There was literally NOTHING Newcastle United as a club could have done | OneFootball

Now that this Newcastle United transfer window has closed.

I’ve read quite a bit of fan reaction to the business United have done this summer, ranging  from “a disaster” to “huge success.”

Naturally, the true level is somewhere in the middle.

In my eyes, this has actually been an excellent Newcastle United transfer window.

For it to have been a huge greater success, NUFC would have seen players arrive sooner. As to have some coming in after the first game of the season isn’t ideal.

Eddie Howe no doubt wanted players in for pre-season but circumstances don’t always allow you to do that. More on that coming up.

It’s actually Eddie Howe that I have been most impressed by.

On his sick bed for weeks of the latter part of last season, the guy deserved a holiday. Only for him instead to reportedly cut his break short to come back and attempt to rectify and push on transfers in the absence of any apparent senior figures at the club doing as such.

It was a common topic last season among fans that I spoke/debated with that we were likely to be looking at four or five new players.

The glaringly obvious problem was replacing Callum Wilson. Getting someone in who stayed fit was a simple starting point.

Fans also wanted a right winger, a centre-back was high on the list and some said a box to box midfielder. When others started suggesting a right-back and left-back, you had to look at the situation and say they were being a tad unrealistic if they were expecting a total squad revamp.

So what do we have? And where have we improved?

Aaron Ramsdale

We were heavily in for James Trafford, seemingly for forever and a day, but as soon as it was revealed that he had a buy back clause in his contract for Manchester City to utilise, we were sunk. That said, it looks like we have dodged a bullet based on his early form this season.

Ramsdale IS a good goalkeeper and he comes with experience playing for Arsenal. Grantedm I had reservations about those “concentration” comments he made a few years ago but still, at 27 he’s the future and an upgrade on Martin Dubravka. Is he better than Nick Pope? Debatable, but certainly there’s competition there, and he will get the number one jersey through time. I’ll also point out, he was second in the most saves category last season. Then again, he had extensive practice due to Southampton’s struggles.

Malick Thiaw

Fabian Schar (and Dan Burn) are not getting any younger and Sven Botman will need time to get over his many fitness issues. Further centre-back reinforcements will be needed in future windows but this lad seems to have the pedigree to be a barnstormer of a centre-back. You don’t play for AC Milan if you’re a mug and Germany don’t produce many bad centre-backs. Crucially, he offers vital Champions League experience.

The Marc Guehi saga of 2024 was ridiculous and lord knows why we were seemingly prepared to go as high as £65m for the Palace player. It now seems he’ll be going somewhere for a lot less than what they previously expected. Palace have handled that REALLY badly, unless the player signs a new contract. Nevertheless, I’m happy with what we’ve got.

Jacob Ramsey

One of those players who slips under the radar and one I’d never considered. Have we helped Aston Villa out of a PSR hole? Probably. But we’ve acquired a cracking looking player. I wasn’t particularly in favour of signing a central midfielder as I thought our budget would be tied up elsewhere. As soon as we sold Sean Longstaff, that changed. Again, we’ve signed a player with Champions League experience. In Joelinton, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, we have some good back up with this guy and young Lewis Miley.

With four competitions to play in, we need that depth in the middle.

Anthony Elanga

Although Man U were a fading force, Elanga has “big club” pedigree from his time at Old Trafford. Last season at Nottingham Forrest he was third in the assists table behind a certain Jacob Murphy. Young, quick and can score a goal or two. Another player with Champions League experience.

All last season I heard people saying that we need to upgrade Murphy, need to improve the right wing etc, etc. I was getting tired defending him to be honest. Well, now we have two great options out wide right with the option of playing Will Osula, Anthony Gordon or Harvey Barnes out there as well. A strong position to be in.

Yoane Wissa

His numbers last season looked good and if he plays more often than who he has replaced, I’m confident he can get over 15 goals as he did last season in a side that only finished 10th. Hopefully he’ll relish the step up to European football.

It doesn’t sit totally well with me the way the transfer transpired. But IF he had anything in writing stating that he could move to Club X, for fee Y at a specified time (ie: this summer) then Brentford can have little complaint. And it’s far better than an alleged verbal agreement with a club official (who may or may not even be at the club anymore) in a corridor at St James’ Park I think.

Nick Woltemade

The big one, both in terms of transfer fee and actual presence. He has some big shoes to fill, literally and figuratively.

Let’s get the elephant in the room out of the way, or rather…the rat. If the Alexander Isak situation hadn’t reared it’s head I honestly believe Nick Woltemade was a target for a future transfer window. The turn of events and the lack of a positive resolution to said events meant we needed TWO strikers rather than the singular one that I think we were probably going for.

Add this to losing out to Liverpool for Hugo Ekitike, Chelsea for BOTH Liam Delap and Joao Pedro, plus Benjamin Sesko to Man U, probably stung the powers that be at the club quite hard. Add in Brian Mbeumo going to Old Trafford and it really just goes to show how well I feel we’ve done this summer. It honestly felt like every week went by with another signing turning us down AND nearly all of them in that troublesome striking position.

But whilst I acknowledge the late progress, I have to defend the club and the outcome that it has arrived at. We have literally gone out and bought for every position I feel we needed to buy for. Have we paid a little over the odds in some cases? Probably. I’d still rate the window as an 8 or a 9/10. You can tell me that a 9/10 would be getting our first choice targets rather than the ones we have ended up with but I’m just looking at the simple question. Have Newcastle United significantly improved the first team AND squad. The answer in every position is yes.

The only question mark is over whether the two strikers coming in can replace the number of goals that have gone out of the door.

When a Chelsea, Liverpool or Manchester United come in and start chucking £200k-£300k a week around to players we’re after, we’ve got no chance. Even if the player would prefer to come to us, £100k a week more at ANY other club will be hard to knock back. The strange one was Mbeumo. Liverpool and Chelsea have Champions League football so add in that to mega wages they can offer and we stand no chance. To go to Man Utd is purely about the money, unless a player thinks that club are going to bridge a massive gap and get Champions League football next season.

That’s why I simply shrugged my shoulders when we were getting rejected by the rest of those early summer targets. There was literally NOTHING Newcastle United as a club could have done.

Since the takeover we have conducted brilliant business and it’s been most successful when things have been conducted under the radar. Who knew we were after Bruno before he was pictured with a Newcastle United shirt at St James’ Park? Same with Botman, Tonali and that Swedish striker.

“The project” may have its flaws and pitfalls. It will certainly have its bumps in the road, this summer has proven that.

But now that Eddie Howe has his squad all knitted together, he can get on with coaching the team. Regardless of where you rank our summer transfer activity, I’m happy with what I’ve seen coming in and I’m 100% positive the manager is. That’s all that matters.