Newcastle United signings and sales – No need to panic long-term and this is why | OneFootball

Newcastle United signings and ESPECIALLY sales, are at the forefront of the minds of all Newcastle United fans.

Not unusual for any transfer window of course but especially this one.

A 2024 summer transfer window that actually is two in one, two deadlines instead of one.

On Friday 30 August 2024 is of course when this Premier League transfer window actually closes, 61 days from now.

However, the more immediate deadline is today, Sunday 30 June 2024.

This is the day when the accounting period for this year and (2023/24) season ends for Newcastle United and the vast majority of other Premier League clubs. That year then added on to the two previous (2021/22 and 2022/23) seasons to form the latest PSR three-year accounting period, when a PL club can’t have lost more than £105m (although sure some expenditure isn’t included for PSR purposes).

Anyway, enough of the accounting speak, which I am sure you have had quite the fill of in recent days/months/seasons…

I wanted to talk about the bigger picture, the far more positive bigger picture.

In other words, Newcastle United signings and sales – No need to panic long-term and this is why.

All kinds of speculation as to which Newcastle United players might be sold by today’s deadline, to sort out this immediate NUFC problem, and ensure we stay on the right side of PSR for this latest three-year period ending today.

Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon, and Alexander Isak were amongst those speculated but late Saturday brought news that it is Yankuba Minteh (to Brighton) and Elliot Anderson (Forest) who are to be the ones sold today.

Now I have no insider information/knowledge as to whether the club was seriously willing to sell any or all of Bruno, Isak and Gordon, however, the reality (hopefully) appears to be that they haven’t needed to sell the club’s best players. I am very much aware that anything can happen where Newcastle United are concerned after all these years following them, however, my belief is that Minteh and Anderson’s sales appear to have done the job. Plus, as a minimum, this is what I am taking as being the case, for the purposes of this article.

Selling a 19-year-old and 21-year-old (Minteh for £33m according to The Athletic and Elliot Anderson for £35m according to The Mail) who may turn out to be very good players is disappointing, especially when it appears to have been mainly/solely done for this immediate PSR problem the club faced. However, we have to have perspective and look at the bigger picture. Plus, all major clubs will have been more than aware of these two players BUT it isn’t Real Madrid, Man City and so on who are the clubs said to be buying them, it is two clubs who finished in the bottom half of the Premier League last season.

This doesn’t mean it is impossible that Minteh and/or Anderson won’t play for such a club in the future BUT we are dealing with the reality now. A lot of speculation that Liverpool might sign Minteh, yet for a relatively low fee in today’s terms, Liverpool’s new manager who had the Newcastle winger on loan all last season at Feyenoord, doesn’t see Minteh as a £33m bargain who is guaranteed to be a future superstar. Unlike Bruno, Isak, Gordon who already are… superstars.

The real bigger picture

I don’t need to tell any of you, how the club was wrecked after a decade and a half of Mike Ashley.

On and off the pitch, the lack of investment was plain to see, and a club on its knees, a team heading for relegation, and a club’s infrastructure that hadn’t had a penny spent on it unless Ashley had no option but to do so. As is well documented, one of the first jobs for the new Newcastle United owners, was to give St James’ Park a good clean, inside and the outside of SJP.

So bringing Newcastle United up to the standard of a normal Premier League club was enormous, whilst trying to compete with those at the top, a whole other level.

A bit like buying a house and knowing that your first job was to put in new foundations before you can even think about doing something with the actual building sitting on top of those foundations.

To avoid relegation, have the third-best form in the first full half season (second half of the 2021/22 campaign) of all Premier League clubs, finish fourth in 2022/23 with 71 points, then finish with 60 points last (2023/24) season, only eight points off top four, despite the worst injury (and suspension!) record in the club’s history, is astonishing.

However, if you scratch below the surface, Eddie Howe and Newcastle United have made giant strides for both the short AND long-term, when it comes to how they have operated in the transfer market. Which is why I think we should see the Anderson and Minteh sales for what they are, essential short-term pain but a very positive long-term outlook due to the work done so far, since the takeover.

It was never going to be a straight line graph heading ever upwards, once the new Newcastle United owners got the keys off Mike Ashley, there were bound to be a few bumps in the road along the way.

Let me explain then, why overall the outlook is so bright, longer-term, post-bumps in the road…

Newcastle United signings these past three seasons

Trippier, Wood, Willock, Burn, Targett, Pope, Botman, Gordon, Isak, Minteh, Livramento, Barnes, Tonali, Hall, Kelly

Newcastle United signings these past three seasons, digging a little deeper

Eddie Howe took over a nightmare mid-season situation with Newcastle looking set for relegation, so experienced Premier League players were needed to hit the ground running, the likes of Wood, Trippier, Burn and Targett coming in and doing an excellent job.

However, the overall story of these last three years of Newcastle United transfer dealing has overwhelmingly been a case of taking very brave decisions, investing the vast majority of the money on players who have their best years ahead of them.

So the signings made these past three years who are set to still be at the club when the 2024/25 Premier League season kicks off, this will be their ages:

Bruno 26, Willock 24, Isak 24, Gordon 23, Botman 23,  Kelly 25, Livramento 21, Barnes 26, Tonali 24, Hall 19, Burn 32, Trippier 33, Targett 28, Pope 32.

Take the first ten on that list and the average age is only 23.

When you look at many other Premier League clubs, especially say Manchester United, it is a very different tale. The Old Trafford club going down the route of paying out massive amounts of money on transfer fees and wages on experienced (older/old!) name signings, overwhelmingly a short-term strategy in trying and failing to compete with those at the top of the Premier League.

A lot of focus has been on just how poor in terms of quality most Manchester United signings have been, especially compared to the prices paid.

However, just as noteworthy to me, is that whatever the quality of the Man U signings, they have spent fortunes on wages and transfer fees of players who were always going to need replacing very quickly, even if they had been huge success stories… which apart from very rare instances is most definitely NOT the case. Part of this approach is of course that buying older players, their value only goes down (often eventually to £0) as soon as you have bought them.

I honestly think the Manchester United transfer strategy these past three years has been an absolute disaster. Rather than creating a very strong base for moving forward… the exact opposite. Blowing so much cash, generally on older players, now having to start the process all over again.

This is where it is so different for Newcastle United in my opinion.

Including when seeing these short-term forced sales of Minteh and Anderson as part of the growing pains.

I’m not claiming Newcastle United are the finished article in terms of their squad BUT what I do know for sure, some inspirational activity in the transfer market under Eddie Howe, has given NUFC a superb platform of younger players for the years ahead.

The likes of Trippier, Burn and Wood were essential experienced/older and yes, shorter-term signings that were desperately needed to help avoid the instant disaster of relegation after the takeover. As it happens of course, Trippier and Burn proving they had at least a few more years left at the highest level and have been outstanding for NUFC.

My central and key point is this when it comes to the Minteh and Anderson sales.

Newcastle United had to invest heavily in players these early years, as otherwise relegation a real threat, plus absolutely no chance of growth and competing at the top end.

The thing is though, that brave and clever investment in players by Eddie Howe and the club overall, means that a platform has been built and a very high-quality first team (and more) is now in place, that doesn’t need an urgent addition of three or four high-quality players to be added.

As a goalkeeper, Nick Pope is in his prime now at the age of 32, whilst you have Bruno 26, Willock 24, Isak 24, Gordon 23, Botman 23,  Kelly 25, Livramento 21, Barnes 26, Tonali 24, Hall 19 and Miley 18. Then backed up by older/experienced quality other Newcastle players such as Joelinton, Trippier, Burn, Schar, Almiron, Murphy, Longstaff and others.

Now some of these older players may be traded this summer or in other upcoming transfer windows, but in terms of bringing in new high-quality first-team starters, that urgent need of 30 months, two years, one year ago, has been massively diluted.

Eddie Howe and Newcastle United have now worked their way into a position where we have top quality in pretty much every position, maybe only right-wing the remaining position that will ideally see a new first-eleven option needed this summer.

Elsewhere though it is all about building up the squad strength and then when able, as the finances/PSR situation gets better and better, as revenues at the club rise and rise, Newcastle United are then in a position to be shopping at a higher and higher level.

So the bottom line is, if Eddie Howe and Newcastle United can keep this current best eleven intact this summer, plus other excellent squad players, and add a few more on top of Lloyd Kelly and Lewis Hall, then the short-term essential sacrifice of Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson can be put in proper perspective. Very disappointing for the two young players but for the football club, a sad though essential short-term essential, that helps protect the overall long-term potential and growth of Newcastle United.