Looking back, Paul Mitchell’s one and only sit down interview with journalists from his time at Newcastle United makes for even more fascinating reading.
If the headline-grabbing quote was that the club’s transfer policy was “not fit for purpose”, the devil was in the detail.
To ape the super clubs, the Magpies needed to have “a more diverse, wider-range scouting network”, he suggested.
A “different approach”, with “more intelligence” that was “data-driven”, was required.
It is a measure of how desperate things have been that, nearly 12 months on, you half-expect Ross Wilson – the man lined up to succeed Mitchell – to say many of the same things when he eventually gets his feet under the table.
Eddie Howe has missed out on several key targets this summer (Photo: Getty)
For all the doom and gloom of a sobering transfer window, it is worth pointing out that we still don’t know how the dust will settle for Newcastle on 1 September.
The squad that competes in a weekend friendly double-header against Espanyol and Atletico Madrid is actually stronger than it was – just nowhere near strong enough.
Behind the scenes there have been strides made towards securing the centre-back they so desperately crave.
However, The i Paper understands no deal has been agreed with Brentford for Yoane Wissa and sources played down talk of an imminent breakthrough in negotiations.
Porto striker Samu Aghehowa, who emerged as a possible target on Friday afternoon, is indeed liked but looks raw.
The 21-year-old aside, what has been mystifying is a pivot towards more established players in a different age bracket – a reflection of how far down their initial list of targets they are and perhaps a reflection of short-term needs trumping a bigger transfer philosophy.
It all feels a million miles away from the diligent approach of Premier League rivals who think two or three transfer windows in advance and end up – like Brighton – with cut-price signings who emerge as potential £100m players like Carlos Baleba.
Still, that doesn’t mean the targets aren’t good enough for the here and now.
One name mentioned to The i Paper recently is West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta, who is well-liked by some at Newcastle.
Whether he could be extricated easily from the London Stadium is another matter, but it is that sort of arrival that would change the mood music immediately at St James’ Park.
There is, of course, the thorny issue of Alexander Isak, whose behaviour in trying to force a move to Liverpool has been dreadful, but recent checks appear to confirm the stance of the ownership is to retain him in the face of sustained interest from the Reds.
However it resolves – and there is an argument, given how mediocre an unfocused Isak looked in the final weeks of the season, to take an offer close to £150m if it transforms their financial picture – few would argue that it has been handled especially strategically.
A bigger worry here is that, having been able to run a beauty competition of the best directors of football on the planet last summer, the gig feels a lot less appealing 12 months on.
Many The i Paper spoke to suggested the difficulties Mitchell encountered, some self-inflicted, led them to question how much influence you could actually wield over the bigger picture. The perception is a bit of a problem.
Which leads me to feel a big reset button needs to be pressed on Newcastle after this summer, with a new mission statement that reflects both the size of the task ahead and how they are going to do it.
Part of the issue is that the messaging from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), who are majority owners of Newcastle, remains confused, which is ironic given that they have more bodies on the ground than they did at the outset of the takeover.
On the one hand, the few scraps offered up suggest their ambition remains towering.
Yasir Al-Rumayyan’s quote in 2023 that he wanted the club to be “number one” sounded like a clarion call for ambition back then and more recently he, somewhat controversially, hoisted the Carabao Cup in front of a bank of black and white at Wembley promising it would be the “first of many”.
They are strategic, we are told, and last summer’s upheaval was about getting an executive team in place to match those long-term aims.
But the reality – of delays on the appointment of a new chief executive, no clarity on the big ticket stadium and training ground projects and further disruption this summer – does not tally with that.
It is not as if PIF doesn’t have boots on the ground.
Jacobo Solis, Head of Europe Direct Investments, joined the board on 9 January and is involved in club matters but has not spoken.
It would assuage concerns if Solis, or someone from PIF, did offer some insight into the grand plan.
Because the reality of this summer is that Newcastle are probably not just a few signings away from cementing their place in the elite, if anyone ever really believed that.
We have seen from the rejections – and club sources are at pains to point out that only four players they have actually bid for have gone elsewhere (Hugo Ekitike, Benjamin Sesko, James Trafford and Joao Pedro, for the record) – that the Magpies are going to find it hard to go toe-to-toe with clubs with more recent success, greater access to wealth or global brand power.
These are baked in disadvantages that would have hampered them even without the strategic missteps that have occurred this close season, and demand a black and white blueprint that tries something different, targets a different sort of player and is prepared to be riskier than this iteration of Newcastle.
What that might mean in practice is positioning the Magpies as more of a robust challenger club, embracing innovation and an element of risk (over approach and transfer targets) that might seem an anathema to PIF.
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The arrivals of head of football strategy Jack Ross and technical director Sudarshan Gopaladesikan is hopefully a nod to a more nimble, fleet-of-foot operation.
Newcastle’s challenge is to do all of this while keeping Howe and his coaching staff aligned with the strategy, because he remains the driving force of their progress and their best manager of recent times.
It is his alchemy that is keeping the show on the road, even if there is a valid debate to be had about some of the recruitment priorities this summer.
Mitchell’s great failing was that he was unable to do that, but it is not impossible to do.
Just like it is true that Newcastle can still “win” this transfer window, they can turn this summer of discontent into a positive if they actually learn their lessons.