A diabolical transfer window for Newcastle will get worse when they miss out on Benjamin Sesko and Yoane Wissa before signing a Liverpool player for £50m.
It is difficult to recall a more disastrous summer from a Premier League club than this effort from Newcastle. But it is easy to imagine it getting worse.
After the final game of the season, Eddie Howe previewed “a big transfer window” for his Magpies. He implored the club to be “dynamic” on targets and “conclude things very, very quickly because good players don’t hang around for long”.
“That’s always been my thought and my message on recruitment because you can have a period where you think you’ve got time, but then you can look around very quickly and realise that that time has elapsed and you have missed opportunities that you won’t get again,” he added.
August is on the horizon and Newcastle have been publicly and specifically turned down in favour of other clubs by Dean Huijsen, Matheus Cunha, Liam Delap, Joao Pedro, Bryan Mbeumo, Hugo Ekitike and James Trafford.
They face a battle to avoid missing out again to the weakest iteration of Manchester United the Premier League has ever seen, while Anthony Elanga was a potentially excellent signing but came neither cheaply nor under the nose of a rival club.
And that is before even considering the avoidable, inevitable mess surrounding the future of Alexander Isak in what was supposed to be a transformational summer.
It certainly felt like a critical juncture, as the frustration at no first-team signings in almost 700 days coalesced with the unmitigated joy of twin successes in winning a first trophy in 70 years and qualifying for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons.
The foundations were in place for Newcastle to build; the overwhelming demand and expectation was that they could capitalise and perhaps even break the glass ceiling above them for good if they made the right decisions.
The reality has been a sustained and chastening two-month window of rejection, infuriating insularity, harsh truths over their transfer pull and a behind-the-scenes shambles which has translated to Newcastle arguably having a worse squad now, less than three weeks before the start of a season in which their numbers will be stretched across four debilitating competitions, than when the window opened.
Yet the spiral really can feasibly go further if these predictions for the rest of their summer prove in any way accurate.
Benjamin Sesko chooses Manchester United
While some scenarios might feel a little outlandish, Newcastle being rejected by a player in a straight shoot-out with a historically bad Manchester United would be painfully familiar.
Howe described “the power and pull of the Champions League” as “a selling point” once Newcastle’s return to the top table was confirmed, but Cunha and Mbeumo preferred the lack of European football on offer at Old Trafford when given the choice.
There are conflicting reports about which club Sesko is leaning towards, but the prospect of another defeat on that front for Newcastle is potentially ruinous having already been forced to move on to their second centre-forward target.
Losing a transfer fight with Liverpool over Ekitike was damaging; being undone yet again by wages and geography against a team which finished 10 places lower and who they have beaten five times in their last six meetings would be embarrassing.
Alexander Isak forces his Liverpool move
There have been no suggestions that Sesko is wanted by Newcastle to play alongside Isak, as was the case with Ekitike.
The Magpies remain adamant that they do not wish to sell Isak – although those public declarations from Howe have softened to a hilarious degree – yet Sesko has been categorised as a replacement rather than a complement to the wonderful striker they just about still own.
It should be noted that Newcastle still hold almost all the cards over Isak. The three years left on his contract will trump any pre-season tour squad omission and agreed personal terms with Liverpool, whose reported belief they can strike a deal at £120m might be shaken once both parties are sat at the negotiating table.
But if there was a sense that Isak had ‘checked out’ towards the end of a season in which his 27 goals delivered a trophy and Champions League qualification, Newcastle might be wary of keeping a player against his will.
Almost no club is above having their best player poached. Liverpool could not compete with the lure of Real Madrid over Trent Alexander-Arnold and their masterful reinvestment of the Philippe Coutinho windfall showed those clubs outside the handful at the top of the football food chain how best to operate.
Of course, Liverpool had the infrastructure behind them to take advantage of their circumstances; Newcastle’s recruitment team consists of the manager’s friends and actual family.
Leave a Reply