Newcastle United’s owners are battling with selling clubs who are applying a “Newcastle premium” to prices in the January transfer window.
The club landed Kieran Trippier on Thursday in their first major deal of the January transfer window but the owners are looking to bring in five more additions. The Trippier deal, which involves an initial £12million up front payment, is the perfect combination of the right player and the right price but elsewhere they are encountering valuations which they feel have been hiked for their benefit.
It was widely expected and Newcastle are having to balance high valuations with their desire to add another centre-back and a forward before their key relegation clash with Watford on 15 January.
Newcastle had a £30million offer for Lille’s excellent Holland centre-back Sven Botman turned down earlier this week and Sevilla have put a £35million valuation on Diego Carlos. United’s owners suspect both valuations have been pumped up because European football is aware of the wealth of the Saudi PIF, the club’s major shareholders.
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The full list of done deals involving Premier League clubs in January06 January, 2022The issue for Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi is that they don’t want to burn through Newcastle’s room to manoeuvre on Financial Fair Play (FFP) in a January window that is notoriously difficult to find value in. The summer window is much easier to plot a path through but if Newcastle are in the Championship, it sets the plan back several years.
A senior source told i there would be a willingness to loosen the budget to get deals done, but they have always spoken about doing things differently and planning for the long-term.
The hope is a second deal can be brokered before the Watford game.
They are negotiating on a number of fronts, and have held discussions with Barcelona over forward Philipe Countinho and defender Samuel Umtiti. Both would likely be loan moves, with the Catalan club needing to get players off their wage bill in the winter window.
Convincing either to join is another complication, although the club hope Trippier’s decision to swap La Liga for the Premier League will convince others of the suitability of their “project” for elite players.
Newcastle also have domestic options with Liverpool’s Divock Origi and Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah appealing to Eddie Howe, who wants players ready to “plug in and play” in the relegation fight.
The club also need to sanction exits. Defender Fabian Schar, who has six months left on his contract, is attracting interest.
Benitez wins transfer battle
Everton’s decision to make Lucas Digne available highlights another battle won by Rafa Benitez at Goodison Park.
Newcastle have been first out of the blocks to make an offer for the highly-rated left-back but Chelsea and West Ham are also credited with an interest in the £30million-rated defender.
Digne clashed with Benitez over his tactics but Everton, despite supporters seeming to back the France international, have sided with their manager.
Everton appointed Graeme Sharp to the board this week as they look to dilute the mutinous mood among supporters. Benitez is privately counselling that results will improve as the season goes on, but a calamitous home defeat to Brighton hardly backed up those assertions.
He has the backing of the board at the moment though, with Benitez supported with the signings of Nathan Patterson and Vitaliy Mykolenko.
As revealed in this column last month, Everton have an interest in Newcastle’s Sean Longstaff and they tabled an offer on Wednesday – which the Magpies rejected.
Despite the interest from Benitez, it’s understood Longstaff would prefer to sign a new contract at St James’ Park. His current deal expires at the end of the season.
Brexit battle for academy prospects
A new post-Brexit battleground is opening up for Premier League clubs as they beef up their domestic scouting departments to compensate for not being able to take young players from the EU.
i understands Brighton are recruiting for an academy scout to cover the North East and Yorkshire area, which follows on from Leicester also advertising for academy scouts to cover the North East.
Wolves recently advertised for scouts to cover Scotland while Manchester United and Manchester City are also beefing up their academy scouting operations, with Northern Ireland and the Scottish market under further scrutiny.
Brexit has strangled the stream of young players who used to join English academies from the age of 16. That is no longer allowed under the rules, prompting clubs to pivot to the UK market.
One scouting source told i they expect areas like the North East and Yorkshire to become “battlegrounds” for the top clubs because of the relatively low number of clubs covering large areas. The best of the young talent in London and the North West is already snapped up by well-established networks.
As reported by i last week, clubs are also looking to snap up “sister” clubs in Europe where players can be placed before possible moves to England. Manchester United and Newcastle are among those looking at the multi-club model perfected by Manchester City.
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