Kieran Trippier is the answer to the unique poser facing Newcastle United’s new owners as they attempt a mid-season rebuild that brings fantasy football colliding with the cold, hard reality of the club’s current predicament.
Their transfer budget is around £100million. Their ambition is to fast-track the club’s progress with players who can push them into the top six conversation next season. But second from bottom in the Premier League and with nothing much to offer this season but a relegation battle, how do you ensure your recruitment is driven by character checks and not big cheques?
With agents circling and rival clubs believing they can exploit the inexperience of the club’s new owners, this month is a sizeable examination of the forensic work they claim they have been doing since taking over. “Rigorous, proper background work,” one source claimed to i. “The fans will thank us for the way we’re doing it.”
Step forward Trippier, the first of Newcastle’s January signings that the owners claim squares the circle of their many competing priorities.
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The 'Newcastle factor' driving rivals like Everton and Watford to move fast this January03 January, 2022Introduced on Friday after signing in a £12m deal from La Liga champions Atletico Madrid, Newcastle must wish all deals are this easy. The player ticks the mentality box and listening to him talk over Zoom, it didn’t feel like it stretched credibility when he claimed the lure of the club’s big idea was as enticing as a £100,000-per-week contract which makes him the club’s biggest earner.
“I didn’t have to work hard to convince him – Newcastle has a massive pull,” Eddie Howe said as the club prepared for an FA Cup third-round game against Cambridge.
“He hasn’t come for the financial benefits of the contract. He’s come for the club and for the challenge that the team faces at this time, but also the longer-term vision. That’s a massive thing for the club.”
It is by no means the case for everyone Newcastle have contacted. Lucas Digne, the Everton full-back that Rafa Benitez confirmed on Friday wanted to leave the club, has indicated fairly firmly that he’s not interested in the club’s overtures.
One recruitment expert believes signing a striker – bigger money, bigger egos – will be particularly difficult for Newcastle. It explains, perhaps, why they are looking at more modest targets like Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah and Liverpool forward Divock Origi for that berth.
Howe suggested on Friday the club wouldn’t be inclined to insert relegation clauses in new signing’s contracts. He is a thoroughly modern manager, driven by data and scouting innovation but he is placing a premium on seeing the whites of potential signing’s eyes in this window.
Statement signing Trippier said he is motivated by winning a place in the World Cup squad for Qatar in November.
“The players that have played with me, the managers who have managed me before, they know what type of character I am. I’m the type of player who loves to fight for the shirt, I love a challenge,” he said.
“People said it was a risk to go to Atletico Madrid and they’ll say the same about this.
“I know why I came here. I came to help the team, the project, everything about it. If people say it’s about money, then everybody’s entitled to their own opinion, but I know my reasons why and that’s not one of them.”
If character counts, Newcastle will be enthused by the social media activity of their prime centre-back target Sven Botman. He spent Friday ‘liking’ Instagram posts of him mocked up in a black and white shirt.
A second offer to Lille under the Ligue 1 club’s £40m valuation was submitted on Friday and was being considered.
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