Newcastle United are set to stick with their ambitious but sensible transfer blueprint for the next three or four windows at least as the club begin phase two of the 2021 takeover.
Just a year ago, there was understandable excitement from supporters after the Saudi-backed takeover went through and mocked up images of Kylian Mbappé in a Newcastle shirt circulated on social media. But since then, sensible building blocks have been laid down by the owners and a £200million spend has unfolded.
The Magpies signed Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood, Dan Burn and Bruno Guimaraes for cash in January before turning Matt Targett's loan deal into a permanent arrangement in the summer. The board felt that without that investment at the start of the year, United's Premier League place was in jeopardy.
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United then filled important places in the team to bring in £34million Sven Botman and £63million Alexander Isak as well as the shrewd signing of £10million goalkeeper Nick Pope. It is understood that Newcastle are calm as they head into the January window of 2023 - especially compared to 2022 when those signings were deemed essential.
Instead, Newcastle will carefully decide what is needed and the club's place in the Premier League will also be factored in. Mbappé's name is in the headlines again in the UK after the Paris St-Germain with Liverpool linked for the £300million star.
Mbappé is unhappy at PSG but his club will not sell to Real Madrid as they look to make life tough for the player's agent. It's the type of scenario that Newcastle are keen to avoid. For a start, United refused to bow to ridiculous agent demands for Hugo Ekitike last summer when seven-figure fees were demanded by his representatives.
And then there is the wage budget at Newcastle - which the Toon board are unwilling to blow wide open just now. Eddie Howe and sporting director Dan Ashworth believe that keeping a relatively level playing field on earnings is key to success.
The top earners aren't pushing beyond £120,000 per week at Newcastle and with stars like Mbappe on around £900,000 per week, Newcastle aren't likely to anywhere close to that for some time.
The key words emerging from Newcastle are "long-term" an "project" as they look to build a sustainable club.
The Toon supremo Yasir Al-Rumayyan said last week: "There is still a long way to go, but each season is a building block towards our objective – to challenge for trophies both domestically and in Europe. Progress won’t always be smooth – but we will always forge ahead. You can rest assured that we are all working very hard to drive the club forward."
It's a policy fans are happy with as top signings still come in and crazy spending like PSG and Man City in their early days of their Middle East takeover is left to others.
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