NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 18: Matt Ritchie and Eddie Howe, Manager of Newcastle United, look dejected following the team's defeat in the Premier League match between Newcastle United and Liverpool FC at St. James Park on February 18, 2023 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by George Wood/Getty Images)
It has been a solid Newcastle United transfer window
The case I put forward here will be easier to swallow on the back of Sunday’s win over Spurs.
Yet I have no doubt there will still be many who leap to the comments to tell me to “give your head a wobble” etc.
My view is this: we have had a solid Newcastle United transfer window.
Now I’m not blind to some obvious problems with that statement; not least the fact that Eddie Howe has been clear he wanted more
I am simply trying to see the bigger picture, particularly in regard to these confounded Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) which are designed to halt our progress.
Let me start with the departures.
Despite the stick he has had of late, Darren Eales very openly admitted back in January that there was a good chance stars would need to be sold.
Would I have chosen to lose Yankuba Minteh after the promise he showed on loan? Of course not. Would I have wanted developing talent like Elliott Anderson to walk away? No again.
However, would I have made the same decision if the alternative was to lose Bruno, Isak or Gordon? Yes, every time.
In fact, I would actually add Joelinton and a fit Botman to the above list, and am hopeful Tonali and Livramento will add their names to it in the coming months.
I am simply trying to see the bigger picture, particularly in regard to these confounded Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) which are designed to halt our progress.
Let me start with the departures.
Despite the stick he has had of late, Darren Eales very openly admitted back in January that there was a good chance stars would need to be sold.
Would I have chosen to lose Yankuba Minteh after the promise he showed on loan? Of course not. Would I have wanted developing talent like Elliott Anderson to walk away? No again.
However, would I have made the same decision if the alternative was to lose Bruno, Isak or Gordon? Yes, every time.
In fact, I would actually add Joelinton and a fit Botman to the above list, and am hopeful Tonali and Livramento will add their names to it in the coming months.
Both of them were ahead of Anderson in Howe’s selection order and would have remained so if Anderson was still here.
Almiron is, of course, the other saleable asset many expected to move on and would have preferred over Minteh. Yet whether he remained due to a lack of market interest or player choice, the club cannot force a transfer when it is not there to be forced.
So the sales were, in my opinion, sales we had to make, however disappointing they were and however much we may lament what might have been (particularly around Minteh) in the future.
On to our incomings.
The best place to start is the superb value we have secured (in today’s crazy market, anyway) in getting an established Premier League defender on a Bosman and a promising striker who the management have clearly tracked, for £10m.
Clearly Osula is an unknown quantity to most, but in the context of us keeping our main two strikers, we have clearly strengthened in that department.
We have strengthened in defence too – despite the Marc Guehi saga – effectively swapping out Dummett from our squad to bring in Kelly.
It would have been wonderful if at the outset we had secured that other Bosman target – Adarabiyio from Fulham – and it would have saved us many months of fruitless negotiations over Guehi which only served to increase supporters’ anxiety.
What we do know is Adarabiyio’s decision to go to Chelsea was personal choice, rather than a miss by the Newcastle transfer team, and it was understandable. How many of us would take a new job at the other end of the country if we were offered an alternative in the same city as we work now?
So let us deal with Guehi. Another statement the head-wobbling advocates will flinch at: I am delighted he stayed at Palace.
Not because I disagree that he is a very good player and not because I would not want to see him strengthen our defence.
My view is Palace and Parrish were taking us for mugs. No Premier League club spent the £70-75m on a single player this transfer window that Palace were demanding for him.
While Guehi is a great player, it was an astronomical figure to pay for a defender. His performances have not reached the standard or consistency that van Dijk’s did at Southampton or Maguire’s did at Leicester, to persuade Liverpool and Manchester United to hand over such eyewatering sums.
In fact, had Maguire been fit this summer and played every minute alongside Stones at the Euros, would Guehi have even been on our radar? I would suggest he would have attracted a fee closer to the £30m Fulham paid for his defensive partner Andersen.
