World news

“I wish from deep in my heart to go to the trial, the independent panel and as soon as possible they release what happened, and we will accept like we always have done,” Pep Guardiola said in August 2024. We got there in the end, Pep, you just missed it. We got the result.

Well, almost. The good news for Manchester City is that they have an appeals process. That and the fact that, according to The Athletic, they have only been found guilty of 114 of the 115 charges. Small comfort? Not for anyone.

This is not a bombshell; it is the bombshell. This could be the Premier League’s Calciopoli scandal. A serial champion club has reportedly been found guilty of such serious charges that there should be no upper limit to the punishments under discussion should their appeal not succeed.

As Brian Clough famously said to Leeds United’s players: “You can throw your medals in the bin because they were won by cheating.”

But the greatest crime here does not lie in the hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence that an independent panel has been sifting through for so long we have all grown a little longer in the tooth and greyer in the hair. It does not lie in what Manchester City have been found guilty of doing with their own accounts.

It’s not even the impact upon rival clubs themselves, although clearly that has never felt more painfully relevant and the prospect of further action by those outside parties who believe that they have been unduly impacted is a can of worms that I can’t quite bring myself to open just yet.

No, the greatest crime is the warping of history and our – every single person who watches the Premier League or supports one of its clubs – experience over the last 17 years. It is the ultimate Pandora’s Box moment for the biggest league in the sport that now faces serious questions. Remember that Chelsea have recently been punished for their own rule breaking.

We all know that we care too much about football. It is deeply embarrassing that how our team plays on a Saturday impacts the answer to the “How was your weekend?” question on a Monday morning. But we at least tell ourselves that, beneath all the hoopla and the hype, what we are watching is real. This isn’t soap opera, it’s sport. The result is the result.

Except now it isn’t. Friday’s news forces us to rewrite history in our minds. How could we not now? It doesn’t matter if the punishment strips City of titles, cups and records – it would surely be too messy to process officially.

Because every football supporter of every other club will be doing exactly the same. Everything we watched wasn’t real. It was built upon sand. “Aguerrrrr-no”.

That applies to the nine years over which the charges applied, but also everything that came since. If you win one title you get a trophy but also the wealth and power that makes winning the next one easier and the one after that easier still. Suddenly nothing at the Etihad Stadium is tangible at all. It is a chimera, delusion on an industrial scale.

Pull on any one strand and see how the house of cards falls down. Manchester City beat Sunderland in the 2014 EFL Cup final – did their rule-breaking forge the gap?

Sunderland missed out on Europe as a result, including its extra revenue and pulling power on players. Four years later, their fans were watching League One football. They have Europe now, but what if they never had?

The trophies Man City won from 2009-2018

With the teams who finished runners-up or City beat in the final in brackets.

Premier League

• 2011-12 (Manchester United)
• 2013-14 (Liverpool)
• 2017-18 (Manchester United)

FA Cup

• 2011 (Stoke City)

League Cup

• 2014 (Sunderland)
• 2016 (Liverpool)
• 2018 (Arsenal)

There are more strands everywhere, knock-on impacts and “I wonder what ifs”. This is the butterfly effect, except the butterfly is a herd of elephants trampling over our previous concept of who won what and why.

That is the dreadful irony to all this: the only thing worse than the uncertainty of not having a verdict is having a verdict and realising that uncertainty is now all we have.

I don’t know where we go from here, other than an appeals process that is likely to be lengthy and complicated. I understand if some don’t have the stomach for it and simply check out of caring for a while. It has been five years; it’s just too long.

But this day will be etched on the history of the Premier League, despite its victory in the case. It will be etched on the history of Manchester City because of the comprehensive and damning nature of their defeat. It is the day we wanted, the end of the beginning of the closure. But it sure doesn’t feel worthy of celebration.

Read more

• Daniel Storey: 115 charges, five seasons – Man City saga is a stain on the Premier League
• Mark Douglas: Man City’s £700m spend makes a mockery of Premier League

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/HF1fDxT

Manchester City have reportedly been found guilty of all but one of the 115 charges related to breaching the Premier League’s financial rules in a verdict that will send shockwaves through English football.

Two years after the case began, the independent panel that presided over the case has reached its decision – with Premier League clubs understood to have been informed at a meeting on Thursday.

No sanctions have been decided yet, and City are expected to appeal the decision, having long maintained their innocence in relation to the unprecedented charges that they breached top-flight financial rules.

Although the case is unprecedented in scale, it has been claimed that City could be relegated or stripped of titles if found guilty.

The Athletic reported on Friday that City had been found guilty of 114 charges by the panel.

City have been accused by the Premier League of failing to provide accurate financial information and details of payments to players and coaches. They have also been accused of breaches of Uefa’s financial fair play regulations and the league’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

Manchester City said in a statement: “The Premier League process remains ongoing, with significant elements to be completed, and subject to strict confidentiality. As such Manchester City FC’s position remains consistent with the club’s statement of February 2023.

“The club has diligently respected due process for eight years on the basis that the Premier League board and executive would behave as an independent, impartial and fair-minded regulator, free from partisan influence.”

The Premier League refused to comment.

Fans on all sides are angry and desperate for a conclusion

By Daniel Storey, chief football writer

The impacts of the delay are drawing permanent grooves in stone. In most other scenarios, outrage fatigue would have taken over. But here’s the thing: outrage fatigue doesn’t really exist in football. Anger is self-sustaining and there is always enough to go around.

People aren’t getting less fed up as the months tick on, they’re getting more. That includes those on all sides of the affair: Manchester City supporters, rival supporters, a massive mass of the rest of us who just want it over so we can avoid watching a division caught in suspension.

Conspiracy theory noise has become the currency of the league.

And it’s exhausting. Everybody is angry because they have a firm opinion on something as yet unknowable. Everybody is conspiratorial because nobody trusts silence even when silence is appropriate. Everybody is weary because it’s been dragging on for what feels like half a lifetime.

What next? Could Man City be relegated?

A verdict will merely be the starting pistol for another prolonged battle, legal experts told The i Paper last year, with an appeal process potentially lasting several months – at least.

The length of the process could also depend on the potential punishment. With the precedent of points deductions being handed to Everton and Nottingham Forest for financial breaches, City could face a huge deduction themselves.

With regards to possible relegation, outright expulsion from the Premier League is far more “complex” and would require a vote among top-flight clubs.

“The issue of whether Manchester City might be expelled from the Premier League is a complex one,” Aaryaman Banerji, head of football governance at investment consultants Lane, Clark & Peacock, told The i Paper.

“Rule B6 of the Premier League’s Handbook stipulates that, in order to trigger the expulsion of one of its members, clubs would have to vote as part of a Special Resolution.

“This would require 15 clubs to vote in favour of expulsion. It will be instructive to see whether the Independent Commission is held to this requirement, or whether this might be worked around, so that the Commission can itself impose such a sanction.”

Read more

• Daniel Storey: 115 charges, five seasons – Man City saga is a stain on the Premier League
• Mark Douglas: Man City’s £700m spend since the 130 charges makes a mockery of Premier League
• Kat Lucas: Seven things to know before one of history’s most controversial football matches

Carlos Hurtado, a sports lawyer with Baker McKenzie, also told The i Paper that the threat to City of multiple compensation claims from rival clubs is “real and serious”.

The charges span a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018 where City won the title three times. Manchester United were twice runners-up in 2012 and 2018, while Liverpool finished second behind City in 2014.

“Retrospective compensation is something that is being considered by everybody,” football finance expert Kieran Maguire added.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/oieZE6j

“Really uncomfortable” is the verdict from within the Irish dressing room. It is a double-header in the Nations League that pits the Republic of Ireland against Israel – twice in the next fortnight – in one of the most contentious fixtures in history.

International football has been littered with matches bearing a political undercurrent. In the 1930s, Germany played England at White Hart Lane, home to Tottenham Hotspur, and performed Nazi salutes before kick-off at a club with a traditionally large Jewish support.

East Germany later faced West Germany at the height of the Cold War; England would meet Argentina at the 1986 World Cup, just four years after the Falklands conflict.

Few games have inspired such a public backlash amid the ongoing war in Gaza. Here is why and everything to know about the matches.

Why is Israel vs Ireland controversial?

As a nation, the Republic of Ireland is noted for its strong support of the Palestinian causeF, which has been heightened since the Israeli response to the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, which has killed an estimated 75,000 Palestinians.

Ireland defender Seamus Coleman addressed questions surrounding whether the matches should go ahead by saying he “knows the difference between right and wrong”. Manager Heimir Hallgrimsson has said some of his players had voiced opposition to the games, adding: “We are not playing with genocide, we are playing against genocide”.

The Israeli FA responded strongly with a statement on social media on Monday. It read: “We have contributed to the world and humanity in countless fields, earning an impressive number of Nobel Prizes along the way.

“Unfortunately, we have not yet found a cure for stupidity, ignorance and hypocrisy displayed by Hallgrimsson. We’re not playing with ignorance, hypocrisy and stupidity, we’re playing against the coach who embodies them.”

What is the link between Ireland and Palestine?

Many Irish people have drawn anti-colonial parallels between British occupation and the war in Gaza. In the 20th century, Britain used heavy-handed tactics in Ireland – including the deployment of the notorious Black and Tans, who were recruited by the British government into the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC) during the War of Independence and committed a series of atrocities. After the RIC was disbanded, hundreds of the paramilitary police force were sent to Mandatory Palestine (which was under British rule from 1920 to 1948).

A number of prominent political figures – including former Taioseach Simon Harris and former President Michael D Higgins have also made comparisons between the Great Hunger of the nineteenth century in Ireland, also known as the Irish Potato Famine, and the levels of starvation in Gaza.

Why isn’t Ireland’s ‘home’ leg in Dublin?

The FAI (Irish football’s governing body) decided that for security reasons, the “home” match against Israel could not be played at the Aviva Stadium. Uefa therefore gave a list of options which would also provide an unfamiliar venue for Israel for their away tie. On 27 September, Israel will “host” the Irish in Debrecen, Hungary, while the return takes place on 4 October at the TSC Arena in Backa Topola, Serbia.

Who demanded a boycott?

There has been an ongoing campaign called Stop the Game fronted by Irish Sport for Palestine, who released an open letter calling on the country’s footballers to boycott the match, accusing the Israeli government of “a brutal system of apartheid, and now, acts of genocide”. Louise Quinn, who plays for the women’s national team, was among the signatories.

Human rights group Amnesty International said Uefa risks “rubber-stamping apartheid” by allowing the games to go ahead. It said in a statement: “Sport should never be used as a public relations spectacle for states committing atrocities.”

What has the response been?

The FAI asked Uefa to ensure that the Republic of Ireland and Israel are kept apart in future draws. That was rejected because “Ireland and Israel have never been in direct conflict”. For example, Serbia and Kosovo do not play one another because of historic conflict between the two countries, but the Republic of Ireland were told the rule does not apply here.

RTE, the national broadcaster of the Republic of Ireland, will dramatically scale back its coverage and only a basic world feed will be provided by Uefa, with no half-time analysis on TV.

Could Israel be banned from international football?

Despite ongoing campaigns to ban Israel’s national team and Israeli clubs from Fifa and Uefa competitions, The i Paper has been told that such action would only have been taken if individual national FAs refused to play games – as they did with Russia within days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia has not been allowed to play at subsequent European Championships or World Cups.

More on football

Daniel Storey: I spent a day with the American billionaire obsessed with Huddersfield Town

The Journeyman: Southend United can dare to dream again

Why is sport particularly contentious?

The Palestinian FA has also taken legal action against a number of Israeli “settler” clubs who play on land internationally recognised as being illegally occupied. Hundreds of Palestinian sportspeople – including footballers – are believed to have been killed in Israeli air strikes and shootings since 2023. Palestine’s two football leagues were also halted at the end of 2023, with competitive action only returning to Gaza this month with the “Martyrs Cup”.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/OC1JvUf

Like the kid who returns from his first holiday in Spain declaring his desire to live there one day, Anthony Gordon is full of Hispanic immersion.

We can understand his awed appreciation of the Spanish way. I mean, who doesn’t love a stroll down Las Ramblas on a sunny afternoon? But let’s not get carried away that England can never be them.

Gordon is not intentionally running England down, of course, yet in elevating Spain to their own higher plain, he is reinforcing the inferiority that has held back the mother country since 1966.

“I’m speaking from a point of view where I feel like we are trying to replicate Spain. It’s not in the English DNA. I’m not sure it’s something that can be taught because now I think, playing in Spain, I can speak with an educated view on the way they keep the ball is different,” Gordon said ahead of his first England engagement since joining Barcelona in the summer.

“I even look at some of the decisions they take on the ball sometimes and think, I’m not sure how you’ve seen that. It’s the way they’re built. I don’t know whether it is something that maybe we can’t ever put a name to, but they’re definitely built different.”

Though the world champions have no need of an esteem hike so soon after their summer coronation, if I’m Spanish coach Luis de la Fuente, I’m pinning that quote on the dressing room door at Wembley just to ensure an uncomplicated night.

Framing this as a DNA issue is not only false; it cuts off any possibility of change. England failed at the World Cup not as a result of immutable technical properties given to us at birth. England folded because the coach lost his nerve in a tense contest, and the players absorbed the message, sowing confusion and ultimately chaos.

Gordon is closer to the truth with his take on the team’s own response to Argentina’s dark arts. “As players, we could have done more to take the initiative to control the game. I think if we do that, the manager doesn’t make the decision [to change the system],” he added.

“For me, we had the best team, we had the best players on the pitch, and in the last 20 minutes we didn’t play the best football. That’s something the manager can’t really affect from the sideline, so I think as a group everyone together should take responsibility.”

Yes, and that comes from the experience of winning important matches at major competitions, and a rock-solid belief in the qualities and attributes you have. The mistake Gordon makes is to set these in stone, which makes impossible a capacity to adapt according to circumstance.

“We can’t keep looking at other countries and trying to be like them, because we’re not them,” he said. “We’re English and we have our own strengths, which they don’t have, so maybe we start playing the way we’re good at.”

But what way is that, Anthony?

The Premier League is not the England of big lads up front playing 1970s ball, mowing down defenders. We are the England of Pep Guardiola, of Mikel Arteta, of Jurgen Klopp, Fabian Hurzeler and Unai Emery, a melting pot of systems and ideas.

Spain are a fabulous team playing a familiar system, but none of it is inevitable. It is the result of choices made, choices that are available to any. The Spain way is to win games. All this philosophical stuff wrapped up in DNA becomes a mental block, which signals the retreat in big matches.

Even the mighty French, the team that lit up the World Cup with their own vibrant expression of the beautiful game, shrank before the idea of Spain before stepping on the grass.

Read more

Daniel Storey: Thomas Tuchel has horribly misjudged Morgan Gibbs-White

Pete Hall: Thomas Tuchel is deluded for doubling down on England DNA comments

Gordon observed how England looked mustard in training. Great. Clear your heads and take that feeling onto the pitch. Once across the white line, it’s less about systems and more about mentality.

Spain believe themselves superior, and the oppo tacitly agrees. Let England be that team on Saturday at Wembley.

Whatever Gordon wants Englishness to be, it won’t succeed without trust and desire. Those, above all else, are the qualities that decide matches at this level and the ones Spain have made their own.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/nelgWuI

In 1985, when the consumption of alcohol in the stands of English football grounds was banned in the top five divisions, football supporters were demonised to the point of exploitation.

That demonisation culture, particularly by the elite establishment, directly led to the institutional cover-up at Hillsborough in 1989 that is a stain on England’s cultural landscape. Anything that erodes that demonisation is to be welcomed.

And yet, despite all that, I still can’t support the lifting of the alcohol ban in stands. And I have seven reasons why…

The Boxpark spray

Unfortunately, we live in a culture where people think that paying a tenner for a pint of bad lager so that they can performatively throw it into the air when Harry Kane scores a goal is a good, funny and normal thing to do.

We also live in a culture where videos of these scenes are forced into our brains via social media algorithms because we watched some organic away end limbs. Yes, culture is bad now.

Also, I’ve twice been to Borussia Dortmund and been soaked by beer raining down from the tier above. It’s not that fun, it’s not that clever and I think it would become a hazard at English grounds. If that makes me a killjoy, sorry.

The up-and-downing

At my normal seat at the City Ground when I attend as a fan, there is a lady who is probably in her 80s and sits at the end of a row. Her experience as a season-ticket holder is as important as anyone else’s. Perhaps even more so, given her loyalty over the decades.

That lady does not want to keep standing up and down to let people out and back in. And I think it is inarguable that allowing beer in stands would increase the regularity of that happening, either for more drinks or to go to the toilet.

The away fan throw

The performative celebration beer throw is one danger, but there’s also evidently a risk of liquid being thrown as an act of comedic aggression.

It’s clearly something that will need to be factored into the stewarding and policing of matches. It only takes a few idiots do something silly and we all get a bad reputation anyway; we know from the past how football fans get tarred with the same brush.

It’s 45 minutes we’re talking about here

This is a significant point. England has a magnificent pub culture and a just-as-magnificent train cans culture and both of these intertwine heavily with the live football experience.

If you want to drink around football, you can meet people an hour or two early (or more), also have a beer at half-time and then meet back at the pub or train station and carry on if that floats your boat. Is any of that experience diminished by having to go two periods of 45 minutes without an extra drink?

Have you ever been on a big away day and, 15 minutes after your half-time beer, thought: “This day would have been better if I could have had another pint of tepid Carlsberg in my hand right now”. Nor me.

Football fans don’t want this

This is another relevant point. There is an argument to say that relaxation of the rules is reason enough to remove the ban. Just because you can drink in stands doesn’t mean that everybody will.

But most supporters I’ve spoken to aren’t bothered and aren’t even supportive. They see all the above. This strikes as a populist initiative that isn’t actually as popular as you may think.

The thin end of the wedge

Here is my strongest argument. It’s not about the beer, it’s about setting a tone that reduces the unfair cultural mistrust and mistreatment of football supporters.

But there are a dozen better ways to address that historic exploitation than allowing football fans to pay exorbitant prices for bad beer and allow Premier League clubs to make even more money out of fans.

Rather than campaign to end the beer ban, how about entrenching discounts for seniors and young children into legislation? How about a further reduction on away ticket prices or a cap on the percentage rise in season ticket cost? Or how about privatising a train network on which costs routinely increase for worse service?

Read more

Daniel Storey: Southend United can dare to dream again

Interview: Neil Ruddock: I never thought I’d be best friends with a gay icon

The non-league experience

And here’s the kicker: you can already watch football in England while drinking a beer and watching the game. While queuing for that beer you don’t even need to miss any action and, if you need another drink or to use the toilet, you don’t need to disturb anyone on the way.

It’s called non-league, it’s brilliant and if bringing in drinking at games in the Football League caused a loss of income at non-league level in any form, it would be a great shame.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/ziGO59a

Everyone you speak to around the England camp highlights one reason why supporters left the USA this summer with that familiar feeling of deja vu.

There are no questions about talent. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are strong contenders for the Ballon d’Or. Barcelona made Anthony Gordon their latest star. There are multiple £100m midfielders vying for places.

Plenty questioned whether Thomas Tuchel was to blame for another near miss. Did he go too negative, too early against Argentina? Was a six-man defence ever going to stifle the genius of Lionel Messi?

Yet, around England’s St George’s Park training base, the Tuchel naysayers are in short supply. Those above him, who conducted a full and “frank” review after the World Cup, believe the German is really trying to build something, at a time when revolution is again in full swing in Burton upon Trent.

And Tuchel, as well as his players, believe there is only one way to right the age-old English wrong.

“Culturally, it’s not just that tournament or that game where we couldn’t control a game,” Gordon said. “As a nation, England do not have that strength like the Spanish, where we control games like they do. It’s not in us.

“I’m not sure it can be taught. Playing in Spain I can speak with an educated view, and the way they keep the ball is different to what I’ve experienced playing in this country.

“I’m not sure we can ever get that but we can definitely get better, or maybe go the other way and really play to our strengths, which is to play physical, direct football and on the counter-attack. There’s no perfect way to win a football match.”

Tuchel has been in combative mode since returning from the summer’s heartbreak. In a chat with a small number of journalists last week, things got a little heated when pressed over previous comments about the English DNA.

The German seemed taken aback by how dumbfounded the room was over claims he “does not have time” to coach England to be like Spain. Questioning whether controlling games, passing their opponents into submission, was something fans even wanted.

Mentally, England aren’t getting over the line, in contrast to a less vaunted Spain group, because they lack the game intelligence of their Iberian rivals, who are preparing to showcase such controlling talents on Saturday at Wembley.

But Tuchel’s England aren’t going to change their ways. If they are finally going to end 60 years of hurt, they are going to do it the English way.

“The general messaging is that we continue what we’ve been building,” captain Harry Kane said. “Sometimes after a tournament, it’s easy to say we start fresh or it’s a new start, but I don’t think it is that. It’s a continuation.

“Those are the questions that we need to kind of discuss amongst ourselves and answer ourselves, as players and as coaching staff, ‘how can we be better in those moments? How can we be ourselves more in those moments?’

“And it may be a mixture of things – it may be personalities. It may be mentality. It may be just the direction and how we want to play in those games. So let’s continue what we’ve done because we have done a lot of good things. We can’t just overlook that because we didn’t get the result that we wanted.”

And after listening to a spiky Tuchel, that means there will be no replication of any Pep Guardiola-inspired tiki-taka. The German is not for turning. England will continue to “go for it” and not look “for that late 1-0”. The quest is to find a suitable compromise between the gung-ho and the conservative.

St George’s Park is amid its latest rebrand. Overseen by Dan Ashworth, in a new role as chief football officer, the man who helped build the state-of-the-art facility, is aware the base has fallen on hard times and is now somewhat outdated.

Read more

Daniel Storey: Thomas Tuchel has horribly misjudged Morgan Gibbs-White

Pete Hall: Thomas Tuchel is deluded for doubling down on England DNA comments

Renovations are to begin in earnest, with a home European Championship on the horizon. But it is not just the physical that will be reconstructed once more.

Ashworth, along with Gareth Southgate, helped instil excellence at all levels, giving a greater pathway to the top, which saw various youth teams go on to glory.

Their mission remains incomplete, as the fledgling promise ultimately led to senior disappointment. Tuchel and the powers that be at St George’s Park think they are almost there.

Game management and that English mental block is still to be overcome. And it is what everyone will be focusing on, in all departments, for the foreseeable future.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/OKCQiaf

Newcastle United will invest millions of pounds in a new “developing talent” strategy that began this summer with eight academy signings, including the most targeted global recruitment drive in the club’s history.

Owners PIF have sanctioned the club’s biggest ever transfer budget for under-23 talent as part of a plan driven by sporting director Ross Wilson, who wants Newcastle to move away from their previously “ad-hoc, opportunistic” approach to recruiting young talent.

Senior sources see the new approach to academy recruitment as “critical” to the success or failure of “Newcastle 2.0”, the phrase used to describe the club after a major summer pivot to prioritising young talent and a new player trading strategy.

They made eight signings at academy level in the summer, and there will be more in the future as Newcastle incorporate cutting-edge data, eyes on the ground, and the club’s beefed-up networks across Europe to improve recruitment at that level.

Inside Newcastle’s new academy plan

At a meeting with scouts last Friday, the strategy was mapped out in detail. Split into three parts – local, national and global – Newcastle’s academy recruitment priorities are based on “mapping out where we want to be in two to three years” rather than responding to market opportunities or the chance to snare a top talent who becomes available, which is what mostly happened in the past.

The strategy starts with signing the best players in a 60-to-90-minute radius of Newcastle, with the club eager to stress that local talent remains a priority. They believe they are now regarded as “the number one player in town” on that front.

That has been backed up by a national strategy which has seen them – for the first time in the modern Premier League era – compete for and sign some of the best talents at other top-flight clubs. “No one is ever going to win that space outright but we are now part of that conversation where we hadn’t been before,” one source tells The i Paper.

There has also been a dramatic shift in their global recruitment strategy. Whereas before they were reacting to market opportunities, now they are making “targeted moves” for players they believe can “go on a journey” with Newcastle.

What the plan is for global talent recruits

This was the first summer where the plan was put into practice. While signings at senior level dominated headlines over the summer, Newcastle made a flurry of signings with the intention of “raising the levels” across their academy.

Among them, the Magpies believe they secured a major coup by signing former Arsenal winger Kyran Thompson despite intense competition from “almost every Premier League club in the country”. He has already impressed behind the scenes and was named in the first-team squad for Saturday’s win against Hull.

Two domestic arrivals not yet on the radar of most fans also sparked excitement. They are an under-13 from Middlesbrough and an under-15 from Ipswich who sources believe have “serious potential” and prove Newcastle’s pull on a national level.

Globally, they moved for Guinea-Bissau striker Afner Ca and spent six-figure sums on winger Johan Martinez and exciting midfielder Ousmane Diabate.

Ca was a free agent after his contract with Levante expired in the summer and Newcastle believe he has a “different profile” to their other striker options.

His signing highlights the strategic part of the plan – with Newcastle’s recruitment team identifying how difficult and competitive the striker market was across Europe this summer, with very few moving between clubs.

The belief is that will continue – driving prices for strikers even higher in future transfer windows – so having quality, specialist forwards “in the pipeline” at academy level is seen as especially crucial.

Winger Martinez is just 17 and will continue to play for Independiente del Valle for another year. A fast, tricky winger, he is viewed as another with big potential and he was on Tyneside a fortnight ago with his family for further meetings about his pathway with the club. The Under-17 World Cup in Qatar – which kicks off in November – is a key moment for him this season.

The ‘new Yaya Toure’ earning rave reviews

Perhaps the most high-profile youth capture in the summer was Diabate, a box-to-box midfielder likened to Yaya Toure, who was signed for £250,000 from Turkish Süper Lig side Gençlerbirliği despite competition from Brentford and Trabzonspor.

Operating either as a 6 or an 8, he was identified because of his high football IQ, engine and passing ability. There’s also belief he can develop into a line-breaking midfielder capable of dribbling well with the ball from deep areas.

Diabate has started regularly this season, with Newcastle receiving rave reports about his progress. The i Paper understands they have a recall clause in January, but the plan is for him to stay in Turkey – and probably go on another loan next season after being assessed in the summer.

Those familiar with his progress believe Newcastle have signed a “potential superstar”. “I think he has the potential to become a very high-level midfielder who can meet the demands of modern football: someone capable of contributing both in and out of possession, offensively and defensively,” says Omercan Ozman, a sports editor with Radyo GOL and Macdergi who reports on Genclerbirligi.

He has been hugely impressed by his maturity and consistency and thinks the Magpies have a “serious” player. “I believe Newcastle United have signed a player with a very significant ceiling,” he said.

“If his development continues in the right direction, why couldn’t he become the new Yaya Toure?”

Newcastle are careful not to “hype up” any potential arrival and that’s probably wise. Others have arrived with great fanfare and failed to live up to the excitement – although sources bristle at the idea that they have been forgotten about.

Spanish winger Antonio Cordero, for example, is progressing well at Cadiz in his second loan spell away from Newcastle since signing in 2025.

Better ‘pathways’ and plans for arrivals

Still, the intention now is to create individual plans and “journeys” for their young recruits to follow. The loans department has been rebranded “talent management” and they’ve hired psychologists, physios and data analysts to help with their development.

The appointment of Paul Dummett in the summer was because he has in-depth knowledge of going out on loan and what is required to make it in the first team.

Perhaps of equal importance is how “Newcastle 2.0” proves the club’s commitment to young talent.

Fielding a double pivot of 20-year-old Lewis Miley and 18-year-old Sean Steur on the opening day of the Premier League season against Liverpool is some sales pitch for the club to utilise when they’re talking to top talent – and Matthias Jaissle is enthusiastic about working with young players.

Read more

Big read: Inside Matthias Jaissle’s new era – and the night he fell in love with Newcastle

Analysis: ‘Not normal’: How Sean Steur emerged as the Newcastle 2.0 poster boy

There is a pathway, at least. Partly because of injuries Saturday’s bench included three 17-year-olds – Mason Miley, Thompson and Michael Mills. Jaissle is keen to continue offering those sorts of opportunities through the season.

It feels like an exciting plan and one the club have to pursue. Even if only a few become first team regulars, others may be part of the player trading strategy that will be essential to making “2.0” work.

Just like at a senior level, the club feel there is “buy-in” across the club, from ownership to the first team coaching staff. “There are no guarantees but this is what we have to do and everyone recognises that,” a senior source says.

from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/iTPFz0m