When those who crave the dopamine fix of a big January transfer complain about Newcastle United’s likely inactivity this month, perhaps they need to be reminded about Lewis Miley.
It sounds crazy to talk about the “second coming” of a 19-year-old but such is the progress of the precocious Miley, his current run in the Newcastle first team comes nearly two years after he first burst onto the scene.
This one – with Wednesday night’s starring role against Leeds United the latest in a string of excellent performances across positions he had barely played before – feels like the realisation of the promise first hinted at in 2023.
It also represents a triumph of long-term thinking at St James’ Park, where big January business is likely to be parked for a second year in succession.
The reason? With profitability and sustainability regulations (PSR) at the forefront of black and white minds, they can ill afford to make themselves vulnerable when it comes to players like Miley.
“Everyone you speak to asks about him. We know there isn’t a team in the Premier League who wouldn’t take him,” was the succinct verdict of one Newcastle insider recently when asked about the teenager.
It is with that in mind that Newcastle, still burned by losing Elliot Anderson on the cheap in the summer of 2024, are proceeding with caution this month.
There is money to spend and a summer move for Anderson remains their recruitment north star, but PSR and Uefa’s squad cost compliance deadline are not going anywhere.
“We know that if we put ourselves in the position where we’re vulnerable to breaching either, it’s someone like Miley who clubs will try and take cheaply,” the source said.
Unfair? Of course it is. These rules are not there to help upwardly mobile clubs like Newcastle build momentum.
Instead they leave them with difficult choices that frustrate and make their continued progress astonishing. Eddie Howe’s side are now sixth in the league.
The thinking was the same last year, when Newcastle needed to make two mid-season sales in Miguel Almiron and Lloyd Kelly to keep themselves under the red line ahead of the summer. Doing that enabled them to extract top whack for Alexander Isak.
This time around there is no need for a January sale. But spending really big puts them at risk.
Which means that developing players and keeping a larger squad motivated and full of players ready to ride to the rescue is key. That is exactly what happened on an exhilarating night at St James’ Park, when Miley’s towering performance in three positions was a brilliant support act to a performance of attacking bedlam.
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Miley started the night at right-back, clearly the target of Leeds overloads that helped Brenden Aaronson enjoy a lot of success in a difficult first half. Having sailed through games against Chelsea and Crystal Palace, this was arguably his toughest test – and it said so much that he grew into the game, adapting to the threat the Leeds man posed.
Shifted to midfield, he made a convincing case to replace the out-of-sorts Sandro Tonali in the deeper role of a three before partnering Sven Botman in a makeshift back four. It speaks for a player with a tremendous football IQ that he did all three without missing a beat in the second half.
He is a towering talent and Newcastle know it. It is why summer talk of a loan move to Crystal Palace was laughed out of the building back then. He has required patience in the meantime but now he is in the team, it will be mightily difficult to remove him.
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