You suspect Dan Ashworth would rather keep a low profile at this time of year, but Newcastle United's sporting director was present at the Sports Data Forum earlier this week. Ashworth took part in a virtual discussion at the conference on data in football and made a comment that was all the more striking with the transfer window in full swing.
"Show me a man that's never made a mistake, I'll show you a man who's never made a decision," he said on Monday. "We make decisions all the time. You get some right, some wrong. You have to get more right than wrong, ultimately, if you want to stay in it."
As obvious as it sounds, those words are at the heart of Newcastle's transfer strategy, where every million counts, and Ashworth was speaking after finalising a £55m move for Sandro Tonali in Milan. It is a deal that has those working behind the scenes at Newcastle excited.
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Eddie Howe, after all, predicted that this would be his 'most difficult' window yet as Newcastle boss because there was such a small pool of players who could improve a side that finished in fourth place last season, but the Magpies have found one in Tonali. Such individuals are not only expensive, but in demand, too, yet Newcastle have managed to convince Tonali to leave his boyhood club - and at a decent price, too, for a 23-year-old Italy international with his best years ahead of him.
While Tonali will need to get to grips with the physicality and speed of the Premier League, it is hard to envisage this deal being viewed as one Newcastle got wrong in the years to come. Similarly, it looks like Spurs have pulled off a decent piece of business, themselves, as the Londoners close in on James Maddison.
Maddison was directly involved in 19 goals last season at a relegated side, Leicester City, and since joining the Foxes, the England international ranks third in the Premier League for chances created (347), fourth for shots (389), seventh for big chances created (50), eighth for assists (32) and 19th for goals (43). No wonder Newcastle tried to sign the attacking midfielder last summer.
Newcastle were widely expected to return to the table with a fresh offer 12 months on yet Leicester did not get the bidding war the Foxes would have ideally wanted. Spurs have ultimately had a free run at Maddison, who will undergo a medical on Wednesday ahead of completing a move worth an initial £40m.
Maddison may have only had a year left on his contract but it is worth bearing in mind that Chelsea are demanding £65m for Mason Mount, who has also entered the final 12 months of his contract. West Ham, meanwhile, want more than £100m for Declan Rice, whose deal runs out in 2024, albeit the Hammers have an option to extend the midfielder's contract by another year regardless.
This is the going rate for England internationals now and Newcastle may feel that their funds will go further elsewhere, potentially on an even younger game-changer, having prioritised a move for Tonali first and foremost. In truth, Maddison's wage demands and desire to play down south may have made it a difficult deal to do regardless. Perhaps, it is a combination of both.
Yes, Newcastle overtook Spurs on the field last season but, off it, the Magpies still have a lot of work to do to bridge the gap after years of neglect in the Ashley era. Spurs posted revenues of £444m for the year ending June 30, 2022; Newcastle, in the same period, recorded a figure of £180m. That means Spurs, as a result, can offer higher wages while still complying with Financial Fair Play regulations as Howe alluded to in his final post-match press conference of the campaign last month.
"It's not the transfer fees as such," the Newcastle boss told reporters. "It's the wages and we're not huge payers of wages in the Premier League so the big clubs will all dwarf us in terms of that so that makes it hard to attract the very best players on the market."
Howe has also been keen for Newcastle's wage structure to evolve gradually to maintain harmony in the dressing room. If Newcastle were to absolutely smash it, there would be a queue of key players who could, justifiably, demand parity, having helped the black-and-whites get into the Champions League in the first place.
Newcastle cannot afford that prospect just yet. Newcastle's latest set of accounts also revealed the club's wages-to-turnover ratio was a whopping 96.4%. For context, part-owner Amanda Staveley admitted a previous figure of around 65% was 'probably still too high'.
Yes the coffers have since been boosted by more TV money, increased Premier League merit payments, improved commercial revenues and Champions League funds, but Newcastle are still going to have to be smart traders this summer. Newcastle need to build on the savvy deals struck to offload Jonjo Shelvey and Chris Wood to Nottingham Forest in January, and, somehow, get some decent earners off the books who have barely played in the last 18 months.
There is work to do yet, but it is easy to forget there are still 65 days to go until the transfer window shuts. Newcastle are just getting started.
