Newcastle boss Alan Pardew will look to buy utility players in the summer to save the club money. Pardew dropped a hint that he may not get all of the £35m received for striker Andy Carroll to spend, so signing player's who can play in more than one position could save the Magpies money.
"I don't want to necessarily increase the size of the squad too much, but I do want to increase the competition for places," he said in the Daily Mirror.
"At times, we lack that. In terms of the starting XI, most Newcastle fans would pick the same side - and that's a worry for me as a manager.
"Why isn't there more competition? There should be more questions for me to answer at a club this size.
"We should be sitting here and we could all come up with a different formation and a different team.
"It's too easy to pick the team and we are paying the cost of that now, with the injuries. The best players have played every week."
In terms of the type of player Pardew wants to see join Newcastle, he added: "You need somebody like Phil Neville at Everton, who can play left-back, right-back, centre midfield.
"That saves you a lot of money. They call them utility players and you need someone who can play in three different positions. A player like that would be important to us next year.
"I don't mean two players in every position - I mean a wide player who can play on both wings, for example.
"I don't want to lose the focus of the group. I want to keep it tight and relatively small and easy to manage.
"I've made that mistake before - it happened to me at West Ham, the squad got too big and it was difficult to focus the group. We need to protect the spirit here."
