Newcastle
Eddie Howe speech on Newcastle unexpected signing this summer
If you were to ask any Newcastle fan what their transfer wishlist for this summer looked like, you’d be hard pushed to find any that didn’t include a CB, RW and ST. Thankfully, it’s seemingly also a view shared by the club if reliable sources are to be believed.
The news that Eddie Howe’s loyalty to Callum Wilson may be extended for another year is a point of contention and discussion for another time, but in central defence, German international Malick Thiaw’s arrival will hopefully come through if we can strike a deal with AC Milan following long-term interest.
Amidst numerous links to various wide attackers, the fact the club were prepared to meet Michael Olise’s release clause before he chose Bayern is surely a positive indicator that RW is a position the club are seriously targeting.
However, it’s the midfield that is very much an area of intrigue. An area of the team decimated more than any for most of last last season, is set for a monumental boost in quality with the return of Sandro Tonali, Joelinton and Joe Willock.
In true Newcastle United style, that has been offset by the reluctant departure of Elliot Anderson to satisfy the murky nonsense of PSR, and an injury to Lewis Miley who will be out until late September/early October.
There’s also the ongoing question marks over Sean Longstaff. Brilliant the season we finished 4th, his value to the team in the eyes of most fans seemingly increased with his absence at the start of last season, only for it to spectacularly fall off a cliff again with a string of poor performances whilst playing with pain killing injections. Whatever your opinion on Longstaff, the fact that he only has a year left on his contract with no sign of a new deal imminent, makes his sale this summer make perfect business sense. On a purely footballing level however, even his harshest critics would surely acknowledge that his departure would leave the squad light on numbers, and without a player who scored 8 goals last season, numbers seldom seen from Newcastle midfielders in recent times.
So will the club look to bring in another midfielder this summer? There have been tenuous rumours, but it’s hard to know what to believe as 10 players a day are linked, whilst the club are rightly trying to plug leaks on transfer activity, and are even partial to throwing deliberate Scott McTominay and Nicolo Barella shaped red herrings out there.
It’s clear that Howe’s vision is of a fluid engine room where Bruno and Tonali can interchange the roles of a “6” and an “8”, to use the parlance of our time. Such is their quality on the ball, could they play as a “double pivot” to allow a more advanced AMC? Do Newcastle need a more specialist DMF to give the midfield pool more balance? The are plenty of questions, but also very exciting possibilities.
Certainly our new DOF Paul Mitchell has a track record of bringing in quality in that position, and there is a plethora of it at his old stomping ground of the Red Bull franchise.
Whatever happens, let’s remember we have quality people in key positions at the football club now, and there’s a plenty to be optimistic about.
HTL!
