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Transfer rumours

Yorkie

by Yorkie
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LV

LV

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Posted
2 hours ago, Skeletor said:

 

Newcastle enter transfer window long on bankroll but short on expertise in bid to save Premier League status

 

Eddie Howe’s side need to bring in top players to avoid falling into the Championship, but attracting talent to a relegation battle is not as simple as it seems

Howe, who was not first choice to become Newcastle manager, has five points to show for his first seven matches in charge

 

One win in half a season of Premier League football. Forty-two goals conceded in 19 matches. Second-bottom of the division with as many as three more games played than the five clubs above them in the relegation stramash. Newcastle United’s performance problems are writ large.

 

But then you have the financial might of PIF, the Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund which intends to have accumulated over $1trillion of assets by 2025. Plus a January transfer window where the vast majority of Europe’s football clubs are thirsting for cash. Problems solved?

 

Football isn’t as simple as that.

 

Money is necessary for success in the modern game. As the game’s latest nation-state club is in the process of finding out, it is not sufficient on its own.

Place yourself in the boots of the myriad of footballers Newcastle’s new owners have shortlisted to retain their seat at the Premier League table, a perch that cost the Saudi-led ownership group an initial £305million some three months ago.

 

Newcastle’s new manager, Eddie Howe, has five points to show for his first seven matches in charge. He was not first choice for the position and his last Premier League season ended in relegation.

Newcastle have yet to appoint a director of football, despite interviewing multiple candidates for the role. Their incumbent Head of Recruitment, Steve Nickson, helped build the squad that is currently sinking into the Championship with over £50m of club-record transfer fees misinvested in Miguel Almiron and Joelinton.

 

Newcastle have no chief executive. Their de facto interim CEO, Amanda Staveley, built her reputation on two high-profiles sales of famous English clubs to Middle East royal families. She has no previous experience of running a football club or signing football players.

 

Newcastle’s three-person board, rounded out by PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan and minority investor Jamie Reuben, can muster no more than a handful of years’ experience as football club directors between them.

All of them courtesy of young English property developer Reuben’s 2018 board appointment at lowly Queens’ Park Rangers.

 

“The problem is not money,” says one of Europe’s leading technical directors. “The problem is credibility.

 

“Newcastle need top players immediately or they go down. Players with the quality, tactical skills, and mental skills to help Newcastle fight its way out of the hole the team are in. But the kind of player who can make the difference won’t go to Newcastle now because the people running the project lack football credibility.

Staveley, Newcastle’s de facto interim CEO, has no previous experience of running a football club

 

 

“If Amanda goes to those players with a guy who’s had success in his career the player’s answer is different. Everyone is open to hearing what Newcastle have to say; everyone in football knows the club has money. But after talking to this Newcastle everyone thinks that the club is going to the second division.”

 

Staveley, who holds an open-ended management contract to run Newcastle with her husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi, thinks otherwise. Though a large amount of human capital has already been spent on interviewing potential sports directors, the brief is that an immediate appointment is not essential.

 

Staveley feels that with Howe and Nickson in place - and former Celtic head of football operations Nick Hammond briefly brought in to “sense-check” recruitment strategy - her club has everything in place to sign the players needed this month. Newcastle have a strong list of targets and the finances required to secure them.

 

Brighton and Hove Albion director of football Dan Ashworth has been granted permission to speak to Newcastle and informed his current employers of an offer worth a basic £2m per annum plus lucrative performance-related bonuses. Yet Newcastle sources say that Staveley and PIF would be comfortable waiting until the end of February before formally appointing both a director of football (be that Ashworth or another name) and Lee Charnley’s replacement as chief executive. January signings do not require either.

 

“We have targets we’ve identified between myself, the coaching team and the recruitment team,” said Howe. “And we have a big body of people working on the club’s behalf to try and find a way to strengthen the squad. A lot of detail’s gone into that but you can have the most detailed process in the world, yet if players don’t want to come to your team, or clubs don’t want to sell them, the challenge of January becomes very difficult.”

 

Right back, centre back, central midfield and a striker to complement and cover for the recently re-injured Callum Wilson are priority positions. Staveley has been advised to add four transfers to the two domestic loans Premier League rules allow the club. A huge undertaking in any mid-season window; all the more so for a club effectively being run by a committee of relative football ingenues and an investment fund.

Trippier is keen to leave Atlético Madrid to join Newcastle and is a feasible, if expensive, target for January

 

Kieran Trippier, the England full back who unsuccessfully pushed Atlético Madrid to sell him to Manchester United in the summer, is encouraging Newcastle to buy him out of his contract in Spain. It looks a deal that can be done, albeit at inflated expense.

 

In the centre of defence Lille’s Sven Botman is an astute target, but one who sources close to the player say prefers to wait for a Champions League club. Howe likes James Tarkowski, out of contract at Burnley in the summer, yet extracting a starter from a relegation rival is no simple process.

 

Juventus want to offload Aaron Ramsey’s €7m (£5.9m) net salary and the Wales international needs football in a World Cup year, but he has not completed a full 90 minutes of Serie A or Champions League football since the summer of 2020. Anthony Martial has placed himself on the market; Manchester United want a loan fee plus wages of almost twice that amount covered in full.

Relegation clauses, salary hikes, inflated agents’ fees. Plus that crucial credibility gap. Though there are pitfalls everywhere, Newcastle have consciously elected to enter the market long on bankroll and short on expertise.

 

Might Saudi Arabia look at where the first months of the club’s foggy management structure has taken it and decide to rip everything up and start again? There are voices in Riyadh suggesting it will.

 

One winter window on the Tyne. So much on the line.


This article is absolute pigswill. Who wrote it? Whoever it is has got an agenda. Playing on the consortiums inexperience and Howe’s last job ending in relegation, the bitterness is so transparent. 
 

Doesn’t even make sense either. As if a player cares about the ‘credibility’ of the directors when everyone knows we’re loaded and intend to become a force. 
 

 

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Away Toon

Away Toon

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Newcastle have contacted Arsenal with a proposal to loan unsettled Gabon striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 32, for the rest of the season. (Sunday Mirror)

The Magpies have been quoted more than £50m for Benfica and Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez, 22. (The I)

Newcastle officials are hopeful that a deal for Atletico Madrid and England full-back Kieran Trippier, 31, will be completed in the next few days. (Luke Edwards on Twitter) 

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Dr Jinx

Dr Jinx

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11 minutes ago, Inferior Acuña said:

I reckon Aubemayang would be cracking in the short term tbh. We need someone we knows scores goals at this level, I can't imagine there'd be many options as good.

 

 

 


Wilson out for a month or more. There’s no way they sign a forward who won’t be available until mid February or whenever.

 

Survival might be out of reach by that point. We’re within clawing distance of the others above us, we need wins and need them straight away.

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LRD

LRD

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Questions about PEA's immediate availability and motivation to make it work. Prefer a more permanent solution since Wilson is really all we have and he has his injury issues.

 

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LV

LV

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I don’t think Aubameyang’s heart is in it any more and I’m not sure what would motivate him to perform. Fear he’d be another Michael Owen in the relegation season. 

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Stottie

Stottie

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PEA has been averaging 2.5 shots a game and has 7 xG on the season. He put himself in pole position to score against us but didn't quite react fast enough. He may have only scored four but the numbers suggest he's trying harder than that. I don't know how hard we should push to sign him but I wouldn't write him off as a top player just yet 

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Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted (edited)

Get him in. I see people questioning certain targets’ personas (Umtiti, PEA, etc) but we’ve got pretty much 25 good eggs in the group and are heading down. 
 

These players have achieved more in their little finger than our squad combined. I say take a punt. We’re not going to get the finished, polished article too many times in the predicament we’re in. I know we’ve got to be careful we don’t do what QPR did but if the choices are Clark & Gayle or Umtiti & Aubameyang, I know where I am. 

 

 

Edited by Optimistic Nut

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