If six months ago Newcastle United fans were told that the centre of the park is not a priority going into the summer, they would have laughed the person making that claim out of the room. Yet heading into the summer transfer window of 2022, the Magpies’ priorities have shifted.
Newcastle fans have awoken to find their club linked with Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse and Sporting’s Matheus Nunes. Both are talented players, who United’s scouting department at one time or another has cast an eye over but playing in a position which currently at Newcastle is oversubscribed.
It’s no secret that under Mike Ashley both Rafa Benitez and then Steve Bruce were keen to improve the club’s central midfield options. Benitez was keen on Tom Cairney, while Bruce liked Matheus Pereira and came close to signing Boubakary Soumaré, now of Leicester City, before the midfielder turned the move down. A mixture of a lack of a proper spending budget, and the club’s inability to sell a vision based on solely surviving every season, meant the lack of quality in the midfielder was never truly solved under the previous owner.
There were loan deals - Joe Willock proving successful but former Spurs man Nabil Bentelab failing in equal measure to offer the upgrade needed. The likes of Ki Sung-yueng, who signed on a free, defined the issue with the Ashley era - a lack of drive to really improve the squad.
It was perhaps no surprise when Newcastle’s now-owners moved to bring a quality midfielder in the January - Bruno Guimaraes arriving for £40m. He was the midfielder previous managers courted but could only dream of signing.
His arrival though stood for more than just a flashy signing - it stood for owners looking at the issues within the playing squad, and actively looking to solve them. Being proactive, rather than reactive.
Yet if Guimaraes’ arrival coincided with Willock, Shelvey and Joelinton stepping up a level, their form keeping Guimaraes out of the starting XI until six weeks after his arrival. With Sean Longstaff also impressing towards the end of the last season and signing a new deal, Toon coach Eddie Howe has an abundance of options in the centre of the park.
The step-up of the midfield department is a testament to Howe and his coaching staff as well as the players to rise to the challenge but also shows the importance of a club with an ambition to do more than just survive. That very fact acts as motivation for these players to indeed improve and do enough to stick around for the journey ahead.
With the belief that the club have money to spend, comes the constant stream of reports. In May alone there were 54 names linked to Newcastle, yet very few come with any substance.
The club have their plan and have done for many months - even with Newcastle in the early part of the year looking likely to be playing Championship football. Things of course worked out for the best and United survived comfortably which in turn provides a clean slate going into the window.
The arrival of Dan Ashworth as Sporting Director will accelerate things but given the success of January, trust remains in Chief Scout Steve Nickson to spot the talent and alongside Howe to bring in the players to improve the side. Now that's not to say if the right midfield option came along, Newcastle would not move if all the pieces fit but the chase for Sven Botman and Hugo Ekitike highlights where the true priority lies.
For Newcastle fans, the constant stream of links is something they will still be getting used to. It will, if it hasn’t already, become tiresome. The only difference this time is that the lack of arrivals of what will be several hundred linked won’t be because of a lack of investment in the team but instead due to a meticulous plan to bring in the right player for the club.
