Newcastle United sporting director Paul Mitchell is taking inspiration from the approach of Premier League leaders Liverpool.
As the January transfer window fast approaches, Newcastle’s new and (hopefully) improved transfer strategy is becoming more apparent.
It will be Mitchell’s first winter in the role with Toon following the finalisation of the departure of Dan Ashworth, and the model of Liverpool is said to appease the former Monaco director.
Newcastle found themselves wrapped up in a PSR nightmare in the summer that forced their hand into selling Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson, who continue to prove their value at Brighton and Nottingham Forest respectively.
Our inability to shift on players on the outskirts of Howe’s starting 11 saw us end up in a position where two players considered as potential long-term first team players were forced out of the exit door – something Mitchell hopes to change moving forward.
His plan is to make Newcastle “better sellers” in years to come, and he is said to be a big fan of Liverpool’s approach – according to iNews’ Mark Douglas.
The Reds have been able to accumulate £100m through the sale of fringe players, with Brentford signing Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg to amass approximately half of that.
This isn’t the first time Liverpool have been smart sellers, with the club also finding the perfect time to sell former fringe men such as Christian Benteke, Danny Ings, Dominic Solanke, Neco Williams and Jordan Ibe for in excess of £100m. Yes, they had a bigger pool of disposable players to sell for good money, but they’ve often found the right time to sell for the right price, whether it be a key player (Coutinho to Barcelona) or squad men who helped boost their budget.
Reports suggested we’re listening to offers for Sean Longstaff and that the likes of Harvey Barnes could be at risk – two players who are struggling for regular starts under Howe who could still fetch us decent fees.
Almiron, Trippier, Wilson are obvious ones where we’ve probably let their value go down and not sold them at peak value – in hindsight, we should’ve sold some of these in 2023? After Wilson’s 20-goal season or Miggy’s purple patch?
The other route is youngsters we sign, improve and sell for profit – are there more Minteh’s to come? He never appeared for us, but we made a tidy £25m profit on him in the space of 12 months.