Newcastle may have missed out on João Pedro and others - but a budget-friendly alternative could provide the answer.
The transfer window is still young, but it’s fair to say that the summer isn’t quite going to plan for Newcastle United. Their search for reinforcements up front, in particular, seems to be hitting the rocks.
Extensive negotiations for Brighton & Hove Albion forward João Pedro ended with the Brazilian choosing to join Chelsea instead, with a seven-year deal and £60m fee agreed. A bid worth £45m for Anthony Elanga was rejected by Nottingham Forest, too, while their desire to sign Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth appears to have been dampened by a reported £70m asking price. Newcastle are running through their shortlist of wingers quite quickly.
Fortunately, there’s a player on the market who is not only of interest, but who is rather more affordable – PSV Eindhoven’s Johan Bakayoko. But should a significant dip in form over the 2024/25 season put Newcastle off, or is he just what Eddie Howe needs heading into the new season?
Johan Bakayoko had a poor season – but there’s plenty for Newcastle to admire
Go back a year, and Bakayoko was hot property. Brentford reportedly had a bid worth around £35m including add-ons rejected by PSV, and there were plenty of teams said to be interested in the Belgian, Newcastle included, but a move never materialised.
What followed was a relatively fallow year in the Netherlands. Bakayoko hit a rough patch of form and was dropped from the startling line-up, ultimately starting just 17 Eredivisie games all season and registering half as many combined goals and assists as he had in 2023/24.
As such, interest in Bakayoko appears to have cooled slightly, and the price tag may have dropped too, with reports suggesting that PSV would be prepared to accept as little as £17m for the winger’s services. That valuation, admittedly, also reflects the fact that Bakayoko has just one year left on his deal at the Philips Stadion.
Newcastle, then, have a budget-friendly option on their hands, useful given the PSR constraints under which the club have to operate – they could sign Bakayoko and have plenty left in the transfer fund to sign another forward who can offer the depth they crave up front.
The question, of course, is whether a difficult season represents a player struggling to hit the heights they promised over the last few years or simply the kind of bad run that can happen to any player.
There’s no doubt that performances did fall off. 13 goals and 10 assists in all competitions in 2023/24 became 11 goals and just two assists in 2024/25. He was creating fewer chances, completing fewer passes and beating far fewer defenders one-on-one, a concern for a player whose game is broadly built around their ball-carrying qualities.
Previous performances proved, however, that Bakayoko can be a destructive presence down the right wing – and if he can be nurtured back towards his best form, he seems to be precisely the sort of player that Howe needs.
Why Johan Bakayoko could be a perfect fit for Newcastle United
Aside from the obvious point that he’s a two-footed winger most comfortable operating on the right – something of a problem position since the decline and eventual sale of fan favourite Miguel Almirón – Bakayoko is a player who seems almost custom-made for Howe’s direct style of play.
Not only is Bakayoko very quick indeed, but he’s an expert at finding space down the flanks, whether it’s getting straight in behind defences with sheer speed or demonstrating a little more guile when picking up half-yards down the channels.
Given the way Howe likes to play, with an aggressive approach towards possession which aims to get the ball downfield towards the front three as quickly as possible, having a winger who almost always provides a passing option in the final third is precisely what the club needs.
Granted, Bakayoko didn’t use the ball in those dangerous areas quite as effectively last season as he had done in the past, but he was still getting the ball into those positions in huge volumes. If he can get his final delivery back to its best, then he could easily offer Newcastle a huge amount of penetration in and around the opposing penalty area.
If there is one downside to Bakayoko, however, and one way in which his playing style may not mesh with Howe’s tactics quite so neatly, it’s that he isn’t hugely effective in a high press, forcing a relatively indifferent two turnovers per game last season and never winning possession high up the field all that often at any point in his young career.
Given that Howe relies heavily on the counter-press to win possession and augment that direct playing style, that may be an area in which the 22-year-old winger needs to sharpen up regardless of how quickly he could get back to his best form.
Still, given his age, the quality of his past performances and the ease with which he should slot into Howe’s system, £17m seems like a very reasonable price at which to gamble that Bakayoko can come good. With his speed, technique, expertise with both feet and ability to get behind and in between defenders at will, he offers the vast majority of the skills that Howe needs at what seems likely to be a knock-down price. If Elanga and Semenyo simply prove too expensive, Bakayoko is a potentially perfect runner-up prize.
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