Newcastle United’s sporting director Paul Mitchell will not have needed a reminder but the importance of the Champions League to the club’s sizeable summer rebuild was reinforced twofold this week.
First in the financial accounts of Arsenal, where an eye-watering uptick in club revenue can be tied to their return to European football’s top table. An extra £100m on their bottom line thanks to the expanded format and its super-sized TV and prize money payments means so much more muscle in the transfer market.
How Newcastle, whose own financial accounts are said to be “much improved” and are just awaiting the sign-off from owners the Public Investment Fund (PIF), could do with some of that right now as they chase beefed-up revenue streams.
Secondly, in conversations this week around potential close-season recruits one message came back repeatedly: it will be a “game-changer” if the Magpies can offer Champions League football to potential signings.
As The i Paper revealed this week, they are one of six clubs who are realistic suitors for Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen – a 19-year-old defender whose potential is “limitless”, according to one of those who has witnessed his development. A £50m release clause means the Cherries regard his exit as inevitable and the player is understood to be open to a Newcastle approach, but playing in Europe is a priority.
It is a message Mitchell will be hearing a lot. Another potentially elite right-winger who will be available is understood to be open to a move to Newcastle but only – in the words of one source familiar with his thinking – “if they are in the Champions League in 2025”.
Internally, no-one is denying that challenging for the top five has the potential to reshape Newcastle’s ambition and redraw what the next five years might look like.
It is one of the reasons why emotion was so raw in the squad this week as they collectively licked their wounds after a passive 4-0 defeat at Manchester City.
Newcastle’s inconsistency has been an issue all season but manager Eddie Howe had believed that his team would compete, match City’s aggression and give themselves a platform to match a side that was looking vulnerable.
None of that happened and this week has been spent addressing those problems.
Howe spoke of “direct” one-on-one meetings with some of his players and sensed a “hunger” from the group to address it when Nottingham Forest arrive at St James’ Park on Saturday.
But it was telling that he also admitted that the quality of training sessions is suffering because the first-team pool is so shallow at the moment.
Academy players are regularly invited through the gate at their Benton training complex but what was once a privilege for those youngsters ushered into the first-team pitches is now more of a necessity. With Sven Botman and Joelinton unavailable recently, numbers have been a problem.
Those are quandaries Mitchell was appointed to solve. Considering himself to be seven months into a five-year project, he is the big-picture guy who been recalibrating Newcastle’s approach to signing younger players so that they can snap up the next Huijsen before he becomes a £50m player.
Movement on that has been stepping up recently. A deal for Malaga’s Antonio Cordero, The i Paper has been told, is now at an advanced stage as Newcastle hope to see off competition from Real Madrid among others for the 18-year-old winger. The Magpies are actively scouting in France for other unpolished diamonds.
All of this work can be turbocharged if Howe’s team can recapture the form and consistency that marked their midwinter run of wins.
“I don’t know if transformative is necessarily the right word but it would certainly help in every aspect,” Howe said on Friday.
“It would help us continue our journey in a positive way, continue to build on our experiences in our previous campaign and I think it would help the evolution of the club.
“For me it’s a big motivation, it’s a big driver. We want to achieve, we want excitement, we want the season to have a great end in lots of different ways and we want to give ourselves a chance to do that in various competitions. That’s why it’s important to get our form back on track.”
Standing in their way is a Forest side spearheaded by Chris Wood, a player Howe sanctioned the sale of in 2023. His current strike rate is a goal every 112 minutes – fractionally below Alexander Isak’s record of scoring every 111 – and Wood hit a hat-trick last time he was at St James’ Park. They are a real threat, a team that look tailor-made to cause Newcastle problems.
After that they will face Liverpool at Anfield in a massive week with so much at stake.
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