Newcastle United squad limitations laid bare | OneFootball

I have been looking at the Newcastle United.

Looking at the options as we go into these last three months of the 2024/25 season.

Sometimes you need a bit of a reality check.

Just what Eddie Howe and this Newcastle United squad are up against.

Especially when it comes to the financial side of things and the ever present PSR that have to be taken into account.

Eddie Howe said after the January transfer window closed, that he was happy with the quality of his Newcastle United squad, but also admitted that numerically NUFC were at a disadvantage compared to Premier League rivals.

On 7 February 2025, we got the official announcement (see below) detailing what the senior 25 man Newcastle United squad was for the rest of this 2024/25 Premier League season, as well as those players who still qualify as Under 21s, extra to the 25 man senior squad.

Breaking down that 25 man Newcastle United senior squad to take us to the end of this 2024/25 Premier League season:

Goalkeepers

Dubravka, Gillespie, Pope, Ruddy, Vlachodimos

Defenders

Botman, Burn, Krafth, Lascelles, Lewis, Livramento, Schar, Targett, Trippier

Midfielders

Joelinton, Guimaraes, Longstaff, Tonali, Willock

Wingers

Barnes, Gordon, Murphy

Strikers

Isak, Wilson

A few things worth pointing out.

For starters, Eddie Howe couldn’t name a 25 man senior Newcastle United squad for the rest of the season, there were only 24 on the official list.

The 24 included Jamal Lewis, who is injured and won’t play again this season before his contract then concludes at the end of the season.

The 24 names also including Jamaal Lascelles, who has now been out injured almost a full year and if he does come back in time to play any part this season, it will be very late on,

Then when you also factor in that five of the 24 are goalkeepers, you are getting a very good idea of the numbers Eddie Howe has effectively got to work with.

In reality, only a maximum of 17 senior outfield players (excluding Lewis, Lascelles and the five keepers).

Supplementing the senior Newcastle United squad, you also have Under 21 players, with Lewis Hall, Lewis Miley and Will Osula the stand outs.

With Newcastle United hitting busy periods and intense runs of key matches in three competitions, this is some juggling act for Eddie Howe to successfully navigate.

The United boss having had to accept the last three transfer windows with no first eleven contenders brought in, whilst at the same time seeing the likes of Elliot Anderson, Yankuba Minteh, Miggy Almiron and Lloyd Kelly (into NUFC and then out only seven months later).

Having to work with such a small Newcastle United squad, the Head Coach has been exceptional.

For those who might say why didn’t Eddie Howe and Newcastle United bring in three first team outfield contenders instead of three of the five goalkeepers. The fact is that Gillespie and Ruddy will be on relatively very low wages and are reportedly employed more as behind the scenes help to Eddie Howe, rather than as serious first team contenders. Whilst as for Vlachodimos, it is no secret that the overwhelming reason he was signed, was that for Newcastle United to get £35m for Anderson to solve their immediate PSR crisis, they needed to take somebody from Forest so they could do the same, to a lesser degree.

After Eddie Howe and the new Newcastle United owners had to come in and save the club from relegation mid-season and then build a competitive team on top of that, that then led to the severe PSR situation that has had to be endured, three windows where it wasn’t possible to move forward in terms of progressing the Newcastle United squad.

To juggle immediate needs AND those in the future, is not easy.

Eddie Howe has been excellent and the good news is that once we get this financial year out of the way and July 2025 arrives, the finances and PSR position will be far healthier. Newcastle United and Eddie Howe will at last once again be able to have a proper go at further improving the NUFC first eleven AND the Newcastle United squad as a whole.

25 Squad players (*Home grown) 1 Apolinario De Lira, Joelinton Cassio 2 Barnes, Harvey Lewis* 3 Botman, Sven Adriaan 4 Burn, Daniel Johnson* 5 Dubravka, Martin 6 Gillespie, Mark Joseph* 7 Gordon, Anthony Michael* 8 Guimaraes Rodriguez Moura, Bruno 9 Isak, Alexander 10 Kraft, Emil Henry Kristoffer 11 Lascelles, Jamaal* 12 Lewis, Jamal* 13 Livramento, Valentino* 14 Longstaff, Sean David* 15 Murphy, Jacob Kai* 16 Pope, Nicholas David* 17 Ruddy, John Thomas Gordon* 18 Schar, Fabian Lukas 19 Targett, Matthew Robert* 20 Tonali, Sandro 21 Trippier, Kieran John* 22 Vlachodimos, Odisseas 23 Willock, Joseph George* 24 Wilson, Callum Eddie Graham*

U21 players (Contract and Scholars) 1 Anderson, Will Robert 2 Bailey, Scott Patrick 3 Bloomer, Guy Thomas 4 Brayson, Joe 5 Bryant, Thomas Jon 6 Charlton, Dylan Harry 7 Cogdon, Jude Anthony 8 Craggs, Luke Steven 9 Donaldson, Josh Kevin 10 Durrant, Jake Thomas 11 Emerson, Johnny William 12 Epia, Aaron Ovie 13 Finneran, Rory James 14 Fitzgerald, Kyle Wesley 15 Hall, Lewis 16 Harper, Fraser Harrison 17 Harris, Aidan Francis 18 Harrison, Adam Alan 19 Harrison, Alfie JJ 20 Heffernan, Cathal Sean 21 Hernes, Travis Enrique 22 Huntley, James Alan 23 Johnson, Henry William 24 Jones, Tyler Stuart 25 Kuol, Garang 26 Lucas, Kayden 27 McArthur, Charlie Walter 28 Miley, Lewis 29 Munda, Anthony Junior 30 Murphy, Alex 31 Neave, Sean Thomas 32 O’Donovan, Alexander John 33 Osula, William Idamudia Daugaard 34 Palmer, Darren Joseph Zabid 35 Parkinson, Ben 36 Pivas, Miodrag 37 Powell, Harry Llewelyn 38 Powell, Rory Dalgleish 39 Rodrigues Ferreira, Matheos 40 Sanusi, Trevan Farooq 41 Sedibeh Sidibeh, Muhamadou 42 Shahar, Leo Oren 43 Stanton, Ellis Christopher 44 Taylor, James David 45 Taylor, Matthew David 46 Thompson, Ciaran James 47 Thompson, Max Anthony 48 Tika-Lemba, Ezra Gabriel Mekhi 49 Turner-Cooke, Jay 50 Waddani, Mohammed 51 Watts, Logan Mathew 52 Wooster, Kacey Robert Mikie 53 Yildiz, Baran