Newcastle United look desperately short on squad depth heading into the new season
The 2025/26 Premier League season begins in just a matter of days and it’s clear to see that some clubs are much more prepared for the new season than others.
Of the teams that have secured European qualification it’s fair to say that Newcastle United are the least prepared ahead of the new campaign. Their summer transfer window has been dominated by a transfer saga around whether Alexander Isak will stay or go amid interest from Liverpool, and it appears increasingly likely that either youngster William Osula or winger Anthony Gordon will be leading the line in the central role against Aston Villa on matchday one.
We’ve delved through a series of striker targets and potential Isak replacements that could ease some of the pain from losing the sulking Swede this summer, but one of the underlying issues which perhaps needs further focus is the club’s lack of midfield depth.
Throughout pre-season, Newcastle experimented with the likes of Harrison Ashby and Lewis Hall as makeshift midfielders in a move which perhaps suggests just how short the club are on numbers, particularly if one or more of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali or Joelinton was to sustain an injury or some kind of knock, which is practically inevitable in a 50+ game campaign, because of the demands of juggling European football with a domestic league campaign.
To make matters worse, the club has already allowed Sean Longstaff to depart to Leeds United while Joe Willock is nursing a calf injury sustained in pre-season. It means that teenager Lewis Miley is the club’s only backup midfielder heading into matchday one, which is increasingly alarming given the fact that Newcastle will arguably play more games this term than in any other campaign in their recent history.
The £30m transfer hijack Newcastle United could look to make on West Ham
West Ham are preparing an opening bid for the Southampton midfielder Mateus Fernandes. The Guardian understands that Graham Potter is a big fan of the 21-year-old and is willing to pay around £30m to try and bring him to the London Stadium.
Fernandes was a part of a Southampton team which was relegated as the second worst side in Premier League history but was a bright spark in a desperately poor season. The Portuguese Under-21 international was notably named by fans as their Player of the Season and was one of the few Saints footballers that looked at home when competing against some of the world’s best midfielders.
The 21-year-old started his journey at Sporting CP and played under Ruben Amorim before making a name for himself on the South Coast. "I know Mateus (Fernandes) very well. He's a really good player. He's going to play between the lines,” said Amorim before his Manchester United team faced Southampton in January.
Overall, Fernandes played 44 times for the Saints, scoring three times and contributing six assists across all competitions. He’s proven he’s capable of playing in various roles across the midfield, including No,6, No.8 and has even at times drifted over to the right wing.
What could Mateus Fernandes offer Newcastle United?
Mateus Fernandes would offer Newcastle excellent squad depth for the here and now, while also having the potential to one day progress into a regular starter for club and country. Eddie Howe is an excellent developer of players and has already in his career helped the likes of Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall, Joelinton, Callum Wilson, Anthony Gordon, Dominic Solanke and even Dan Burn establish themselves as internationals for their country. Fernandes is already on the radar of Portugal, having been capped nine times at Under-21 level and could well make the next step in his career if he was to move to Tyneside.
As it stands, many journalists have suggested that Bilal El Khannouss, another talented but also recently-relegated midfielder from Leicester City, is on Newcastle’s radar. There's also talk about Jacob Ramsey of Aston Villa although he could cost over £40m. However, it’s Fernandes that could be most suited to Newcastle’s brand of football. For starters, he made more tackles (90) than Ramsey, El Khannouss, Longstaff and Willock last term by a considerable margin.
He’s also completed more take-ons (50) than any of the other four players mentioned and has completed more passes (1110) over the course of last season. He’s also scored the joint most goals and contributed the most assists of the players mentioned and has registered 14 shots on target which is double that of second placed El Khannouss in the list of players mentioned.
Many of these statistics it’s worth noting are won by Fernandes because he has played more matches but it’s worth noting as well that he was playing in a considerably worse team and could easily thrive when playing alongside players like Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali on a regular basis.
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