themselves with playing smaller sides this summer, whether it’s on tour in Japan or against teams like Hull City, but Jacob Murphy has caught the eye, scoring four and assisting two more in four games. Murphy has tended to impress when he actually plays recently and is set to be the starting right winger ahead of Miguel Almirón. At £5.5m, Murphy could be an interested enabler. The caveat is that Newcastle are likely to try to sign another winger before deadline day - and please note that this article was written prior to their Friday night friendly against Girona, so please don’t write in if Murphy gets carted off on a stretcher before you read this. I’m already sorry.
West Ham struggle and Wolves start strong
Finally, a couple of notes on two teams who both have several interesting assets but who also start the season with a rough run of fixtures. West Ham have not had a great pre-season and were only able to beat Dagenham & Redbridge (only 1-0, at that), losing to Palace and to Wolves, who have looked far better. West Ham are a team in transition with a new head coach and several new players coming in, but I suspect it’s best to hang fire on Niclas Füllkrug for the start of the season, at least. Wolves players may be a little less of a risk due to fixture difficulty than expected, although I still wouldn’t come in too hard.
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