Emotional Eddie Howe opens up on Newcastle struggles and worst transfer window ever
Ask any Newcastle United fan about last summer's transfer business, and it doesn't really matter what side of the Eddie Howe debate they fall on; they're likely to agree that the window was far from a success.
You'll get varying degrees of negativity, sure, ranging from "Well, it could have been better" to "Sack everyone who ever looked in the direction of St James' Park that summer".
Newcastle spent £250 million, and it feels that they have taken a backwards step this season after doing so. Granted, we lost a few players over the summer, too, and crucially, we lost our biggest goal threat, but it's not like we didn't replace him. Or at least try to, anyway.
It's a tough pill to swallow given the money spent and the return on investment received, with only Malick Thiaw really hitting the ground running and staying consistent this season, and even he has provided the odd costly error.
Newcastle's summer panic buys up front are the real problem, though, and it seems like Eddie Howe is done pretending that Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade are who he envisioned playing up front for the Magpies this season, given that Woltemade is now being deployed as a midfielder and Wissa is a bench warmer.
Eddie Howe opens up on awful summer
A frustrated Eddie Howe spoke about the summer transfer window after the Sunderland defeat on Sunday, and once again hit out at the financial restrictions placed on clubs and how it makes it difficult to catch the legacy clubs.
Looking frankly drained and slightly emotional in his post-match presser, Howe opened up on what was "the hardest window he's ever had" as a manager and the challenges Newcastle are facing to move forward as a club in the midst of a PSR era that's proving so difficult to navigate through.
"We don't have the revenue of other clubs… the rules have made it very difficult." 👀
"I don't know a team that wouldn't suffer from that." 😳
"Losing Alex [Isak] last summer was a considerable blow." 😓
Pressure mounts on Eddie Howe after defeat in the Tyne-Wear derby 😬 pic.twitter.com/lrhAyiB5Vl
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"Yevery transfer window is so so important. Unfortunately for us, we've had some difficult windows. Five of the last six we haven't been able to recruit in. The last summer was tough to say the least. That was the hardest transfer window I've ever had."So, of course, we don't want to lose momentum in any way. We want to continue to bring the best players to the football club if we can, and we desperately don't want to lose our best players. That combination is so important, but it does get harder and harder and more challenging for us, because we don't have the revenues of the other clubs."I think the rules have made it very difficult for that momentum to go with the speed that it initially did. I don't know a way that we can beat that system. We have to follow the rules that are set. The club desperately want to be ambitious, but there's there's a limit to what we can spend, and that has a knock-on effect in everything that we do and the decisions that we've made previously."As I say, to not recruit for that many windows, I don't know a team that wouldn't suffer from that, and we certainly have. And then losing Alex (Isak) last summer was a considerable blow. But again, we just can't feel sorry for ourselves, and we can't use excuses."We have to find a way to be successful despite all of these things. But with that, I think there has to be an understanding of the tough conditions that we're working in."
