Newcastle United are trying to do two deals before the end of the transfer window as they kick off a pivotal week that will set the tone for the season ahead.
There is no doubting the importance of the next few days for the club’s key figures after a tense and occasionally fractious summer at St James’ Park. Deals have been tough, Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) taxing and disagreements have bubbled under the surface but no players who lift the level of the starting XI emphatically have arrived.
That is significant given it is now 38 days since Eddie Howe, reflecting on whether the dynamic with new director of football Paul Mitchell could work, said the “transfer window is absolutely massive”.
The mood in the club’s new executive set-up is said to remain calm but finally brokering a deal for a centre-back – with Crystal Palace’s Marc Guehi still the top target and dialogue ongoing over the structure of a proposed £65m move – is a minimum requirement.
The second deal, much more difficult to do and perhaps reliant on outgoings, is a right winger with eyes now said to have turned overseas on that front after domestic targets were priced out of their reach. There are no guarantees on that front.
Other deals – they admire James Trafford of Burnley and see him as a potential long-term successor to Nick Pope while younger players who may be loaned back to their clubs have been looked at all summer – appear less likely given time and PSR constraints.
Exits are possible but Newcastle are waiting for dominoes to fall. Kieran Trippier’s cameo at Bournemouth emphasised his importance to the group and Howe is hopeful of preventing his departure, with no firm bids for him at this point.
There has been no fresh interest in Miguel Almiron, another player Newcastle would allow to leave for the right price.
One message percolating from the top is how difficult it is to get players capable of substantially improving a decent first XI and how throwing money at the situation for the wrong profile of incoming is pointless but to put it bluntly: doing nothing is not an option.
There would be major questions to ask if, for the second transfer window running, no ready-made first team additions were added to Howe’s squad.
“It’s one of the most important weeks for the club since the takeover,” Alex Hurst, host of the True Faith podcast and former chair of the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST), tells i.
“You can lose a season in a week and this one is absolutely massive for Newcastle. Four points from two games is a good return but I don’t think we’ve been hugely convincing in either and it could easily be zero points.
“The League Cup game is huge and then the club need to help Eddie [Howe] by bringing in new players and selling some other ones. I think if they don’t do that there will be an increasing number of people asking what the direction of the club and the ambition and overall aims are.”
For Mitchell, who has been at the club since the start of July, this is a long-term project, and allies argue that he needs times to embed his systems and way of working. But having been brought in to shake up the way Newcastle recruit – and as a specialist in the area – he has to deliver.
Part of that might be taking things to the wire to get the Magpies the best possible deals – every £5m has a big impact on PSR headroom – but he will inevitably be judged on the outcome of the Guehi deal that has dragged on and who walks through the door before Friday.
There are alternatives but the optimistic links with Bayer Leverkusen’s Edmond Tapsoba can almost certainly put to bed with the Bundesliga club not contemplating a sale and the player happy to remain in Germany.
“Whether it’s fair or not, it’s a massive week for Paul Mitchell,” Hurst says.
“When he was brought to the club above Eddie Howe the one thing they had to do was deliver – and quickly – but that hasn’t happened yet. And it feels as if there’s a lot riding on Guehi because whatever happens, they’ve spent a month chasing him.
“If they don’t get him, it won’t look good so there is that element of pressure on.”
Whatever happens it feels as if Newcastle’s recruitment processes probably need studying.
Player trading is key in the PSR world, but they remain sluggish sellers, unable – so far – to even find a buyer for Ryan Fraser.
A slew of contracts up for renewal in 2025 mean an overhaul is around the corner but there is another transfer window and a critical week before then.
Why Newcastle still primarily shop in the domestic market when they have invested heavily on beefing up global scouting networks also seems like a viable question for the future.
Since signing Sandro Tonali, their last eight signings have arrived from English teams.
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