is to leave – he is a EFL Championship man
In fewer games (32) the Englishman managed to net a whopping 23 goals and helped with two assists. This was back in the 2016/17 season. That’s 25 of the goals which help get Newcastle back to where they belonged was thanks to the forward.
In normal fashion, strikers would backup such a great goal-scoring campaign with another. However, Dwight fell under the category of fashionably normal to deteriorate after short success.
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This is over and enough evidence – the frontman needs to be playing in the EFL Championship. He could be the man any team deploys to get them into the Premier League and cut ties once they there, giving him over to the next lot wanting promotion.
Stoke City are very interested in the striker. With them about to lose a load of players, he needs to be considering this move, fully. At £10 million it could be a steal, with a goal reputation of 23 at Championship level.