Now we’ve passed the PSR deadline and left June behind, it promises to be a busy July and August for Newcastle, who will have much more room for manoeuvre as we switch the focus from outgoings to incomings.
Today marks a new financial year, which sees doors re-open from a monetary perspective and new commercial deals kick in, with the Champions League cash earned from our fourth-placed finish in 2022/23 also boosting our balance sheets.
After a chaotic weekend of outgoings, which areas will we target and who could now sign after Sunday’s PSR deadline saw us raise £68m from Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson?
Before we get to the three key positions – CB, RW, ST – it’s worth noting that we’ve signed TWO goalkeepers today. Greek international Odysseas Vlachodimos has arrived from Nottingham Forest and could replace Martin Dubravka as back-up to Nick Pope if we don’t revisit deals for James Trafford or Giorgi Mamardashvili. John Ruddy has also signed on a free, with the 37-year-old set to replace Loris Karius as our third-choice option. He’ll rarely play but arrives to add experience in training and depth to Howe’s squad, becoming Newcastle’s version of Scott Carson at Man City, I suspect.
Now for the big moves, we start at right-sided centre-back; a position that’s yet to be filled after free agent Tosin Adarabioyo snubbed St James’ Park for St James’ Park last month. There’s a feeling we’ll now fast-track plans to sign a quality young option who can push Fabian Schar before becoming Sven Botman’s long-term partner, although that has probably impacted the spread of our budget and may explain why we’ve gone down the cut-price goalkeeper route.
Newcastle have reignited their interest in Malick Thiaw; the 22-year-old German who AC Milan might just sell for £30-35m after quoting Toon chiefs considerably more last summer. Other names continually linked include Sporting Lisbon’s Ousmane Diomande, while a player-plus-cash bid was made for Wolves’ Max Kilman the weekend before last.
Up next comes the big one – a new right winger. We need an upgrade on Miguel Almiron – who is in talks to join an unnamed Saudi club – and are under pressure to get this signing right after reluctantly cashing in on Yankuba Minteh. Michael Olise is off the list now he’s heading to Bayern, but there’s plenty of quality options out there. My pick would be Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo, but we’ve also seen links to Pero Neto of Wolves, West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen and Chelsea’s Noni Madueke. Spain’s Nico Williams would be an electric signing, but it feels like he’ll be out of our reach after announcing himself to the world at Euro 2024.
With Callum Wilson out of contract next summer and likely to depart, another striker is also needed, but it won’t be easy to sign a goalscorer happy to (often) play second-fiddle to Alexander Isak. We held talks with Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the final week of June but failed to agree terms and seemed rightfully reluctant to go nowhere near Everton’s £35-40m asking price. I’d personally like to see us look at Tammy Abraham; the lanky Roma forward available on the cheap who is eyeing a return to the Premier League.
Other areas of the squad could require strengthening, too. We’re sorted at left-back – Lewis Hall’s £28m move is now complete, Lloyd Kelly has signed and we also have Dan Burn – but another right-back will be needed if Kieran Trippier is sold. Swedish defender Emil Krafth is also out of contract next summer. We’re generally stacked in midfield when everyone is fit, but Elliot Anderson’s shock move to Nottingham Forest could change things.
Some worrying claims have emerged on Anthony Gordon since Sunday’s deadline passed, with The Telegraph suggesting his ‘head has been turned’ by the prospect of a move to boyhood club Liverpool. Hopefully this doesn’t turn into an unwanted transfer saga, as we could really do without losing our star left-winger and the heartbeat of our attack last season who delivered double figures in goals and assists.
After a chaotic end to June, let’s hope July and August brings exciting signings and a few suitable sales, sending us into the 2024/25 season equipped for another attack at the top four.
Although it’s a small point of your article we won’t be revisiting Giorgi Mamardashvili, he has been the best keeper on display at the Euros and will have attracted interest from lots of big sides.
Also he would only be coming as no1 as he is miles better in all departments than Pope.
David(Quote)
I take it we can only play 1 keeper at a time
PremAndUp(Quote)
Wouldn’t rule out Pope leaving IF we did decide to go big for Mamardashvili. Agree though, seems unlikely now.
Olly Hawkins(Quote)
Nico Williams doesn’t want to leave his club apparently – not even for Barcelona. Besides, he plays Gordon’s position.
Martin(Quote)
Nufc must be a gossiping journalists dream right now and I’d hoped the circus surrounding the club was in the past.
Cue lots of gossip on players departing and i suspect the big news on transfers won’t be incoming, with at least one of the three usual suspects isak, Gordon and guimaraes on their way this summer.
And let’s not forget the small matter of England if as expected Southgate heads off. The FA will have no qualms of approaching Howe and I wonder how he’s feeling after the weekends chaos.
All of that leads to the inevitable question of whether PIF have the appetite for their continued investment in the club the way the business of football is changing. They want the kudos that goes with winning as well as a financial return on their backing not a financial sh1tshow and the team running the club aren’t portraying a good image of being in control
I expect changes in the boardroom and while a DOF is required there’s no sign of what’s next after the lengthy and unsuccessful search for ashworths replacement.
So far we’ve had superficial visible investment outside of the first team. Are we going to see progress on the stadium etc this summer.
Can’t quite decide what’s the keystone change that’ll set the direction and what that direction will be but I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of the circus this summer
Jonesy(Quote)
Olly, not sure if I’m the only one who’s noticed the clumsy attempt at hiding advertisement of online gambling in articles by one of your writers.
It’s a bit crass and I hope is not some thing that’ll continue as it degrades an otherwise useful info source on nufc. The articles are poor anyways so easy to ignore once the authors name is noted
Jonesy(Quote)
We’ve made a massive mistake with the keepers in my opinion.
We’ve had to turn to our back up keepers quite a bit in the last 2 seasons – the cup final & a lot of last season when Pope got injured.
City, Liverpool and Arsenal all have quality back ups – they realise how important it is.
The 2 we’ve just got in – I’m not convinced.
We should have spent the money on Trafford. £20m isn’t a lot of money for a quality young keeper who could compete for that number 1 spot rather than just wait for something to happen to Pope.
Sharpy17(Quote)
The other concern for me is what impact this last week has had.
We might have just avoided a points deduction – but at what cost?!
We’ve offered out our best players to rival clubs to desperately try and avoid being punished – has that dented Gordon’s, Isaks or Bruno’s faith in what we are trying to do at NUFC.
We’ve had maybe 5 transfer windows under the new owners & have hardly spent huge money – in comparison to the likes of City, Man Utd, Chelsea.
I had confidence that we could challenge the top 6 and push hard for those top 4 spots – now the only thing I’m confident of is we will be forced into selling our top players to make ends meet.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I said the same on the article
PremAndUp(Quote)
👍👍 Aaah, nice one and glad it’s not just me.
Jonesy(Quote)
The problem we’ve had re PSR is that for many years we’ve had players on ridiculous contracts that were not good enough for the premier league, but on too high wages to be accepted anywhere else. Also, our youth players were, on the whole, sh.it too, so many had to be just released. So we’ve had nothing to sell to balance the books. As we get better players in that we can then trade with, it will get better but right now we are struggling with these criminally biased and unfair rules that punish any team trying to get better. I hate seeing us sell players like Anderson and Minteh, but sadly, needs must I guess.
Re the goalies, I expect Ruddy is more for coaching and training and will not actually play. He’s 37 after all.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
I suppose that Guler chap isn’t available for our RW
PremAndUp(Quote)
And that Demiral is a RCB 26 yrs old and TM value at £16m
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem 😂 great mind, I was just checking Demiral myself there.
Gurler is RM mate, but a loan deal might be possible like.
Sharpy17(Quote)
My England team for Saturday:
——————- Pickford ———————
—— Walker — Stones — Konsa ——
TTA —————————-————-Saka
——–—Marino ——— Rice —————
—————– Bellingham ——————
———- Kane ——— Watkins ————-
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think Merino plays for Spain, not England 😬
Gilly Toon(Quote)
I think he means My Magoo
PremAndUp(Quote)
Typo Mr Magoo
PremAndUp(Quote)
🤦🏼♂️ should we all just call him Kobi 😂😂
Sharpy17(Quote)
Ah Mainoo. Lol! Ok. I’d have Gordon there too instead of Watkins
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Gilly – I was going to suggest Toney rather than Watkins – but I favour Watkins pace.
I think we need an actual CF on the pitch. Kane is too keen to drop deeper and get involved – that leaves no forward presence – I don’t think Gordon gives us that. I think it has to be Watkins or Toney for me.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I like the NUFC links with Malick Thiaw – he seems to fit the bill for what we’re looking for at RCB. At 22 he’s a good age to learn from Schar and form a partnership with Botman or Kelly.
Raphina is still getting mentioned. He’s a quality player for sure – if we can get him working as more of a team player then he’d be a great addition. Im not entirely convinced but he’s played PL before so has that experience.
Tammy Abraham would be my pick for forward.
If we could get those 3 in – or even 2 of those 3 then I think its a good window.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Crikey – Minteh is our second biggest sale since Andy Carroll.
That’s a stark reminder of why we are in such a financial mess doesn’t it?!.
While other clubs are selling there players for £50m-£100m, our last big sale was 13 years ago.
I’m annoyed with the PL for how they are choking us now – but actually, my annoyance is more the fact they sit back and allowed Ashley to choke us & run our club the way he did.
Where was their fit & proper test then?!.
Their concern is owners destroying clubs by over spending – but why aren’t they concerned about owners destroying clubs by under investing?!.
They are investigating clubs for inflated sponsorship deals – where were they when Ashley plastered SD all over our club without taking proper sponsorship money?!.
The truth is the PL have never done right by NUFC – Saudis or no.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I think Anderson is second or equal first on £35million with Carrol. Minteh is just below that on £33m … but yes, as I said above, we are where we are due to Ashley’s poor or negligent player purchase management. We had no players that anyone wanted and those we had were on ridiculous contracts.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Agree absolutely with everything you say there Sharpy
Gilly Toon(Quote)
I’ve also commented on an article doing this,
When Will Sandro Tonali Return to Action?
The above article by Andy the Magpie is really dirty and demeans the whole site.
Toonali87(Quote)
With Anderson moved on, should we take Shola Shoretire back?! He’s available on a free, only 20 and left our academy for Man Utd.
Could be developed into a decent squad player.
I’m also thinking Thiago on a free. He’s 33 and his injury record wasn’t great at Lpool, but as a squad player on a free, might be worth it – he’s a talented player, just didn’t work out for him at Lpool really.
Sharpy17(Quote)
It’s not a priority position with Tonali back early into the season really – which is why I’m looking at the free transfers.
Sharpy17(Quote)
All of a sudden MF feels risky ( especially) early season.
LMF: Joelinton: sorted. Willock; risky as lengthy injury from which to recover.
Guimaraes: a bit of risk; let’s see if anyone comes in with an offer. Miley: out until October.
Tonali: risky; start late august and rusty. Longstaff: risky; lengthy injury from which to recover
to recover
Wonder if we’ll see anyone moved up from academy??
Jonesy(Quote)
I see we have announced Paul Mitchell as our new DOF. Seems a good call to me.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Gilly – agree mate. Feels like he’s coming in to clean a bit of a mess up after last week – BUT we seem to have our blueprint in place now, so at least he’ll fully know his work frame.
We’re also being linked to a couple of former Chelsea youth coaches who I think would be an excellent addition. When you consider it’s 2 of our young players that have bailed us out financially (accepted Minteh hasn’t been developed through our ranks) – it’s a good reminder where the growth of our will lie.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Well, it looks like a huge change in government in the UK. I think they’re all as bad as each other, but let’s see where the next 5 years take us.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
they are all in it for themselves Gilly
icedog(Quote)
True, the rise of reform worries me though. Farage is a snake oil salesman, a populist like Trump. Dangerous men.
kimtoon(Quote)
The defendant will commit fraud by abuse of position if they: occupied a position in which they were expected to safeguard, or not to act against, the financial interests of another person; abused that position dishonestly;
Fraud by abuse of position – maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
Would explain why they’ve failed to build more prisons – they would be full & Westminster would be empty!!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kim – couldn’t agree more on Farage.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I would say I feel a little for Rishi – and it’s very little. But history will show he was the PM that got battered in the polls – the true is the damage was long done before he ever got near the PM position. I say very little because he was part of it all before he took the top spot – but there were a great many rats jumped ship with pockets full of bullion who history will forget.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Back to NUFC and I see it cost Man Utd £10m to buy our rat.
I suspect us delaying him leave by asking for £20m was always a ploy around raising the money for the PSR deadline.
We knew Man Utd wouldn’t pay £20m, but we didn’t know how much we’d raise from player sales – so once we knew we had £68m I suspect the £10m was enough to get us over the line with a bit extra for wriggle room.
It was smart business by the club, and Mitchell seems a very good replacement – with PL and European experience.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Large swings as we saw in 2019 and then last night don’t seem a stable picture for government which is the most disconcerting part of last night. Irrespective of Tory or labour elitists in power the country benefits from a strong opposition
Jonesy(Quote)
In my opinion the parties as we know them now should have disbanded after Brexit with new parties formed & politicians forming new alliances then.
The issues with the conservatives is that any move on anything is either slowed up or not progressed because of the amount of in party fighting & disagreements. How many politicians have we seen simply walk away from their posts because they were no longer on board with party policy.
I agree with Jonesy – but the problem has been that for the last 3 or 4 years there has been as much opposition from within that Labour have barely needed to put up much of a fight.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I just want my lad to be able to get his epilepsy meds, hoping Labour will try and sort out the drug shortages so many of us face. These are life saving drugs.
kimtoon(Quote)
Agree Kim, I just hope labour sorts and supports the NHS. We will see.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
The Germans are out of their own tournament. First time in history that the host nation has gone out in the quarter final stage. Wow. And Merino, ex toon player, scored the winner.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
So, who’s this M’bappe fella then? I thought he was meant to be a decent footballer … 😂😂😂😖
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Gilly – the Spain game was a good watch, this one really isn’t 💩.
Just thinking – now we have Mitchell as DoF can he get us any Monaco players?!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
This. Gordon talk won’t go away,got a bad feeling about this
Icedog(Quote)
Aye or press trying to unsettle him even more. Lots of Liverpool fans don’t want him either.
kimtoon(Quote)
Total press talk imo.
Sharpy17(Quote)
On Gordon, it’d be odd for nufc to reopen any discussions on selling unless Gordon himself is pushing. We’re unlikely to get much inkling other than press talk prior to mid-late July.
If Gordon does push, it’s questionable if nufc would want him to stay and they’d be in a good position to demand a beneficial trade to develop the squad, which’ll be a good opportunity for Mitchell.
I really enjoyed watching Gordon last season but players come and go .. it’s the club i love
Jonesy(Quote)
Embolo is Switzerlands CF – currently plays for Monaco.
Could Schar & Mitchell connection convince him to move to NUFC as Wilson replacement 🤔
Sharpy17(Quote)
Still Gordon doesn’t get a start for England 😳
Gilly Toon(Quote)
Don’t think England are playing too badly today to be fair – good high press & solid defensively.
If we played a CF we might even score!!
Harry Kane is so poor. He’s not in the box & not anticipating anything.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Get out of jail free!!
Why wait SO long for the subs man?!?!! He’s such a bottle job.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Kane off and either Watkins or Gordon on for the pace on the counter – but he won’t take a penalty taker off coz that’s the faith he has in the team
No different to Portugal with Ronaldo to be faith
Sharpy17(Quote)
So so pleased Saka got MOTM, was a shining star, especially first half. Pens were all taken very well too.
We still need to do better but overall not bad.
kimtoon(Quote)
5 excellent pens to be fair – supreme confidence & a good save by Trex.
We played decent in the first half but 2nc half needed subs sooner imo.
Kane is our Ronaldo. Southgate needs to take him out and plan for life after him.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Watching Holland v Turkey now & hoping Holland win – I’m off the Turkey on Tuesday & I’m not sure I want that semi final 😂😂
Sharpy17(Quote)
🤣I bet you don’t. Have a good break anyway mate.
kimtoon(Quote)
Feel for the Turks here coz they’ve really went for it & have played so well.
Really like Demiral & Yilmaz for the Turks – RCB & RWF – just saying.
BUT – from an England point of view, I REALLY fancy our chances against the Dutch
Sharpy17(Quote)
Well that was an odd one. Stressful watch. We played absolutely sh.it again but still managed to squeeze through on pens. The Netherlands game was amazing. They will thrash us unless Gareth allows them to play.
Gilly Toon(Quote)
From what I’ve seen from the analysis of Mitchell, it may be a little while before we see our first signing of his.
He seems to like doing a full review of all playing staff – we’re more likely to see players moved on before we see players bought.
I suspect he may have challenged some of last years contract extensions, and I don’t imagine we’d have ended up with 5 keepers.
But players like young Murphy, Miley and Harrison will have a better chance of first team football under Mitchell.
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY they are saying Howe is very very unhappy he was not told about him coming into the job ??
icedog(Quote)
And that is the reason the press will be linking him to England job .
kimtoon(Quote)
Ice/Kim – the fact that he was the man that brought Poch in to Saints, then followed him on to Spurs 🤔.
Oh and Poch left Chelsea at the end of the season 🤔🤔.
Oh and Poch desperately wanted Gordon & Isak at Chelsea 🤔🤔🤔.
Oh and for a long time Howe has been touted as the next England manager 🤔🤔🤔🤔.
Nah, I think you guys are reading far too much into things actually 😂😂
Sharpy17(Quote)
Poch would be a disaster, his record is not good.
PremAndUp(Quote)
On England, this has been a pretty underwhelming tournament with several of the so- called favourites unconvincing. Spain are the exception and I’m not sure many had them as a team to watch pre-tournament. I never bought the easier half of the draw perception as there are so many equally uninspiring teams.
I think it’ll be defined by moments as teams struggle to overcome very well organised and cautious opponents. England have a team built for moments.
Jonesy(Quote)
Curious about the statement Howe wasn’t told about Mitchell as that’s a very odd omission from the clubs board and doesn’t seem like good news for Howe. Are you able to offer any more background on what’s going on?
Jonesy(Quote)
Pochettino Did ok at the saints and had spurs going well in spite of levy’s prudence. With the egos at PSG and dysfunction at Chelsea they were tough positions and he did get Chelsea going well last season.
I would put him on par with Howe altho I do think Howe has more to come but disaster feels strong
All of that said nufc does not ‘feel’ very settled and there’s uncertainty to come this close season. I just hope its considered and not reactive
Jonesy(Quote)
I need to make my position on this very clear – I’m not suggesting or saying I want Howe to be replaced by Poch.
I like Howe a lot. I think he got stuff wrong last season at times, but I’m largely happy with the job he did all things taken into consideration.
If we found ourselves needing to replace Howe for whatever reason though – I’d be more than happy with Poch, as I think he’s a very good manager with lots of experience.
He went into a mess at Chelsea with so many changes that it was bound to take him time to settle everything down – but he did & from the 1st Jan to the end of the season I believe only City & Arsenal got more points. He took Chelsea from mid table to above us in the end 🤷🏼♂️.
I want us to continue building with Howe, and hopefully we can recruit the players we need this summer & have a successful season next season.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I said I think Poch would be a disaster. Let me clarify. He would do reasonably well, without achieving anything. I thnk Howe has a higher ceiling, but if Howe were to leave I would want to see an elite manager come in, the way Emery has at Villa. Whilst I’m not sure that Howe can take us to the level we want to be, I know Poch can’t, but he would be with us for a few seasons before we could get rid.
PremAndUp(Quote)
Prem – I know there is a long way to go in the window & the players will make an impact – but how do you see things next season – I mean with Slot, Teg Haag, the new Chelsea lad, Ang at Spurs?
I know it’s very early like – but I’m not sure I see anyone gaining ground on City or Arsenal – who takes the other 2 CL spots though
Sharpy17(Quote)
We have massive chance finishing top 4. Especially with all the manager changes plus villa in champs league. Obvs all depends on who we bring in also like but av got good feeling about this season. Also if howe were ever to leave ad be more than happy with poch
Coutts86(Quote)
I think if we want to get top 4 we have to get more goals from midfield & we need a quality RWF who will put up the kind of numbers Gordon did last season.
I think we needed to have better back up for Pope – and I’m not sure we’ve done that.
I think we need better back up for Isak – and that’s one we have to get right coz Wilson has got us a lot of goals to be fair.
Sharpy17(Quote)
SHARPY enjoy your hols mate
icedog(Quote)
Ice – can’t wait mate, been a **** year so far so hoping for just a right chill out 🤞🏼. Thanks mate, appreciate it 👍🏼
Kim – sorry I know you wished me a good break as well, forgot to reply 👍🏼
Sharpy17(Quote)