Newcastle United have hit a convincing vein of form in recent weeks, rekindling their Premier League campaign and beating off Brentford to advance to the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup, where Arsenal await.
On Saturday, Ipswich Town were picked apart by Eddie Howe's ruthless men, who were more like vultures than magpies. It was a season-defining week, and several stars stepped up.
Newcastle Alexander Isak
Sure, Alexander Isak bagged a hat-trick, but Jacob Murphy continued his red-hot streak of form with two assists to make it three goals and three set-ups in as many matches.
Howe has many qualities, but one of his chief footballing virtues must be how he's elevated peripheral members to Toon stardom.
Eddie Howe's Newcastle revivals
Newcastle's team is populated by a mix of players, ranging in different levels of quality. Some excellent signings have been made along the way, but Howe has triumphed in nurturing some existing members to the fore.
Joelinton and Fabian Schar are perhaps the two salient names. Joelinton's refashioning into a robust and powerful midfielder after initially struggling as a centre-forward has been masterful, while Schar, 32, was once labelled a "walking mistake" by journalist Josh Gibson.
Eddie Howe's Most Potent Newcastle Players
Player
Alexander Isak
Bruno Guimaraes
Callum Wilson
Anthony Gordon
Jacob Murphy
Stats via Transfermarkt
He may not be the headline-stealer all that often, patchy at the best of times, but Murphy has belied his former struggles to become a key part of a talented United side.
Unfortunately, not every struggling star has been able to restore their standing and become a mainstay within Howe's exciting system.
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Miguel Almiron, for example, has never been able to recapture that fleeting run of incredible form in the build-up to Champions League qualification. Elsewhere, Matt Targett has fallen into the St. James' Park shadows over the past few years, and must surely be set for sale at the end of the season.
Why Newcastle must sell Matt Targett
Newcastle signed Targett from Aston Villa for a £15m fee in June 2022, sealing the deal after he had spent the second half of the 2021/22 campaign on loan at St. James' Park.
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Penning a four-year deal, the left-back will not be part of the potential exodus next summer, with big names like Schar, Callum Wilson, Jamal Lascelles and Sean Longstaff currently heading toward the end of their contracts.
Instead, the summer represents the perfect opportunity for PIF to offload a rarely-seen player who is taking up a significant part of the wage bill, earning £100k per week.
This is a hefty wage indeed, with Targett out-earning mainstays such as Sven Botman, Joe Willock and Harvey Barnes. Moreover, he's actually earning over three times as much as Murphy, who is surely deserving of a bigger pay packet given his importance to the success of Howe's side at the moment.
matt-targett-newcastle-united
The 29-year-old hasn't played in the Premier League this season despite sitting on the bench on nine occasions. So, it's pretty clear that Howe doesn't trust him to play a role in his current squad.
Last winter, it was revealed by Caught Offside that the Tynesiders were open to selling their fringe defender, and while the limited options at Howe's disposal this year perhaps preclude a January sale, he's got to be released from his sentence in the shadows at the end of the term, if only to prove to stars like Murphy that they are valued within the squad.
Newcastle winger Jacob Murphy Related
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Eddie Howe is on the hunt for a brand new Newcastle United attacker.