We need new faces, says Ameobi

Newcastle striker Shola Ameobi claims his club will have to spend more money on new players if they are to end their 35-year wait for a trophy this season.

The England Under-21s international has committed his own future to the Magpies by signing a new five-year contract. But he fears that Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United will stretch the gap between the haves and the have-nots unless the Geordies splash out again.

Newcastle have been linked with a series of targets during the close season - with Patrick Kluivert, Nicky Butt, James Beattie, Stephen Carr and Egyptian striker Mido among the list of names. But so far they have landed only James Milner from Leeds.

“There is definitely a gap between us and the top three,” said 22-year-old Ameobi as he prepared for today’s opening pre-season friendly against the Thai national side in Bangkok.

“It’s going to be difficult to close that gap – and to do so, we’ve got to spend some money and strengthen our squad. We’ve got to bring a couple of players in.

“Chelsea spent £110m (€165m) to close the gap last summer and they finished second, but they still didn’t win a trophy. Nobody has got that sort of money available, but we do need to add some new faces.

“Spending a lot of money on new players doesn’t guarantee success, but it certainly helps.”

Newcastle manager Bobby Robson remains confident that Ameobi could be one man to save him and his club an awful lot of money as they attempt to find a long-term replacement for captain Alan Shearer, who is expected to hang up his boots at the end of the new season.

The Nigeria-born striker made significant strides last season, finishing the campaign with 10 goals to his name despite having to wait in the wings for long periods.

Ameobi admits nonetheless that there is a feeling within the camp that, after fourth and third-place finishes in the previous two seasons, fifth last time around was a disappointment.

“We’d got better year by year under the manager, but last season was a poor one by our standards,” he told Newcastle’s Journal.

“It wasn’t what we expected it to be.

“We were going for fourth place and we didn’t get it – so in that sense, it was disappointing. We’d talked about winning a trophy this time last year. But once again we didn’t get one, despite getting to the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup.

“This year we’ve got to improve again. We cannot afford to stand still like we did last season, because the teams around us have all tried to strengthen this summer as well.”