The recent takeover of Newcastle United has the fans rubbing their hands at the prospect of the club finally showing some ambition and attracting some of the world’s best players to St James Park. The club’s previous owner, Mike Ashley, infamously enforced a policy where the club mostly signed young, cheap players that could potentially be sold for huge profits.
This policy has arguably worked quite well in a commercial sense, although they have been some catastrophic failures too. On the pitch however, it hasn’t worked out, with the club perpetually languishing at the lower ends of the Premier League table with the threat of relegation constantly hanging over their heads.
Money to burn
The Magpies are now richer than the other 19 Premier League clubs combined, which has encouraged their fans to dream of the likes of Mbappe, Haaland and Vinicius Jr coming to the Northeast. Unfortunately, Toon fans will have to wait a while for these dreams to come true, as their current status means they won’t be able to sign the world’s top players right away.
The Magpies poor start to the season, which led to the sacking of Steve Bruce, means they are currently embroiled in a relegation battle. According to oddschecker’s Football Tipster Ryan Elliot Newcastle are odds on to go down this season.
Newly appointed manager Eddie Howe has been brought in to keep the team in the Premier League this season, before leading the club into their bright new future.
As the January transfer window approaches, he’ll be thinking about reinforcements that can help his team survive this season, and it would be wise to look for Premier League proven players who can help them achieve this, then grow with them as they enter their new dawn.
Linked players
James Tarkowski is a player who has been heavily linked with the Magpies this season. The 29-year-old Burnley centre back will be a free agent at the end of the season, as there seem to be no signs of an agreement being reached with his club. The Englishman is expected to be made available for a relatively low fee in January, so Newcastle may see this as an opportunity to strengthen a defence that has been porous this season.
During Rafa Benitez’s time as the manager, the magpies were a defensively solid and compact team that didn’t concede many goals. This changed with the appointment of Steve Bruce, who sought to entertain the fans by encouraging more attacking play, which led to the team now being one of the league’s easiest sides to score against. So, Eddie Howe may opt for the experience of Tarkowski to steady the ship.
Newcastle are extremely light in the right back/right wingback position, winger Jacob Murphy is often played there due to a lack of trust in Javier Manquillo. Norwich City’s Max Aarons is a player who has caught the eye of some of Europe’s biggest clubs, which would make signing him both difficult and expensive.
However, signing Aarons would represent a significant coup for the club, at the tender age of 21 he has already played around 50 Premier League matches and even more in the championship. The London born cousin of former Toon winger Rolando Aarons has the potential to be one of the world’s best full backs and would immediately improve the team with his searing pace and pinpoint crossing.
Attacking midfield is another position where Newcastle could use strengthening, while recent signing Joe Willock is regularly played there, many see his future as a box-to-box midfielder. Other options such as Miguel Almiron and Ryan Fraser have impressed in spurts but haven’t managed to consistently produce the goals and assists needed from a player in that position.
Leicester City’s James Maddison is a player who would immediately improve the magpies in this area. He would certainly be expensive, but he scores goals from midfield, while creating chances for his teammates. Although he may take some convincing to leave Leicester, in the last season and a half he has looked like a player in need of a fresh challenge and Newcastle would certainly provide that.
At 24 he has plenty of time before he reaches his peak and is marketable enough to be the face of the Newcastle project.