Steve Bruce admits this 'conundrum' is impacting Newcastle United transfer activity

One line of questioning which most fans were greatly interested to hear Bruce speak about was the club’s transfer activity this summer.

So far, only Joe Willock has joined the club and many believe more recruits are needed ahead of the August 31 deadline if United are to improve on last season’s campaign.

However, Bruce revealed that the club currently have a goalkeeping ‘conundrum’ to solve before they can make any new additions to the squad.

“Well you can never say never [about incomings] but we have this conundrum at the minute with this goalkeeping situation.

“Do we name four goalkeepers in the squad, which is practically unheard of?

“If we do do that, that’s the full quota of players that we’ve got, we have a full 25-man squad there so that’s the decision we have to make in the next couple of weeks.

“I never give up on trying to improve the squad and if there’s somebody out there who can improve us and we can do it, then we’ll try to act.”

One area that the Newcastle boss is keen to improve on is in defence after his side shipped four-goals against West Ham on Sunday.

Bruce believes going forward his team is strong but he wants to see improvements at the back.

“I think the forward end of the pitch is as strong as we’ve had in a long, long time.

“Of course we’re always trying to improve and I, personally, think we have to improve defensively.

“We’ve conceded far too many goals, we’ve conceded four already this season and it’s something I think we need to address next.

“At the forward end of the pitch, we’ve got [Miguel] Almiron, Dwight Gayle and Joelinton, we’ve got a lot of bodies there who, for me, can score a goal.

“We’re always looking to improve the squad but defensively we now have to start addressing that and getting that balance right.”

Bruce added: “We have been unfortunately, in this one [transfer window] in particular, [been] pinned by COVID, there’s no denying that.

“That’s obviously denied us a big chunk of the money to invest in the squad because, simply, we’ve lost a vast sum of money.”

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