18-Goal Forward On Newcastle’s Radar

McClaren’s comments suggest that both Mike Williamson and Yoan Gouffran will remain at Newcastle until January at least.

Asked about Austin, head coach Steve McClaren said: “He has been on Newcastle’s radar from the second half of last season and during the summer, and he will stay on the radar, definitely”.

Newcastle will take on West Ham United at Upton Park tonight.

The Magpies coach has preferred Mitrovic in attack for Newcastle’s last two games against Arsenal and Manchester United but, despite Cisse being previously reported to have been close to leaving St James’ Park, McClaren has insisted the striker is still a key option for him up front.

He also revealed that Pappis Cisse has a future at the club.

“I am happy with his reaction to not playing, he was very unlucky not to”, he said.

“There was a lot of speculation about Papiss”, he said.

“That’s very hard in today’s market”.

Florian Thauvin and Moussa Sissoko are likely to get the nod in the wide positions, but McClaren must decide whether to stick with Georginio Wijnaldum in the “number ten” role or hand Siem de Jong his first league start of the season.

Steve McClaren is ready to block loan moves for Newcastle United’s fringe players – as he can’t spare them.

For now, McClaren and his players are focused simply on the task of launching their season in earnest after collecting just two points from their opening four Premier League games, two of which have seen them reduced to 10 men before slipping to defeat, ahead of Monday night’s trip to West Ham. I think our squad is okay.

McClaren told The Chronicle: “I think that when I first came through the door I looked at 63 goals and I thought: ‘That’s far too many and we’re going to be in trouble if we do that”.