Newcastle United have begun their search for a new right-sided forward – but Jacob Murphy remains central to Eddie Howe’s plans after a season in which he’s cemented his place in club history.
The upbeat feel around the club generated by their historic Carabao Cup win will continue. Saturday’s huge celebration on the city’s Town Moor is the first opportunity for fans to toast the achievement of a squad who will fully reconvene at the end of the week after their international exertions.
But insiders speak of seeking to harness the “momentum” of the win over Liverpool and there remains a substantial rebuild job at the club if they are to consistently challenge for silverware in the coming seasons.
The nature of the Wembley victory over the Premier League’s champions-elect – Newcastle dominant in every aspect of the game – was remarkable because it came at the end of a period of fixtures in which the Magpies were struggling to find authority.
Part of the reason the win was so satisfying was because it represented a deserved reward for many of the players who are probably coming close to the end of their Newcastle journey.
Talk of a reset, buoyed by an improved position in relation to the league’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules(PSR), has dominated discussions at St James’ Park for months and director of football Paul Mitchell is known to want to lower the age of the squad.
That mission likely begins by nailing a position that has been difficult for Newcastle for the past couple of seasons: a right winger.
It is a “priority” for the club in the coming months, with the sale of Miguel Almiron in January firing the starting pistol for the club to put into action their succession plan.
Having attempted nearly a year ago to extricate Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest – a move they are unlikely to be given any encouragement to revisit if Nuno Espirito Santo’s side do qualify for Europe – their list of domestic alternatives is emerging.
Newcastle’s right-wing targets
Two of them – perhaps the most compelling “plug in and play” options who would be able to make an instant impact – are likely to command eye-watering sums.
Southampton’s Tyler Dibling is being touted as a potential £100m player (a figure sources believe has been inflated for a potential bidding war in the summer) while The i Paper can reveal the asking price for Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo is £70m.
In-demand Bryan Mbeumo is another Newcastle are keen on and Brentford anticipate interest in the forward. A fascinating option also on their radar, The i Paper understands, is the Sporting Lisbon winger Francisco Trincao. The former Wolves loanee is available this summer and is understood to be keen on a move back to the Premier League.
Interest is one thing. Whether Mitchell signs off on those sort of targets is another matter. One rival recruitment executive that The i Paper spoke to believes the Newcastle director of football would likely favour the foreign market and look for players with room to develop.
“People talk about the likes of Dean Huijsen and Newcastle’s interest there but every director of football wants to get a Huijsen for £12m [his fee last summer] rather than the £50m he is now,” they said.
“The smart money with Paul is that Newcastle look at a few of those type of signings in the summer.”
A new blueprint
The fact that Mitchell is yet to broker a single significant deal at Newcastle makes forecasting the close season difficult. But, as The i Paper reported back in December, he was leading advanced negotiations with Lens for centre-back Abdukodir Khusanov after the club carried out extensive due diligence on the Uzbekistan international.
Manchester City’s greater financial muscle – in January at least – meant that the spade work was in vain but the interest was instructive. The 21-year-old seems to fit the sort of blueprint Mitchell is working towards: young, full of potential and with the ability to make an instant impact in the Premier League.
If Newcastle can get to those sort of players first it will show that he has managed to successfully recast their recruitment policy. That is why talk of moves for the likes of Jack Grealish appears unlikely.
For all the talk of who comes in, it’s easy to forget the consistency shown by Wembley hero Murphy this season. It feels like another lifetime since he signed from Norwich City under Rafael Benitez, a manager who privately admitted that he was bringing in a rough diamond as Newcastle rebuilt for a return to the Premier League.
Murphy represents so much of what Howe has been able to achieve at Newcastle – his improvement is testament to the manager’s coaching acumen and also his own resilience.
He has five goals and eight assists in 25 Premier League games this season, the best return of a Newcastle career that will continue – whoever they sign. There is absolutely no appetite to cash in on the 30-year-old, who is a popular member of the squad.
In a way, it sums up the stage the Magpies have now reached – keen to upgrade for the challenges ahead but desperate to retain the values that have propelled them to some of the most memorable days in their recent history.
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