At first glance, nothing much seems to be happening at Newcastle. The home dressing room is receiving a very expensive makeover, the players are away on holiday and most fans are more interested in Euro 2024 than the merits of Eddie Howe’s high press.
Behind the scenes, though, this could be one of the most pivotal weeks of the year at St James’ Park. It began on Monday with club executives ending their interest in signing the Everton striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin while stepping up efforts to find a new home for the 19-year-old Gambia winger Yankuba Minteh but could end on an anxious note.
Although there is increasing optimism that neither Arsenal, Manchester City or anyone else will activate the £100m release clause in Bruno Guimarães’s contract before it expires at the end of June, England’s performance against Slovenia on Tuesday night may exert a significant impact on Newcastle.
There is a growing sense this will be Gareth Southgate’s last tournament as England’s manager and more criticism of his tactics could help persuade him that this summer is the right moment to exit. If so, Howe is expected to top the Football Association’s shortlist. Admittedly, England could yet win Euro 2024 and Southgate may want to stay put but Howe could soon be contemplating a once-in-a-lifetime offer.
Granted, all the mood music suggests he is extremely happy at Newcastle. He and his wife enjoy living in Northumberland and their three sons are settled at school in the city but the 46-year-old has also been distinctly coy whenever the subject of managing England has been aired.
“I love England,” he said last month. “I’ve never really thought about international management for me … but who knows what will happen in the future.”
For the moment at least he is fully absorbed in preparing Newcastle to push for Champions League qualification next season. Paradoxically, that effort will be aided if his board can sell Minteh before June ends. Much as Howe would have relished coaching a forward who joined for £6.5m from Odense last summer before impressing enormously during a season’s loan at Feyenoord, he knows that selling him before Monday would help keep the books on the right side of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules.
Sunday marks the end of a three-year PSR accounting period so by moving Minteh to Lyon, the most likely destination for a player hyped as a “new Mo Salah”, in the next few days Newcastle can create invaluable room for transfer-market manoeuvre.
They had hoped to make Minteh as influential as Liverpool’s Egypt forward but have reluctantly decided it is better to sell him now and stay on the right side of PSR rules while keeping the more established Guimarães and Alexander Isak. The former, showcasing his midfield skills with Brazil at the Copa América, and the Sweden striker seem content to stay.
The start of a new PSR accounting cycle and the chance of club executives amortising the purchase of any signings made in July and August across multi-year contract periods mean there will be money to spend. The shopping list includes a partner for Isak – and do not rule out an August revival for the Calvert-Lewin bid should Everton drop their asking price – a right-sided centre-half, a goalkeeper and a right-winger.
The biggest sum is likely to be invested in a winger, with West Ham’s Jarrod Bowen and Leeds’s Crysencio Summerville much admired. With Newcastle’s right-sided forward Miguel Almirón expected to join the goalkeeper Martin Dubravka and centre-forward Callum Wilson in leaving, funds should also be available to pursue the Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford and a centre-half in the mould of Maximilian Kilman.
Howe’s interest in Kilman – also wanted by West Ham – is intriguing. Despite the Wolves captain possessing considerable experience of playing on the right of central defence he is left-footed and has also shone in a back three. It raises the question of whether Howe is considering a shift to 3-5-2
If not, he could end up with four left-footed centre-halves in Kilman, Sven Botman – sidelined until January by a serious knee injury – the newly signed Lloyd Kelly and Dan Burn. Only Switzerland’s Fabian Schär would fly the flag for fit right-footers and that seems an imbalance.
From 27 August Howe will begin to reintegrate Sandro Tonali into a team weakened by the Italy midfielder’s 10-month suspension last season. Can Tonali and Guimarães form an imperious central-midfield partnership or are parts of their games incompatible?
Much as Southgate may rather fancy a job swap involving a return to club management in the north-east, Newcastle would rather Howe was the man endeavouring to find the preferred answer to that particular conundrum.
