High winds hit the north-east on Thursday night but, once their intensity abated, it became clear they had brought minimal change to Newcastle United.
Despite considerable noise about potential transfers, a head count of Eddie Howe’s first-team squad on Friday morning indicated that next to nothing had happened during the January transfer window.
Regardless of the vast wealth of Newcastle’s Saudi Arabian owners, the club’s commercial revenues have yet to catch up with their new shopping habits. This disconnect dictates that, after investing more than £400m in players since taking over at St James’ Park in October 2021, the Saudis have reached the spending ceiling permitted by the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR).
As much as Howe craved a midfielder, any incoming would have had to be balanced by an outgoing. When Bayern Munich offered about £14m for his 33-year-old, £5m-a-year England right-back Kieran Trippier, Newcastle’s manager advised his board to stick rather than twist and accepted the resultant impasse.
Although right-back is one position where Howe possesses a high-calibre replacement – Tino Livramento – Trippier frequently remains Newcastle’s best, most creative, player. Regardless of his pre-Christmas dip in form, the former Atlético Madrid full-back also provides invaluable on- and off-field leadership and was, ultimately, regarded as near indispensable.
Yet with Sandro Tonali suspended until late August after contravening Italian betting regulations, Joelinton sidelined until May after thigh surgery, Joe Willock about a month away from returning from serious achilles trouble and Elliot Anderson’s back problem keeping him in the treatment room, the midfield remains understaffed.
At 17, the highly promising, uncannily mature Lewis Miley is still growing and should not be asked to play Premier League football week in week out. Yet with no suitable alternatives, that is precisely what Howe demands.
“I don’t really want to be in the position where I have to pick Lewey for every game,” said Newcastle’s manager recently. “With his age I’ve got to be careful about how high a load I expose him to. That’s always in the back of my mind.”
Even so, Miley is expected to start at home to Luton on Saturday as Newcastle aim to build on Tuesday’s restorative 3-1 win at Aston Villa and banish memories of a debilitating run of six defeats in the preceding seven league fixtures.
If another Champions League qualification, realistically, looks beyond Howe’s team, the Europa League – and perhaps even an FA Cup triumph – remain within reach for a group of players likely to be largely disbanded this summer. Much may hinge on whether Alexander Isak and Callum Wilson, Newcastle’s sole two central strikers, can remain fit. Both are injury prone and face fitness tests on Saturday.
Darren Eales, Newcastle’s chief executive, recently made clear that “player churn” would be necessary if the club are to strengthen the squad while avoiding falling foul of PSR.
In other words even the onset of this summer’s £40m-a-season kit sponsorship deal with Adidas may well fail to prevent Newcastle from selling Brazil’s Bruno Guimarães before August ends.
Guimarães, a £35m January buy from Lyon two years ago, has a £100m release clause and, should Real Madrid, Barcelona or Paris Saint-Germain trigger it, a wholesale changing of the St James’ Park guard could suddenly be under way.
Whatever happens, Howe will do everything in his power to retain Isak, along with his star central defender, Sven Botman, but may well be prepared to listen to offers for, among others, Wilson, Joelinton, Miguel Almirón and Jamaal Lascelles.
If not, it will be impossible to fund the recruitment of prospective newcomers such as Milan’s Rafael Leão, Atalanta’s Ederson, Bournemouth’s Dominic Solanke and Everton’s Amadou Onana.
Howe was said to be feeling “under the weather” on Friday when he delegated media duties to his assistant, Jason Tindall. Perhaps significantly, Howe has recently looked badly in need of an infusion of vitamin D, often provided by a midwinter warm weather training break in the Middle East.
A trip to Dubai or Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast in the next couple of months is probable but, when it comes to solving Newcastle’s injury crisis, even the sun’s very real healing powers are limited.
Howe has attempted to address the matter by appointing a new head physiotherapist. Jonny King, who worked with Newcastle’s manager at Bournemouth, has left Leicester to replace Danny Murphy.
Murphy had impressed Dan Ashworth, Newcastle’s sporting director, during a stint working with the England Under-21s but his departure after 15 months at St James’ Park came after an extended period of paternity leave and was announced in low-key fashion early last month.
Even physios trailing CVs as impressive as those possessed by King and Murphy can only do so much to prevent the litany of soft-tissue injuries which have afflicted a Newcastle side clearly exhausted by the autumnal exertions of a Champions League group stage programme allied to their high-energy high-pressing game.
Alarmingly, physical fatigue seemed mirrored by a mental weariness that made Howe’s apparent reluctance to involve the club’s new head of psychology, Dr Ian Mitchell – another Ashworth-inspired appointment – in first-team affairs somewhat puzzling.
With Guimarães possibly craving some Spanish sun, Joelinton demanding higher wages than the Saudis are prepared to pay and Wilson entering his career’s twilight, Howe has little option but to start rebuilding this summer.
Whether he revamps Newcastle’s playing style along the way remains to be seen but, like it or not, a wind of change is heading towards Tyneside.
