Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Eddie Howe and Newcastle United summer transfer plans in place | OneFootball

Exactly twelve weeks ago, Yasir Al-Rumayyan was inside Wembley to see Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United team win the League Cup.

The Newcastle United Chairman seeing at first hand the remarkable achievements, minor miracles, of the Head Coach.

This made all the more remarkable, as Eddie Howe has achieved all of this without been able to bring in a single new first team contender these past three transfer windows, plus forced to sell two of his most promising young players to Premier League rivals last summer.

Having done the hard PSR yards of the last three windows, Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Eddie Howe now on the transfer window offensive, this summer. Two transfer windows, 1 June until 7pm on 10 June, then 16 June until 7pm on 1 September.

Yasir Al-Rumayyan was there in person once again at St James’ Park two weeks ago today, watching on as Eddie Howe and his Newcastle United players qualified for the Champions League. A defeat to Everton on the final day but over nine months of performances and results meant that Newcastle United were the fifth best team in the Premier League.

As time has moved on, we are seeing ever increasing nonsense regarding Newcastle United and signing players, or rather, not signing players.

Only a week into signings able to be made and so much nonsense coming from both the media and many Newcastle United fans.

Panic over no signings and rubbish about the summer transfer plans having been wrecked by the imminent departure of Paul Mitchell. The fact that CEO Darren Eales will leave as well, once a replacement has been identified, is also now pointed to as part of some kind of nightmare summer transfer nightmare, even though it was nine months ago that we found out that Darren Eales would be quitting due to health reasons.

We surely understand that it is in the media’s interests to constantly speculate, positively and negatively, during Newcastle United’s transfer window(s). Everything has to be a drama to get attention and then of course fans just hoover up all the speculation and buy into the hour by hour, day by day drama as depicted by journalists.

You would think that Newcastle United was some tiny backstreet business where if one person doesn’t turn up for work, or is leaving, then the whole thing falls apart. That all plans collapse, that nothing gets done.

I think the reality is very different, this is what the NUFC Head Coach said a fortnight ago…

After securing top five and Champions League football, Eddie Howe had this to say before heading into a meeting with Newcastle United Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, other senior members of the Saudi Arabia PIF, as well as the rest of the NUFC board – 25 May 2025:

“As far as I’m aware, we do not have any PSR issues heading into this deadline.

“Now, I have to put a caveat in there, because I’m not seeing the figures, I’m only relaying what I’m getting told. But I think we are in a lot healthier position and a lot stronger position than we were at this time last year.

“We are looking to reverse what we did last summer.

“This time, we are in a strong position ourselves where we’ll be looking to make additions to the squad.

“I will have a discussion with the chairman and representatives from PIF today, and I’m looking forward to that.

“We will be trying to lay some foundations for what lies ahead in the summer.

“In terms of timings and everything that follows that, I don’t know, but the planning and all the things that go on behind the scenes have been there for a number of weeks now.

“We have been working hard to try to set things up for what we need to do.

“I think whenever I speak to the chairman, he is very focused on success.

“He is focused on achieving and winning, and he always leaves me in doubt that that’s what he wants, I’m working towards that.”

The idea that only after season ends, do Newcastle United or any other club start thinking about what to do in the summer transfer market is laughable.

It is a constant process for the recruitment and scouting people to be identifying potential signings, then watching them over a lengthy period, all the time building towards transfer windows.

The recruitment people at all clubs will be regularly in touch with numerous agents about countless players, then as the next transfer window is on the horizon, lists of targets get refined.

Long before Eddie Howe met with Yasir Al-Rumayyan and the rest of the board and other senior Saudi Arabia PIF individuals, all of the important people at NUFC will have been aware of who Eddie Howe wants to sign, the pecking order of his targets.

Eddie Howe basically said that himself two weeks ago about this summer’s transfer market; “…the planning and all the things that go on behind the scenes have been there for a number of weeks now.”

As the Head Coach stated, Newcastle United were already in a strong position ahead of this summer AND then that position becoming even stronger when United qualified for the Champions League. The club in a stronger position financially ahead of their summer’s business and the club even more attractive to potential signings.

All of this feeding back of course to the agents and the players they represent.

The fact is that if you are a much sought after player, which you would have to be these days for Newcastle United to be interested in you as a first team contender, then you will be in a very strong position with many clubs keen to sign you. Those (potentially) selling clubs also usually in a very strong position, as they have players who rival clubs want. They don’t need to rush into anything in most cases, a case of wait and see what the offers will be and from where.

The imminent Paul Mitchell departure was announced around a week after the season ended but I think fair to say that the Sporting Director leaving, will have been known for some time by the Newcastle United hierarchy.

Certainly by the time we got to the close of business on Sunday 25 May 2025, after Eddie Howe and the club’s owners had met, I reckon for absolute sure that Eddie Howe will have been 100 percent aware of how ambitious this summer transfer market can be, the spending on transfer fees and wages that has been given the go ahead by his bosses.

It is then a case of working with the really key people these days, the agents, who are at the heart of making all transfers happen, in and out of clubs, including Newcastle United.

Agents keeping clubs informed of which players could be available, could be interested, then official approaches made and the potential signings and selling clubs communicating what it will take to get a deal done.

It isn’t rocket science and brilliant signings such as Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes were made when Newcastle United had neither a CEO nor Sporting Director. Both players (and others) impressed by the vision and ambition of the club and NUFC ready to pay the necessary transfer fees and wages, plus of course in Trippier’s case the fact that Eddie Howe had previously signed him at Burnley was a big positive as well.

Just like the journalists, as Newcastle United fans we have zero idea as to where exactly we are at with potential summer signings. We have seen in the past any number of signings where after the event it becomes apparent that the deals were effectively agreed a long time before the public announcement, all kinds of reasons why players and especially clubs may want to wait until a certain point before a signing is officially made. This includes the possibility of clubs wanting to wait until July and the new financial year begins, before a signing gets done, or at least is announced.

Having won a trophy and able to offer Champions League football, plus in a strong financial position now, including/especially with PSR, I have every confidence that Eddie Howe will land the profile of players that he wants this summer. As he makes clear, the hard work has been done in advance of the summer transfer market, targets identified and now just a case of ensuring the money available is used as wisely as possible and Newcastle United get best value as they sign quality players.

Eddie Howe and the Newcastle United owners have a stellar record of having done so from their very first January 2022 transfer window and I see no reason to doubt why they won’t do the same this summer.