Newcastle United sporting director Paul Mitchell has defended the club’s summer transfer window and the decision not to meet Crystal Palace’s club-record valuation of Marc Guehi, saying their approach “set a precedent” for future windows.
Mitchell said the club retain their long-term ambition to join the elite – revealing a boardroom meeting with Yasir Al-Rumayyan on Sunday had given him “grey hairs” at the scale of the club’s targets – but paying over the odds for Guehi or other targets would have caused long-term “harm”.
“Would it have been easier to sit in front of you all with hallmark signings that cost a load of money? Of course it would,” he said as part of a fascinating 90-minute chat covering the club’s strained summer.
“But ultimately (to) have them at the detriment to Newcastle’s ability to grow and high strategic ambitions (just) for Paul Mitchell’s glorification, that’s not the job I’m paid to do.
“I’m paid to do the job in the short, the medium, the long-term. I do take that part of my job seriously.”
Mitchell admitted the club have “a lot to look at” after failing to land one of the elite defenders they had tracked during the transfer window and admitted some of the infrastructure left behind by Dan Ashworth isn’t “fit for purpose” to achieve their aims in the new era of Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
And while the club looked at other targets apart from Guehi, Mitchell also conceded the club had been “too narrow” in their search for an elite centre-back.
Without directly naming Guehi, he offered insight into the club’s fraught negotiations with Palace and said the days of “spending, spending” were over for Newcastle, and would be replaced by a global recruitment strategy with improvements in data and talent ID helping them replicate clubs like Brighton who have found “undervalued talent” in the summer. He also said the club’s sales strategy would be revamped.
In a wide-ranging interview with reporters – his first since being appointed in July – Mitchell also detailed:
- How Saudi owners PIF remain “super, super ambitious” and are wholeheartedly committed to supporting the club.
- Hour-long daily chats with Eddie Howe during the transfer window which reaffirmed the club’s desire to keep him as manager for a “long time”.
- How they were now out of the PSR “hole” which forced them to sell Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson, and would not put themselves in that position again.
- How his appointment in mid-July did disrupt plans, with Mitchell left “facilitating” the club’s existing recruitment plans rather than “driving” them.
But the most pressing issue was Guehi. Mitchell did not want to be drawn on the England man directly i understands he was the main defensive transfer target in the summer window, although there were simultaneous talks with a small band of alternative targets.
It’s understood that Newcastle’s final official bid for Guehi – the ceiling price they were prepared to pay – was a fortnight before the deadline and while dialogue continued until late in the window there was a determination not to pay over the odds.
There was also dialogue with Nottingham Forest over Anthony Elanga, but contrary to reports in the East Midlands it did not extend to a deadline day bid of £50m.
Mitchell said the decision not to increase their Guehi bid was a joint decision with CEO Darren Eales and Howe with a view to the long-term.
“As custodians of this club we can’t just keep spending, spending because at some point that won’t enable the club to facilitate its goals and I don’t think any Newcastle fan wants to see this club in a place where other clubs were last season with docked points, with financial penalties because that can really affect our growth,” he said.
“My job is to get us in five years’ time to our ambition. Once again I have to weigh up the pros and cons of the short-term nature of performances today and tomorrow in the Premier League while enabling us to get to our five-year objective.
“We didn’t have the sales window we thought we would have – and we have to look at that strategy as well, was that right, it was all aligned with the head coach. We have a lot to look at.”
He said it was a club decision not to “overpay” – partly to eliminate future issues with a “Newcastle tax”, clubs applying a premium to targets because of perceived spending power.
“Is there a point of value for every single player and did maybe this football club need to draw a line in the sand of ‘we’re not going to overpay?’,” he added.
“Probably looking at the players we have signed – and we’ve signed some really good players – could we say that some of those players potentially cost more money than they should have done in the market at that current context? You probably could have that argument and discussion.
“For this club to come out and say actually, we really liked this player and thought he could have bring benefit to this squad but it is at any cost? Is it at financial risk to the organisation and our growth and our plan? I don’t think we should do that.”
He said in future the club would not be so trained on a few targets. “You can be on multiple deals at any one time, the focus doesn’t have to be that narrow,” he said.
“We probably were too narrow, but coming in in mid-July, it’s not my strategy to control. It’s my strategy to support.”
Weekend pictures of Mitchell with Al-Rumayyan and Eales prompted speculation about PIF’s feelings on the window, but the sporting director said they he held a positive boardroom meeting with the chairman on Sunday.
“I have a few more grey hairs because of the level of ambition that we actually have. He (Yasir) is as ambitious and enthused as ever,” he said.
“I only know from my interaction – I can’t speak for anyone else – but he’s super ambitious and he wants us to perform at the number one level.
“He wants us to perform not only through the money we spend – he wants us to be best in class across everything we do, whether that be youth development, the women’s team, scouting and recruitment, data and insight, coaching, innovation. He wants our position to be at the top, but to be there for the reasons that people admire as a really well-oiled, well-executed machine of a football operation.
“That for me came across in his message.”
Mitchell also said the club could still achieve their ambition of getting into Europe this season – even without major first team additions.
“With the current quality of individuals we have and collective experience, with the current quality of head coach we have, should we be getting into Europe in some context this year? I think that is a realistic ambition, I do,” he said.
“Because I think we are a good team, and I think last year there were a lot of different contributing factors that still need to be assessed, I think there were a lot of different challenges that this club for a long time hadn’t faced before, that we no longer have, and I think the quality and growth of some of our young players, the experience that we currently have.
“European football as an ambition is a realistic one, I think for everyone, and that has to be the challenge for us all.”
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