These Newcastle United signings – Why would anybody believe them? | OneFootball

Potential Newcastle United signings are now getting discussed.

The January transfer window having opened today, the first day of 2025.

We all love it of course, talking about the Newcastle United signings that might be made.

Plus of course, the ones that most definitely won’t be coming to St James’ Park…

The Newcastle United takeover of October 2021 saw daft media talk of Mbappe and similar, as now potential Newcastle United signings.

So what have we learned as the reality in these past three years and a bit?

Well, as always, the media will continue to ‘report’ any old nonsense, nothing changes there.

However, a bit of a head scratcher why so many Newcastle United fans remain so clueless.

Amongst the Newcastle United signings I have seen speculated for January 2025, I would like to highlight these two as prime examples.

With both of these ‘possible’ Newcastle United signings, I have seen many NUFC fans seriously debating and reacting to them, especially the second one.

‘According to CaughtOffside, PSG might be open to offers of around €35 million (for Milan Skriniar), Newcastle United are closely monitoring Skriniar’s situation as they look to address uncertainties surrounding Jamaal Lascelles and Fabian Schär. The Magpies see the experienced defender as a smart, budget-friendly option to bolster their backline.’

As for the other one I wanted to highlight, I don’t know which newspaper/website started this one, but basically the story is that Newcastle United are (allegedly!) battling with Tottenham to sign Jack Grealish!

Manchester City paid £100m for Jack Grealish in summer 2021, he has started only 65 of the 133 Premier League games that Man City have played since his signing. In these three and a half seasons, he has scored 11 PL goals, averaging a little under three a season.

Now, I am pretty confident that if a club offered Man City their £100m back, then Pep Guardiola would carry him all the way to his new club.

However, the idea that the new club for Grealish could be Newcastle United, at any price, is beyond laughable.

Yet I have seen Newcastle United fans online, saying how ridiculous it is that Eddie Howe/NUFC want to sign yet another left winger.

Why would anybody give this nonsense house room?

Say Man City would take ‘just’ £40m-£50m for their record signing, why on earth could anybody think for a second that Howe and Newcastle would seriously have any interest in such a signing???

Even if you took a massive leap of faith and believed he could be once again the player that Man City paid £100m to Villa for, the fact is, Jack Grealish turns 30 this year (September).

Also the ‘small’ matter that his wages will be way beyond what any current Newcastle United player gets. How would Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon all feel, if Newcastle signed a squad player to go on the bench, who was earning a massive amount more than any of them?

More to the point, why would Newcastle United be wanting to do this, especially in these pressurised PSR times???

Again, putting reality to one side, in terms of transfer fee and wages on a four or five year contract, you would be talking about a commitment of around £100m on a signing that United would almost certainly not get a penny back on. We aren’t Man U!!!

This Milan Skriniar garbage is just the same, lame sites inventing stories about ‘likely’ Newcastle United signings…

Reading this, ‘The Magpies see the experienced defender as a smart, budget-friendly option to bolster their backline…’, why would any Newcastle fans give it any consideration?

Milan Skriniar ran his Inter Milan contract down, so he could get enormous wages at PSG when signing a five year contract in July 2023. He might be out of favour at PSG but his wages will be way above what any Newcastle player gets and he won’t be accepting any big pay cut at a new club. Plus, he turns 30 in February and would demand a four or five year deal at a new club, so even at a ‘budget-friendly’ €35m (£29m), United would be committing £70m+ on a (very soon to be) 30 year old that they’d never get a penny back on.

Whilst it is as ever, difficult to know which Newcastle United signings will be made.

We have surely by now worked out which Newcastle United signings WON’T be made.

Such as a soon to be 30 year old Jack Grealish who wouldn’t get in the NUFC first eleven and would become easily the top wage earner, upsetting all of our best players!

Apart from the very first January 2022 crisis transfer window when Eddie Howe and the new NUFC owners had to bring in experienced ready to roll instantly, older signings, Newcastle United these next three years and five transfer windows, haven’t paid a transfer fee for a single outfield player over the age of 25.

The club policy is quite clear and obvious.

Indeed, all of the transfer fees paid for outfield players since January 2022, have all been for players aged 23 and under, with the exception of Harvey Barnes, who Newcastle paid £38m for in summer 2023.

A 25 year old Lloyd Kelly arrived as a free agent this past summer, whilst (currently 27) Dominic Calvert-Lewin could well arrive at St James’ Park as a free agent back up striker this coming summer (unless Everton decided to trade at a no-brainer transfer fee price this month).

Those are ‘budget-friendly’ deals in this day and age, as opposed to the laughable Grealish and Skriniar nonsense.

For example, Newcastle United could say decide to trade Kelly this summer instead of keeping him as a squad player and get a very decent transfer fee for him, still in his prime. The same with Calvert-Lewin, who if signed this month or in the summer, would still be in his twenties by the time we got to the summer 2026 window, if trading him on (assuming that is, he does sign for Newcastle!).

Eddie Howe and Newcastle United have had outstanding success, the judgement outstanding in identifying players at a young age, who will both progress in quality on the pitch AND in terms of valuation.

The likes of Bruno, Gordon, Livramento, Tonali, Hall, Botman, Isak…