Rip it up and start again? It certainly feels like a major refresh is required if Newcastle are to reestablish themselves as regular Champions League qualifiers within the Premier League, let alone begin to approach a position where they can take on the likes of Barcelona as equals. In the conversation to be the world’s biggest club by 2030? That feels even more fanciful now than it did when CEO David Hopkinson issued his mission statement in December.
For their two biggest games of the season, Newcastle began with their two headline signings from last summer – more than £120m of attacking talent – on the bench. That neither Nick Woltemade nor Yoane Wissa even made it onto the field last night says everything. Howe isn’t playing Anthony Gordon through the middle because he sees the repositioned winger as the long-term solution to Newcastle’s attacking dilemma. He’s doing it because he doesn’t trust the two forwards that were recruited at great expense in August when the Alexander Isak saga finally reached its end.
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Similarly, at the other end of the pitch, Aaron Ramsdale isn’t starting because he’s made a compelling case to be the Magpies’ number one. He’s playing because Howe had to take Nick Pope out of the firing line after one mistake too many. Centre-forward and goalkeeper, arguably the two most important positions on the pitch, filled by a stand-in. That hardly smacks of a club that has been operating efficiently in recent transfer windows.
The defence is another area of concern given the ease with which Barcelona inflicted Newcastle’s heaviest-ever European defeat last night. Kieran Trippier was taken off before he was sent off at the interval, and for all that the 35-year-old has stepped in manfully on occasions this season, the case for offering him a new contract was badly undermined by his struggles in the Nou Camp. There is a similar argument around Fabian Schar, another trusted servant who Howe will almost certainly want to keep, but who might need to be sacrificed to move forward.
Newcastle have to be more ruthless this summer. They need a plan, a proactive blueprint for how they can improve rather than a set of reactive moves devised on the hoof when other clubs come in for their leading assets.
There will almost certainly be outside interest in the club’s star performers come the reopening of the window. The Sandro Tonali rumour mill cranked up again this week, fuelled by his agent, who appears to be laying the groundwork for a summer auction. Tino Livramento to Manchester City? It’s a suggestion that won’t go away no matter how hard City officials privately brief that the full-back is not a leading target. Gordon? Who knows who might be persuaded to table an offer for the forward if he has a standout World Cup.
Unlike last year, when the Isak standoff blew a hole through Newcastle’s entire summer thinking, the club need a clear plan for what they intend to do with their leading lights this time around. Are the likes of Tonali, Livramento and Gordon untouchable? Or is there an argument that selling at least one might address any future PSR concerns and fund the kind of summer rebuild that feels required?
Last year, the exit of both Paul Mitchell and Darren Eales left Newcastle chronically short of senior leadership. There can be no such excuse now. Ross Wilson has his feet well truly under the table as sporting director, Hopkinson is settled in as chief executive. This is on them now. Howe will expect to continue to have a major input into all recruitment decisions, but he can no longer be the major powerbroker. Newcastle need to start operating like a top club rather than a throwback to the 1980s when the manager’s view was the be all and end all.
The early indications are that Newcastle are scouting a markedly different profile of player than they were last summer. Younger, less proven, with more development potential. Extensive Premier League experience is no longer regarded as a prerequisite. AZ Alkmaar’s 20-year-old midfielder Kees Smit is a known target, while the talk around Union Saint-Gilloise’s 21-year-old winger, Anan Khalaili, has increased markedly in recent weeks.
Newcastle’s scouting teams have been increasingly active in markets they had previously paid little more than lip service to, which has to be a positive sign, although identifying attractive targets is arguably the easy part of the job. Wilson’s biggest challenge will be sifting through those targets to make signings that work with how Howe wants to play. Joined-up thinking is required, something else that was lacking last summer.
The positive is that Newcastle will be building from a position of relative strength. Clearly, finishing in the top five to qualify for the Champions League again this season – unlikely but not impossible – would be a massive help. It would certainly make it easier to keep the likes of Tonali if Europe’s big boys came calling.
Even without another campaign of Champions League football, Newcastle remain well positioned to kick on. They have a strong squad, with smatterings of world-class talent, an excellent head coach and reasonable PSR headroom despite last summer’s transfer panic.
Their first team has major flaws though, and behind the scenes, there is still a sense of a club desperately trying to play catch-up to those around them. As Eales used to point out, Newcastle are not in a position where they can afford to make mistakes. They made them last summer; they cannot do so again.