For several years now, Newcastle United have invested heavily in domestic talent.
It’s a myth that Eddie Howe only wants ‘Premier League proven players’, as we’ve seen Isak, Thiaw, Woltemade, Tonali, Botman and Bruno all sign and shine.
However, alongside that, there is no doubt that we’ve regularly targeted proven players with prior experience in England, bringing in the likes of Gordon, Burn, Pope, Hall, Livramento and Barnes before spending over £150m on Forest’s Anthony Elanga, Brentord’s Yoane Wissa and Aston Villa’s Jacob Ramsey over the summer.
That is a LOT of money for the return we’ve seen so far, meanwhile Thiaw has been sensational at £34m, while Bruno cost fractionally more when we plucked him from Lyon almost four years ago.
With all of that in mind, it’s very interesting to see what new Sporting Director Ross Wilson has had to say on our recruitment plans moving forward when speaking to the media this week:
“Moving forward, we definitely want to expand our recruitment network. We’ve already done that, to be honest, in my time here.
“We’ve already expanded the recruitment network. We’ll continue to do so as we move forward.
“I think it’s also clear that we feel that it’s highly likely, not always, but highly likely that there’ll be more value outside of the Premier League than there is in it.
“It’s not always the case, but I think it would be a fair assumption to say that’s something we’ll be looking into.”
The final line feels telling and the clearest hint, if not confirmation, that we’re now going to be exploring players in overseas markets, rather than paying inflated Premier League premiums.
With AZ Alkmaar’s Kees Smit heavily linked and Thiaw the latest foreign import that’s been a huge success so far, it makes total sense that we’d shop for overseas gems who arrive with bags of quality – only at a fraction of the price of some Premier League alternatives.
As for expanding our network, hopefully we see more gems arrive from lesser known leagues, with more Yankuba Minteh’s (recruited from Denmark) or Vakhtang Salia’s (signed from the Georgian top flight) one to watch as we shop abroad for project players, not just senior stars.
Wilson also discussed our recruitment over what was a tricky summer to navigate, insisting some of our recent arrivals need more time to show their long-term value to the club:
“You’ve got to judge recruitment with the context of time. This club has been on a really interesting journey, from a relegation battle to a Champions League club, and that requires different things in different moments.
“The club had to navigate a really difficult period in the summer with Paul (Mitchell) moving on. Darren (Eales) had to step away as well at the same time, so that wasn’t easy. But there’s been some excellent acquisitions from that summer period.”
Perhaps a message directed towards Elanga, Ramsey and Wissa, who we’ll be hoping to see come good in 2026 after a slow start to their careers on Tyneside.
