In the end, it looks like caution has won out.
As the chances of Miguel Almiron moving to Saudi Arabia for £30m evaporated at the start of this week, so too did Newcastle United’s hopes of brokering deals for any one of the 10 or so midfield targets they identified during January.
There were good players on that list – one or two “game-changers” according to sources who spoke to i – but never really the conviction that Newcastle would be in the market for any of them.
Even as far back as 1 January the noises were that it would be a quiet window, with sources telling i after the Liverpool defeat a deal for Kalvin Phillips was looking like a distant prospect.
The Almiron saga sums up Newcastle’s month. There was interest from Saudi Pro League side Al Shabab but the problem was that Almiron, settled in the north-East with his young family, wasn’t ever sold on the transfer and didn’t want the upheaval of a mid-season move. With Eddie Howe reassuring him that he remained central to his plans for the rest of the season, the die was cast long before Monday night’s Saudi transfer deadline expired without a deal being agreed.
There is always time for a late transfer to turn things on their head – this is the club that went from Andy Carroll being “unsellable” to a £35m move to Liverpool being agreed in 24 hours in 2011 – and a sale would give them the chance to invest and re-energise their squad. But no-one at Newcastle seems to think that is the direction of travel with less than 48 hours of the transfer window remaining.
There was a way for Newcastle to trade this month but it would have involved a lot of risk. Had they cashed in on Callum Wilson or Kieran Trippier – who had a credible but skinny bid from Bayern Munich to consider – or even listened to offers for Joelinton or Joe Willock there were upgrades in other areas of the pitch available to Newcastle.
But Howe baulked at the prospect of losing some of those players and had enough support from the board for that stance. It’s questionable whether this curiously flat January market was the time to extract value anyway, but one club who had contact with Newcastle this month described them as not fully convincing that they were committed buyers or sellers.
Their approach to Phillips, a midfielder Howe desperately wanted to add, was typical. The player was open to a move but Manchester City’s loan demands were considered too steep and Newcastle – in common with most of the Premier League – had one eye on their Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) limit.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford £6m for five months of Phillips, it was that they didn’t think the impact on their PSR bottom line was worth it.
“We had to step away from that one for financial reasons,” Howe admitted on Friday.
It is understood that Newcastle’s hierarchy also thought the imminent return of Elliot Anderson and Willock – plus their long-term faith in Lewis Miley, who signed a new “long-term” deal on Monday – made a deal less than attractive.
Eventually, they will need to be bolder or stagnate. Hard decisions have been side-stepped this month but they cannot be put off forever and much of Newcastle’s planning now has to focus on how they confront the challenges of trying to grow in the PSR era while also keeping the dressing room happy.
For Howe, keeping ambitious paymasters happy will become an increasing factor next season. He is acutely aware the understanding he has encountered this year doesn’t last forever.
It is a big summer with sizeable recruitment calls coming down the tracks for Newcastle. To name a few: Bruno Guimaraes’ future, Joelinton’s new contract, how to upgrade on Almiron and freshening up the forward line. Throw in the lingering uncertainty around Dan Ashworth, which will continue until Manchester United make a director of football call, and it feels like a big few months ahead on Tyneside if Newcastle are to challenge for Champions League qualification again next season.
The future will surely entail some contentious calls for Howe and some discomfort for Newcastle fans, but then January’s caution is simply not a viable option in the future.
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