One transfer window down, one more to go. And while it might just be the middle of June, with the start of the new Premier League season still more than two months away, whatever conclusion you want to draw about Newcastle’s transfer business so far, you’d certainly be hard-pushed to describe it as ‘dynamic’.
Manchester City have been dynamic, signing Rayan Ait-Nouri, Marcus Bettinelli, Rayan Cherki and Tijani Reijnders ahead of Tuesday’s early-summer deadline. Liverpool have signed Jeremie Frimgpong and are extremely close to completing the club-record purchase of Florian Wirtz. Manchester United have prised Matheus Cunha from Wolves and are in advanced talks with Brentford over Bryan Mbeumo. Chelsea have signed Liam Delap and Mamadou Sarr. Having already completed the purchase of Tommy Watson from Sunderland before the end of last season, Brighton are on the brink of tying up a €40m deal for Greek youngster Charalampos Koustoulas. That’s dynamic.
True, some of those deals were completed early because the buying club wanted to refresh their squad ahead of the start of the Club World Cup. Some were relatively easy to push through quickly because they involved the triggering of a previously-agreed release clause.
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Newcastle’s PSR position, which is much improved from previous windows, incentivises the club to hold off finalising transfers until July 1, when the new accountancy period begins, although that does not prevent them from completing deals on paper now that are not formally ratified until next month. And not to labour the point too much, but it’s also true that we’re still in mid-June. This is certainly not a case of the Magpies being in crisis.
Nevertheless, with Howe having been so open in his desire for swift progress this summer, the current St James’ Park stasis does raise two key concerns. First, is the ongoing upheaval at the top of Newcastle’s executive structure really not adversely affecting the club’s transfer dealings? Second, why when the club boast a recruitment operation with tentacles that spread all over the world does this summer’s transfer business appear to be almost exclusively focused on revisiting previous domestic targets, only to discover that they’re still too expensive?
Internal Newcastle sources are adamant the impending departure of both sporting director Paul Mitchell and chief executive Darren Eales is not a problem. Mitchell will continue to drive transfer dealings until he leaves at the end of this month. Eales remains 100 per cent engaged despite his publicly-disclosed health issues, with Newcastle’s search for his replacement well advanced amid reports that former Real Madrid executive, David Hopkinson, has been lined up for the role. Steve Nickson and Andy Howe are working closely with Eddie Howe to help oversee the recruitment process.
Looking from the outside, though, it all feels a bit disjointed. And that’s before the need for any major deal to be signed off by the Saudi PIF is factored into the equation. Newcastle can brief that it is business as usual, but until new signings come through the door, it will be hard to shake the belief that Mitchell’s departure could not have been more badly timed. At a point where Newcastle need to be displaying a laser-like clarity of thought, it would be understandable if their thinking was muddled. Long-term strategic thinking? The Magpies have had four different people leading the last four transfer windows.
Then, of course, we come to targets. There’s nothing wrong with sticking to your guns. There’s also nothing wrong with backing your initial judgement and trying to complete something you previously had to call off. But given that Burnley have just been promoted, is it any surprise they’re raising their asking price for James Trafford rather than dropping it? With half the Premier League seemingly interested in Marc Guehi, is it any wonder Crystal Palace don’t really want to accept anything less than the £70m they were demanding 12 months ago? True, the European market might not be the bargain hall it once was. But is the best Newcastle can do in terms of scouting a right-side attacker really debate whether Anthony Elanga or Joao Pedro is worth £60m?
Of course, this could all be a smokescreen. It would hardly be unknown for clubs to leak names into the public realm, only to then move in a completely different direction to strike a bargain. Some of Newcastle’s most successful recent deals have been pretty well hidden until they have been extremely close to completion.
For now, the club has earned the benefit of the doubt. But the clock is ticking and fears are rising. ‘Be dynamic,” urged Howe. But was anyone around him listening? And if they were, are they still going to be in place to actually get things done?
