The first real examination of Newcastle United’s summer transfer strategy arrives on Sunday.
“Two starting XIs” was how one insider described Newcastle’s squad at the start of the month, the dust having just about settled on the Alexander Isak saga.
Through a rocky summer it had been a deliberate policy to add depth to their squad and the feeling at Newcastle is that after spending the best part of £250m on new recruits, they now have two players of international quality in virtually every position. Now is the time to prove it.
On Thursday night there was a reminder that they could have gone down a different route. They were offered the chance to sign Barcelona’s match-winner Marcus Rashford, sounded out before the summer by intermediaries who wanted to find him a Champions League opportunity to end his Manchester United misery.
There was also an opportunity to sign fellow lost boy Jack Grealish before Everton agreed to match his eye-watering wages. But Newcastle, knowing that putting all their chips on established talent would be an expensive business and prevent moves elsewhere, did not bite. They always had a different blueprint in mind.
Marcus Rashford take. A. Bow.
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It is an approach that makes sense. In 2023, when Newcastle were having their last tilt at this level, they could barely pivot from the group of players who made such a roaring start to life back in the Champions League.
That marvellous 4-1 win against Paris Saint-Germain will go down in black and white folklore but what is not remembered is how few changes Eddie Howe made in the following Premier League game.
Switching out just one starter for the next match at West Ham (Elliot Anderson came in for the injured Anthony Gordon) allowed continuity but by the middle of autumn the lack of rotation meant they had run out of gas and their season derailed.
At bogey side Bournemouth on Sunday Howe’s approach will be different. Suddenly he has options and changes are inevitable.
Newcastle's superb passage of play is rewarded by Anthony Gordon
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Malick Thiaw’s late introduction against Barcelona might have been forced on Newcastle through injury but he looked accomplished against the late Catalan onslaught and is firmly in contention for a first Premier League start.
Compatriot Nick Woltemade will return to the team while Lewis Hall and Jacob Murphy are both ready to go. It’s understood that part of Howe’s pre-season pitch to the squad was emphasising how everyone would have their part to play so perhaps selection surprises will become a baked in part of Premier League weekends.
It is an evolution that has to be matched by a change in approach from the players themselves, according to Dan Burn.
“It’s a mentality thing,” he said on Thursday night.
“We can’t just turn up to these big games against Barcelona and then not play as well in the next game. We’ve sometimes struggled in the next game, since I’ve been here anyway.
“Those are lessons we have hopefully learned from the last time, to recover and go again.”
And really, there was not a whole lot wrong with what Newcastle did against Barcelona. The plan to hare out of the blocks and press Barcelona into submission was sound but they ultimately paid the price for failing to capitalise on their fast start with an opening goal.
There was no eye-catching win but it was not a dressing down either. They would have beaten most of the teams on their Champions League schedule with a performance of that calibre.
Newcastle’s profligacy was partly down to Eddie Howe picking a starting XI that didn’t have a recognised striker but with Woltemade still settling in and a lack of alternative options, it’s difficult to see what else he could have done. Barcelona was undoubtedly a big game but there is a bigger picture at play.
And Bournemouth – for all their undoubted quality – do not have a midfield three like the Barcelona trio that helped the Spanish champions squeeze the life out of Newcastle in the second half. Hansi Flick’s side believe they can win the Champions League; Newcastle just need three group stage wins to keep the adventure rolling into 2026.
This is a black and white work in progress. A Sunday afternoon on the South Coast will tell us much about the direction it’s heading in.
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