Transfer woes | OneFootball

Another transfer window has been and gone and once again I’m sat here feeling frustrated and concerned for the immediate future of the team.

As Miguel Almiron left the club last week to rejoin MLS side Atlanta United FC, it was with a surprisingly bittersweet feeling.

I think anyone who has watched Newcastle over the past year, would probably agree it was time for Miggy to leave. He was very much a fringe player in the squad and, now the wrong side of 30, his value was decreasing each passing month.

His blistering form of the 2022/23 season was long behind him, that run he had leading up to the world cup was absolutely sensational. His attacking output had stalled in a big way, with seemingly everyone now wise to his inability to go outside on his right foot.

Still, Miggy just fitted well with the intensity driven approach that Howe demands of his players. You never had to worry about Miggy not giving his all and doing a job when he came on, even if that job had become to help us see out the closing stages of games. Regardless of his value to the squad, it’s hard to argue that fetching an eight figure sum for Miggy wasn’t an excellent piece of business.

Then on transfer window deadline day, we had the news that Lloyd Kelly had departed for (what will be an eventual) sum of £20 million to Juventus. There had been rumours about Kelly for much of January, although many fans questioned their legitimacy given Kelly’s indifferent form in his handful of appearances this season. Fetching a significant sum for the Bristolian after his run of performances this season, can again only be viewed as solid business. All in all we are generating over £30 million in incoming transfer fees this window, the vast majority of which goes straight onto the balance sheet to aid our finances moving forward.

However, despite the positive business moving out of the club, Newcastle’s approach to incomings is a different story altogether. We have now completed three transfer windows with no significant incomings, Lloyd Kelly arrived on a free last summer, but as having now departed we’re back to square one.

I wrote at the beginning of the season around the decision to put all the eggs in the Marc Guehi basket and how not having a plan B was a massive gamble. At the time I suggested if we could keep our defence, in particular Fabian Schar, fit, we could be in and around the top four with a chance to strengthen in January and try and solidify a Champions League finish.

I’ve also previously written about our need to strengthen down the right-hand side of the pitch (it’s hardly a secret) and talked about a range of options the club could target. After a patchy start to the season, an excellent run of form at the end of 2024 put us in the position I hoped we might be in come January.

Unfortunately to mine, and many other Newcastle supporters’ frustrations, we again failed to add to our squad and now face the prospect of seeing out the season with a relatively threadbare squad.

My biggest immediate concern is our distinct lack of attacking options.

Our current front three of Gordon, Isak and Murphy have been absolutely on fire over the past couple of months and realistically they deserve to start every game at the moment.

The big issue here is, should the form or fitness of one of these three become an issue, then the only option we have had off the bench for some time is Will Osula. I’m a big fan of the young Norwegian but it’s fairly obvious he still has a fair amount of growth to go through before he is first team ready. Callum Wilson did at last make the squad for last night’s win over Arsenal, then in the coming weeks we stand to also have Harvey Barnes hopefully back in the squad. However, their fitness records over their time at the club are not what you would describe as week-in week-out options. They both realistically could miss more time through injury, in particular our fragile number 9.

Our lack of cover for Jacob Murphy following the sale of Miguel Almiron has been causing me the most stress over the past week or so.

I have been utterly baffled at the insistence we wouldn’t replace Miggy at all this January. There has been a repeated message that we needed to sell Miggy to help with PSR but then no explanation as to why the Guehi funds couldn’t be repurposed. The only explanation that makes any sense to me is that they have a very clear number one target for this position in the summer and they know exactly what funds they will need. Still, not bringing in back up for Murphy, even in the form of a loan signing, is a huge risk.

Let’s for a moment think of Miggy and Murphy as two sets of trainers that you love. You got a great deal on them, they’re comfortable and they do what you really need them to do (i.e. keep your feet protected and dry). Sadly, one pair are well past their best and you reluctantly have to let them go (Miggy). You’ve had the other pair just as long, but they seem to be holding up alright so rather than replacing the discarded pair you decide to stick with the one pair as you can’t afford the ones you really want. Then imagine you’re away on a trip with your favourite trainers and all of a sudden you realise that they’ve got a hole in. There’s no way of replacing them now, there’s no shoe shops but the weather is awful and your feet are getting wet. What you are left with, apart from wet feet, is something that is no longer fit for purpose and no way to replace it, if only you’d borrowed a pair off someone you know before you went away!

What I’m trying to say with that longwinded analogy, is that Murphy is our last pair of trainers and by not borrowing a spare, we’re in big danger of having a hole in our squad if something were to happen to him between now and the end of the season.

Then let’s look at our transfer strategy as a whole.

I keep using the phrase “gamble” and so do many others who cover the club and I honestly feel that’s what we are doing here and the stakes couldn’t be higher.

To use another analogy, Paul Mitchell and the decision makers at the club are like that bloke at the races who is 10 cans of Stella deep and has had a tip on a 20/1 outsider. They’ve pulled their life savings out of the bank and have stuck it all on this tip. If it comes through they’re set for life, if it doesn’t they are going to have to sell everything valuable they own and hope they don’t lose the wife and kids in the process.

If Eddie Howe can navigate this group of players through to the end of the season and into a Champions League finish, the money we theoretically will have available will allow us to build a truly elite group of players.

If we falter and finish outside of the European spots, we could lose not only our best players, but the ability to grow commercially and compete at the top.