· December 5 2024, 21:00
**Reports in the summer would have Newcastle United fans believe that Eddie Howe had stamped his foot down and told Paul Mitchell that he had one job to do in the summer - Bring in Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace.**
There were a lot of rumours around Eddie Howe and Paul Mitchell with both parties have since laughed off in separate interviews.
Obviously, there were going to be teething problems when two strong characters are thrown together to do a high-pressure job to a deadline when they have conflicting ideas and no time to get used to each other's way of working.
That was the biggest issue the pair faced with Mitchell arriving at the club mid-transfer window.
Paul Mitchell joined in the middle of a transfer window which complicated matters
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By the time Mitchell joined the staff, Newcastle had already had feelers out for several players with a focus on bringing in a right-sided centre-back. Malick Thiaw had been reported as being a deal that was almost done before the narrative suddenly shifted to Marc Guehi at Crystal Palace.
Then the rumours started to swirl that Eddie Howe wanted Guehi and only Guehi and that's what he'd told Paul Mitchell.
Howe has now addressed those rumours while talking to Simon Jordan in his Up Front podcast.
There was a spot of truth to the rumours
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Howe clarified that the club had looked at other targets and that it came down to Marc Guehi after trying their other options.
> “No, he wasn’t the only target. I think a lot goes on into a summer. You never just have one target. That wouldn’t be right.“We went into the summer with several targets. We tried to sign two or three other players.“We didn’t get them. We ended up, ultimately, towards the end of the window, with one target, and we didn’t get him, so that was it.”
It sounds like there was a speck of truth to the rumour, but only in that Guehi was the last resort and if they didn't bag the England international, then there was nobody else on the list.
Hopefully, now that Mitchell has had time to work on things, that list is a lot more expansive going into the next couple of transfer windows and they won't run out of options so quickly next time.