Newcastle will not allow their best players to leave if they miss out on the Champions League this season, sending a clear and robust message to rival clubs, intermediaries and their own dressing-room.
After a run of three defeats in four Premier League games, Eddie Howe’s side have fallen out of the top five places that will qualify for Europe’s top competition.
This has given rise to fresh talk in football circles of interest in the likes of Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes.
However, because the club will enter the summer in a strong position from a PSR perspective and have all of their most valuable players on long-term contracts, there is no appetite or need to let any of them leave, should they ask to do so.
Rather, it is the wish and intention of the club to keep the bulk of the squad together and add to it before next season, regardless of whether they are playing European football.
For any players who have an ambition to play in the Champions League, the message is clear - you’ll have to earn it here.
The club’s hierarchy have been left frustrated by a drop-off in performance during recent league defeats by Bournemouth, Fulham and Manchester City, especially when the same players produced a herculean effort over two legs of their Carabao Cup semi-final versus Arsenal, resulting in a 4-0 aggregate victory.
Howe will no doubt let his players know that anyone with one eye on the final against Liverpool on March 16 risks losing their place in the team.
With Callum Wilson and Harvey Barnes returning to fitness and Sven Botman and Joelinton due back in the coming weeks, Howe will likely have more options than he currently has come the Wembley date.
In the meantime, there are four league games that will go a long way to determining whether Newcastle can recover their top-five position, which they sit two places and two points beyond.
Securing a Champions League return would go a long way to placating those stars who Howe admits were ‘unsettled’ by goings on at the club last summer, when young talents such as Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh were sold to satisfy a PSR deficit.
Popular co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi left the club amid a boardroom power struggle.
Now, after three transfer windows without a first-team signing and several exits weakening the squad, as well as no tangible progress in three years of Saudi ownership on a new stadium or training ground, questions continue to be asked in the dressing-room over the direction of the club and its speed of travel.
But with announcements due on those off-field projects and the club having endured what Howe calls ‘short-term pain for long-term gain’ with regards their transfer activity, there is an anticipation that this summer will signal a period of renewed ambition.
That is why the club will resist any attempt to sign their top stars and will let it be known they expect them to be part of an effort to qualify once more for the Champions League, be that this season or beyond.
