Newcastle United to add significant quality to playing squad – A busy summer ahead | OneFootball

Sunday saw Newcastle United seal their return to the Champions League.

Despite the disappointing performance and result on the day, Newcastle have shown themselves capable of challenging with the Premier Leagues’ best.

There have been a growing number of voices in the media, ranging from the Newcastle United focused George Caulkin of The Athletic, to more neutral opinion on the BBC, suggesting that Newcastle may be capable of mounting a serious challenge for the Premier League next season.

I wholeheartedly agree with this opinion, as Newcastle United were second only to Liverpool in their league performance over the back end of the season and, alongside the red half of Merseyside, we have silverware to show for our efforts too.

However, I think it is clear from our experiences from the 2023/24 season that we will need to add significant quality to the squad to be able to compete effectively on multiple fronts and, because of this, our activity in the summer transfer window will be critical to our efforts next season.

The club invested heavily in the squad over the first several transfer windows. It was a necessary outlay as the squad had stagnated following years of under-investment from Mike Ashley.

The past few windows have been a different story.

Shackled by PSR, Newcastle United have not made a significant new addition to the squad since 2023 and have been forced to sell some of our top prospects. Consensus is that this caution in the market will pay dividends this summer with the initial outlay from the PIF coming off the PSR calculations and upwards of £100 million available to strengthen the squad.

Despite the season only just concluding, it feels like the transfer rumour mill has been in full swing for months now. To try and make sense of all the rumours (there are a lot) I’ve decided to do a full breakdown of the Newcastle United squad, the areas I think we need to strengthen (and potentially what Eddie Howe will consider), and then use some of the rumoured transfer targets (plus a few of my own suggestions) to fill these gaps.

The sheer volume of rumours that have been flying around feels completely overwhelming, so I’ve put a couple of rules in place to focus the conversation.

The first is that I’ve tried to keep targets close to each other in terms of current valuation. An example is that we have seen lots of links to Bryan Mbeumo. There’s been noise out of Brentford that they value him between £50 and £60 million. I’m sure Newcastle will try and negotiate any deal they may make but I have avoided including any players above this valuation, as it seems like this is the going rate for a proven Premier League player in this position.

The second is that I have only included players with Premier League experience, with two exceptions, both of whom have Champions League pedigree. Given that at least half of of our biggest stars have come to the club from European leagues with no Premier League experience, it may feel a little restrictive and unrealistic. However, I get the impression from the transfer rumours that we are operating in spheres where we can afford to take one or two less risks and maybe pay a premium for proven quality. If the Premier League options do prove too costly, I suspect you’ll see more names like Malick Thiaw and Takefusa Kubo thrown up over the summer, both of whom would be welcome additions.

What we’ll probably see is a mix of proven Premier League talent and exciting European recruits, but for now at least, I’ll stick with what we know best.

This is going to be a relatively in-depth look, so I’m going to split this into two different articles, the first will focus on our existing squad, the likely departures and the areas of need.

The Current Squad

Eddie Howe was quick to agree with the sentiment that our squad would need improving to be able to cope with the rigours of European football next season in his Friday press conference. Our experiences from last season showed that while we are capable of competing with Europe’s elite, the toll of doing so means we need the ability to rotate. Several members of the current squad will likely no longer be with us next season. Older players like Wilson and Tippier may move on, while players on the fringes currently, such as Sean Longstaff, may also seek new challenges.

I’ve laid out our senior squad below with players arranged where they roughly fit into Eddie Howe’s preferred 4-3-3 system. Players highlighted in yellow are those who have seen links with moves away from the club who I would consider a potential candidate to move on. It is important to say here that I don’t think all of these players will leave. In fact, you may see less than half of them move on, but for the purpose of this discussion I will look at the arguments as to why each could depart. I’ve also popped the status of each member of the squad when considering UEFAs squad rules for the champions league as this will be an important factor in the discussions.

For those unfamiliar with the squad rules for the Champions League, a club is permitted to select up to 25 players for the group stage and can amend that list moving into the knockout stage. Of that 25 player list, four spaces are reserved for players who were “trained at the club”, with an additional 4 spaces for players “trained within the national association.” The key difference between these two categories is that “trained at club players” must be on the books of a club for three years before they turn 21. In our current squad, only Sean Longstaff would fit into this category. Lewis Miley would not be considered for this designation as he falls into what is known as “list B”. These are young players who turn 21 in the year in which the competition begins and have been eligible to represent the club for at least two years. Lewis Hall should also fall into this category next season. A club can use as many “list B” players as they wish and do not need to include them in the 25 man squad.

Nick Pope, Martin Dubravka and Odysseas Vlachodimos

I’m going to talk about the goalkeepers as a collective, rather than individually.

It is clear to most that while Pope and Dubravka are both excellent goalkeepers, they do possess shortcomings in their game which mean they are “upgradable”, in my opinion.

I have written about the need to move on from the pair on more than one occasion. It would also seem, from the continual links to keepers both in the UK and across Europe, that the club feel this way too.

I would expect two of this group of three keepers to depart over the summer to make room for one or even two new arrivals (more on those later). I think it is most likely that Nick Pope will remain to compete with whoever comes in over the summer but, if the right deal were presented for Pope, it is not inconceivable that Dubravka could stay on. I do think it is very unlikely that Odysseas stays on, given his lack of involvement in even match day squads.

Kieran Trippier

Trippier has been pivotal to our late season run of form. Since coming back into the team in March his performances have been the best they have been since the beginning of last season. Given everything he has done for the club since his arrival, I would definitely look to keep him at the club until the expiry of his contract in 2026. However, if he chose to leave, I don’t think anyone would begrudge him a move.

Matt Targett

Targett was a big success when he initially joined the club on loan and nearly everyone I spoke to was happy to see that loan made permanent back in 2022.

Unfortunately, Targett has suffered terribly with injury since making that transfer and when he has been available, he has found other in-form players blocking his way back into contention. He’s not likely to be any closer to first team contention next season so would be a prime candidate for a move but, I’m not sure how likely a suitable offer would be and if Trippier departs it may also complicate things.

Jamal Lascelles

He has one year left on his contract and despite not playing this season due to a long recovery from an ACL injury last year, he remains an important part of the club’s leadership group.

It is not inconceivable that one of the promoted clubs may enquire about his availability and the strength of any offer may well tempt Newcastle United to cash in. However, I would be surprised if any offer were entertained as the fees aren’t likely to be significant and Lascelles will help provide stability behind the scenes, even if he may struggle to get game time. For my money he has been one of the best captains I have seen at the club and I’d love to see him on the pitch again. The only wrinkle here would be if he asks for a move to play more football as he approaches the end of his career.

Sean Longstaff

North Tyneside’s finest has been a key part of the Newcastle United squad for over half a decade now. Despite some limitations to his game, his intelligence off the ball and his tireless work rate has been an important part of the club’s resurgence since the takeover.

His status as our only trained at club player does give him unique value as the club returns to Europe’s top table.

However, he has been relegated to a fringe role this season and it is his status as a trained at club player that means he also holds unique value from a PSR perspective. If the club receive a sensible offer for a player in his peak years, I think it would be hard to turn down.

Joe Willock

Joe Willock has been desperately unlucky with injuries over the past two years. Although he’s not had a major setback this season, he has picked up minor knocks just as an opportunity to try and get a run in the staring line-up has presented itself. What has resulted is a season that has underwhelmed in comparison to the standards he set during his early days at the club. I think he is still valued by the club but the peripheral nature of his role this season means that any significant offer we may receive for him would certainly be considered.

Callum Wilson

The numbers don’t lie, Callum Wilson has been one of our best strikers in the Premier League era. Signed at one of the lowest points in our recent club history he has consistently bagged goals at a rate of nearly one in two until this season.

Unfortunately, Callum’s well documented injury issues seem to have taken their toll on our number 9. He has been consigned to a back-up role with Alex Isak becoming a genuine world class superstar, but despite being largely fit during the back end of the season, he looks to have lost the edge he always carried when in his prime. Reports on Monday claim that the club has declined to exercise a year’s extension in his contract but that they are likely to offer him an incentive-based deal. If that proves to be correct, it will remain to be seen whether he decides to take that deal, or maybe move on to try and claim a starting role elsewhere.

Those are the players who I feel are most likely to be departures this summer. As I mentioned at the start of this conversation, I don’t think we will see all of these players move on. If we were to sell Willock for example, I doubt we would also see Sean Longstaff depart, and vice versa.

Using these potential departures as an indicator of where our transfer priorities lie, I’ve come up with another table to rank the need for an incoming player in a position and the players we have in those roles that may be moved on.

Incoming priorities

I think most fans would agree that our biggest transfer need is some additional quality on the right wing. Jacob Murphy’s stellar season has maybe broadened our list of targets as he has proven himself a more than capable operator in Eddie Howe’s system but, our strength in depth here is severely lacking, so this goes in as priority number one.

Next up is a new centre back, which given our public pursuit of Marc Guehi last summer, shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. With the exception of Sven Botman, all of our current group of central defenders are the wrong side of 30 and with Lascelles yet to prove himself again following a serious injury, new blood is essential.

The number three priority is further depth at centre forward.

Alexander Isak is the clear number one and as such it may be difficult to recruit top talent for this position but there are targets out there who can provide cover from other positions.

Next would be to freshen up our goalkeeping ranks to try and not only provide top competition for the role but also to try and bring in a more comfortable ball playing goalkeeper.

Finally, replacing any departing full-backs and central midfielders is essential to maintain a healthy level of depth and balance within the squad.

The players highlighted orange in the table above,  are the ones I think we are likely to see move on. There are four players here and in an ideal world I wouldn’t want to lose Kieran Trippier, but I just feel that given his personal circumstances, he is a more likely departure than Matt Targett. I also think Callum Wilson will move on if he is offered a better deal elsewhere but, if he does stay, he’s likely to be third choice behind Will Osula next season.

(Part two of this article will go on to examine the potential recruits and how that will impact or squad for the Champions League in the 25/26 season, so please keep an eye out for that in the coming days.)