Newcastle United summer planning (Part 2) – Midfielders, Wingers, Strikers | OneFootball

It has been a wild period of time in recent weeks to be a Newcastle United fan.

From the glorious day at Wembley that ended decades of hurt (and also guaranteed European football next season), to a series of back-to-back league triumphs which have put Newcastle in the box seat for next season’s Champions League, most Newcastle fans are probably hoping that this season, the best of their lives for many, will never end.

But end it will.

With just fur games left, thoughts in the upper echelons of St James’ Park will be turning to the summer, and with Newcastle United now one of the hot favourites to finish top five, that means preparing for potentially another season in the Champions League. United having already qualified as a minimum for the Conference League and if by chance missing out on Champions League, Europa League looks realistically the worst it could end up for Eddie Howe and his team.

This article is about how my thoughts on how the club should go about the process of squad-building this summer. It isn’t a detailed scouting report on potential targets, rather an overview of what Newcastle United should be trying to achieve and how they could do it.

This time, in the second and final part of my overview, I am covering Newcastle United midfielders, wingers and strikers (If you would like to read my thoughts on the Newcastle United goalkeepers, central defenders and full backs that was published yesterday on The Mag, please go HERE)

Midfield

This is perhaps the strongest area of the first XI. The trio of Bruno, Tonali and Joelinton are among the best in the Europe when they are fit and firing. Their mix of technical quality and physicality is what defines our style of play.

At 27, it now looks like Bruno will stay at the club he captains for the foreseeable future. Tonali has a long time left on his contract and is in his prime. Joelinton will turn 29 at the start of next season, not old by any means, but probably coming to the end of his peak years. We don’t need to upgrade these three, but we do need to give them a break sometimes. Bruno has looked tired at times this season, and three players who rely so much on their physical qualities can’t be run into the ground.

Behind the first choice trio, we have three players in very different situations.

Lewis Miley is the one I am sure every Newcastle fan would say we should keep. Thrust into the thick of it last season aged 17, he acquitted himself admirably and got everyone very excited about his potential. This season was disrupted by injury, and he hasn’t clocked as many minutes as he would have hoped, but European football should give him more opportunities next season. Miley is at the stage of his career that Sean Longstaff was at a decade ago. Both local academy graduates who came through alongside their brothers, Longstaff has had a good career at Newcastle without really living up to the potential he had as a youngster. The club activated a one year extension in his deal, probably so we can secure a modest fee for him in the summer. There should be a queue of lower half clubs vying for his signature if we are reasonable about the fee.

Joe Willock is a harder one to place. Capable of brilliance, but also lacking in consistency, both of performance and availability. Willcock turns 26 in August and will have two years left on his contract. Keeping him around for another season probably makes sense given the level of churn that might be happening in the rest of the squad, though we should be open to opportunities to cash in if a good offer comes our way.

So that leaves us with at least one gap in the midfield depth. We should be looking for a young, physically robust, 6/8 hybrid who could cover for Tonali and Bruno. Angel Gomes is available on a free transfer from Lille this summer but is probably too small for Newcastle’s liking, and would likely want to move somewhere with more likelihood of being first choice.

Some of the other players we have been linked to in the past (eg Ederson of Atalanta) are too expensive for the amount we are likely to want to spend on this position (under £20m). Obviously there is a certain Geordie playing in Nottingham who would have solved all of these problems…

In an ideal world, we would also bring in a more attacking 8/10 player who could give the team a different option in some games. This is most likely to happen through signing a versatile player who could cover a number of different roles, for example two players I will mention later on (Cunha and McAtee).

Wingers

This is one of the simplest positions to analyse. The left wing is the area of the squad where we have the strongest depth. Gordon and Barnes are both fantastic players and should continue to share the minutes on the wing next season. There may be suitors for Barnes after his strong end to the season, but it would take a large offer to convince me to sell if I were NUFC, given the importance of a strong squad next season.

We also look to have signed a new young left winger in 18yr old Antonio Cordero from Malaga in the Spanish second tier on a free transfer. I’m not going to pretend to know much about him, but if you are playing regular minutes at that age in a decent league, then you must have something about you. That said, he probably needs to spend another year playing regularly to continue his development, a loan move seems likely.

The right wing is a different picture.

Famously, along with right centre back, this is the one position that has not been upgraded since the takeover. Almiron briefly made the position his own with one extremely hot season, before he was dislodged by fan favourite Jacob Muphy and then sold back to the MLS in January.

I don’t know what to say about Murphy, except that his story is genuinely one of the most incredible in a squad full of great stories. The other thing to emphasise is that this isn’t a fluke. He is putting up great underlying numbers to go with the goals and assists. That said, he is 30 years old, and we shouldn’t be relying on Murphy to play like this for much longer.

The club clearly needs another player on the right, but there is a genuine choice about what kind of player we go for.

Stylistically, I think we are looking for a left-footed player who can cut inside. This would give us a different option in attack, and also get the best out of Tino, whose overlapping runs sometimes get crowded out when Murphy stays wide. It’s noticeable how much more effective Tino has been on the left playing behind a winger who wants to cut inside. Here we run into the second victim of last summer’s PSR nightmare. This should be Yankuba Minteh’s position, but instead he is at Brighton where is having an impressive first Premier League season.

The question Newcastle face is whether they go for a more established player in this position who is already at or near the top of their game, or whether they opt for a more raw talent with a higher ceiling. We have been linked to both kinds of options.

In the former category is Bryan Mbeumo, who turns 26 in August, he is in his prime and is likely to be available for an affordable price from Brentford.

Other plug and play options that have been linked include Sporting’s Francisco Trincao and Chelsea’s Noni Madueke (there may be a PSR crisis at Stamford Bridge that could be exploited).

In the ‘raw young talent’ bucket are Southampton’s Tyler Dibling, Copenhagen’s Roony Bardghi (who is on a free but has missed most of the last year with an ACL injury), and Genk’s 17-year old Greek wonderkid Konstantinos Karestas.

Sitting slightly between these two groups are PSV’s Johan Bakayoko who has just turned 22 and is a full Belgian international but has never played in a top league, and Man City’s James McAtee who is also 22 (!) and has one year left on his deal and has had very few opportunities for Man City.

I can see arguments for most of these players.

Someone like Mbeumo would instantly improve our attack and has the added bonus of being able to cover for Isak as well. However, he doesn’t have the sky-high ceiling of a player like Dibling or Bardghi.

This is a position we should be willing to spend money on though, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see the club splash out £40m or £50m on a right winger in the summer.

Striker

The most talked about Newcastle transfer story is also one of the least interesting.

Yes, Alexander Isak is one of the top strikers in world football, and yes I am sure many teams would love to have him, but the reality is that he has three years left on his contract, doesn’t have a release clause, and seems unlikely to try and force a transfer. PSR actually puts Newcastle in a strong position here, with even the richest clubs highly reluctant to meet the valuation, never mind actually prise a star like Isak away Newcastle. Next summer, with two years left on his contract, there might be more of a realistic conversation to be had about whether it makes sense to cash in. That is, assuming he doesn’t sign a new deal before then.

The back up to Isak is currently Callum Wilson.

Over the last couple of years this has been a fearsome prospect, as the two forwards pushed each other and both contributed goals. But Wilson is now 33 and his fitness appears to have finally deserted him. Wilson’s contract is up in the summer though NUFC do have a unilateral option to add another year if they so choose, in my opinion though the club should let him leave.

We also have Will Osula, who has made a number of cameos this season, but doesn’t seem to have yet developed the composure and decision making that could regularly convert his natural gifts into a frightening prospect to play against. Osula turns 22 in August, he badly needs to play some regular minutes. I’d suggest the club tries to find him a good loan next season.

So we are left needing a back up to Isak. Again there are a number of directions we could take to fill this position. One is to sign an older, proven player, who is happy not to be first choice. Alternatively, we could sign a young prospect who might eventually replace Isak in the team. Finally, there is the option of filling the role with one or more players who are also getting minutes playing elsewhere in the team.

What we are not going to do is to sign a prime age star like Jonathan David, so you can forget about that rumour.

In the first category, we have been linked to Dominic Calvert-Lewin who is available on a free transfer this summer. Personally, I hate this idea. It’s not just that DCL isn’t at the required level but that his injury record makes him an unreliable back up. Signing DCL would be quite likely to result in us paying decent wages to someone who is constantly on the treatment table for years to come. I would steer clear.

Option 2, the young prospect route, will be tricky to pull off in practice. We would need to find a young player who is a) happy to be behind Isak in the pecking order for the foreseeable future, b) good enough to play serious minutes up front if Isak were to get injured, and c) cheap enough to be affordable amid all the other priorities. Suffice to say, this wouldn’t be easy to pull off. Perhaps a loan with an option or obligation might be an option to here, otherwise I simply can’t see it happening.

We have been linked to Liam Delap (like most clubs in the Premier League) but I seriously doubt that will happen. Emanuel Emegha at Strasbourg is the kind of player we should be targeting if we went down this route.

Option 3 is more interesting. We have been strongly linked to Matheus Cunha from Wolves and while I have reservations, I certainly see the logic. At 25 Cunha is in his prime, is coming off his best career season, and would command a big fee and big wages (though not out of our price range). If he was just a striker this would be a non-starter, both for the player and the club. But the fact that Cunha could play as one of the 8s in our system and cover out wide, as well as deputising for Isak, makes it an appealing option. It wouldn’t come cheap, and his disciplinary record would need to transform, but Cunha would certainly add a huge amount to the team.

So I am predicting a busy summer for Newcastle. Ideally we would sign a right winger, at least one new midfielder, and a back up to Isak. Seven or eight incomings [in total, including my suggestions yesterday (see HERE) in terms of goalkeepers, central defenders and full backs] would represent a big outlay for the club, but should be doable if we take a smart approach, exploiting PSR situations, free transfers, and the loan market.