Why Losing Lewis Gibson Could Turn Out To Be A Massive Regret For Newcastle United
Newcastle United’s summer after their return to the Premier League cannot really be termed as a grand success. Following the club’s triumph in the EFL Championship last season, reports claimed that £70million was made available to manager Rafael Benitez to splash in the transfer market (Telegraph). But there hasn’t been any big splurge from the Tynesiders as of yet.
Yes, Newcastle have managed to sign a solid defender in Florian Lejeune from Eibar and an exciting English talent in the form of Jacob Murphy, but there has been no signing that would make a real statement of intent from the club, following their one-year exile from the Premier League.
Now, they are set to make another questionable transfer as the club are close to losing highly-rated academy defender Lewis Gibson to Everton. The Liverpool Echo reported last week that the Magpies have accepted a £6million bid from the Merseysiders, and that a move is close to completion.
Gibson has garnered interest from several other Premier League clubs including Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton (Chronicle Live), but Everton seem to have stolen a march in the race and are set to make the defender a Toffees player soon.
The 17-year old, who started off his playing career at the Middlesbrough academy, has just a little under a year left on his scholarship contract with the Magpies and the fact that Everton are willing to pay as much as £6million for a player who is just 17 and hasn’t made a single first team appearance should be indicative of how high Gibson is regarded in the English footballing community.
It is abundantly clear that Gibson is a star in the making. The defender starred for the England U-17s in the UEFA U-17 European Championships earlier in the summer, where the young Three Lions made it all the way to finals, only to lose to Spain on penalties. Till date, he has notched up 18 appearances for the U-17 side.
Gibson had already broken into the Newcastle U-23 setup at a tender age of 16, indicating the levels of his immense potential. The coaching staff at the St. James’ Park rate him higher than his elder brother Liam Gibson, who is a regular for the U-23s. So, it is a bit puzzling that they are willing to let him go in the summer, a player who had the potential to be a first-team player, especially considering that the club rarely have had any academy player breaking into the first-team for quite a while now.
Yes, £6million is definitely a lot of money for a 17-year old who hasn’t featured for the reserves side as of yet. But Newcastle need not have looked farther than Everton to realize they could have reaped much more rewards financially had they been willing to hold on to Gibson for a little while longer. The Toffees held on to one of their prized asset in John Stones, despite strong interest from several top clubs, only to sell him for a then British-record fee of £47.5million to Manchester City last summer.
While Gibson may not be a John Stones yet, his performances for the youth sides, both at club and international levels have shown enough potential to realize that he can be a future England international. And in the current market, young ‘potential’ England internationals don’t come cheap by any stretch of imagination – just take a look at the enormous fee Manchester United paid for Luke Shaw in 2014.
By going through with this deal, Newcastle are letting go of one their best youth players who had the potential to be a first-team player, for a fee that could have easily soared higher had they kept him around for a couple of years more – a deal that might turn into a massive regret for the club.