Liam Kennedy has revealed that Newcastle offered Dwight Gayle a new contract because they were reluctant to go out and spend money on a replacement.
What's Gayle's situation at Newcastle?
It's been more than five years since the striker swapped London for the North East and Selhurst Park for St James' Park. However, in the last three of those, Gayle have done very little in the way of playing games and scoring goals.
Last season, in fact, Gayle made just 20 appearances across all competitions, scoring just once and that came in a victory over West Brom last December.
Gayle did start just four times in the Premier League, which makes Newcastle's decision to offer him and several of his other out of contract teammates a new deal all the stranger.
With his first league outing of the season only coming in the latter stages against Watford on Saturday, it would appear another lazy decision from the Newcastle hierarchy, when in truth they should have let him go and freshened up the squad by bringing in another striker.
Instead, Gayle was surprisingly offered a new contract despite his lack of chances last season and restricted game time so far this term.
What did Kennedy say about the situation?
When asked exactly why Gayle signed a new contract, the Newcastle World journalist told GIVEMESPORT: "The reason he signed a new contract is very basic and frustrating for a football fan is that Newcastle didn't want to go out and spend money on replacing.
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"It's the same with Fabian Schar, it's the same with Fernandez. They basically just held on to what they've got rather than go out and spend money."
Is Gayle's position likely to change?
If Gayle was wondering how much he'd play this season, he got his answer in the three weeks that Callum Wilson has been out.
Injury has kept the former Bournemouth striker out of the games with Manchester United, Leeds and Watford in September. However, despite Joelinton being Steve Bruce's only other recognised striker in his squad, Gayle played just seven minutes across those three matches.
To compound his sorry situation, Bruce even opted to start Allan Saint-Maximin, who's generally a winger, through the middle in the weekend draw with Watford, which would suggest that Gayle isn't likely to play much before the January window reopens at the earliest.