Over the last 12 months, much of the players Newcastle have been strongly linked with or attempted to sign have come with a Premier League premium.
Whether he was a ‘top target’ or not, Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo looks set to cost Man Utd upwards of £60m along with wages north of £200,000-per-week, while Marc Guehi would’ve cost us £65m-plus had we matched Crystal Palace’s asking price last August.
Newcastle had a £50m deadline day bid rejected for Anthony Elanga and the i Paper report that Bournemouth will demand a whopping £70m for Newcastle-linked winger Antoine Semenyo, emphasising how extortionate the Premier League market really is.
There is obvious advantages in signing domestic talent and we’ve benefited from these since the takeover, signing Dan Burn, Nick Pope, Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall and Anthony Gordon, to name a few.
However, even if our PSR situation is much improved, news today that Man City have agreed an initial [£46m fee](https://x.com/SkySportsPL/status/1930179621305094162) to sign AC Milan’s star midfielder and player of the season Tijjani Reijnders tells you where the value is at.
Not only is this a reminder of the top quality this sort of money can get you across Europe, we must remember how many gems we’ve brought in from La Liga, Ligue 1 and Serie A.
From France, Bruno Guimaraes (£40m from Lyon) and Sven Botman (£35m from Lille) arrived with Champions League experience and huge potential. A few years later, they are top players in their position in the Premier League and easily worth double.
Alexander Isak (£63m from Real Sociedad) and Sandro Tonali (£55m from AC Milan) were hardly ‘cheap’, but they are two truly world class operators.
£60m gets you Joao Pedro up top if buying domestically, with £55m not even able to get you Mason Mount based on the fee Man Utd paid Chelsea two summers ago.
At centre-back, there may be some merit to Marc Guehi if his contract situation brings the price down considerably, but I wonder if we could get better for less abroad.
They wouldn’t arrive with that ‘Premier League proven’ tag, but I’m thinking Ousmane Diomande of Sporting Lisbon, AC Milan’s Malick Thiaw, Giorgio Scalvini at Atalanta or Inter Milan’s Yann Bisseck?
On the right wing, where Semenyo or Elanga would cost big bucks, you could probably pay less and land Monaco’s Maghnes Akliouche or Takefusa Kubo at Real Sociedad, to name just two.
Up top, it’s going to be hard to sign an affordable striker willing to compete with Alexander Isak, making £60m-rated Joao Pedro a likely non-starter.
Instead, you’d hope we can take advantage of Steve Nickson’s talent identification and find someone from France, Italy, Spain or Germany who could arrive at a fraction of the price, taking the chance to play back-up to Isak for a shot at Premier League football and the Champions League.
Not every summer signing should be an untested talent from overseas, but Newcastle will need a gigantic budget if we’re to sign Premier League proven quality in goal, at centre-back, on the right wing and up front this summer.