One of the big criticisms thrown at Newcastle United was that they had to become clever sellers.
The theory being that NUFC were holding themselves back by not selling players in order to raise the levels of extra financial flex that could/would then allow them to become stronger and stronger.
I could understand distant journalists coming out with this kind of lazy claim.
However, I was always bemused when any Newcastle United fans repeated it.
After all, we knew/know the reality of the challenges United really faced, or should do.
When the Newcastle United takeover happened in October 2021, the new owners and Eddie Howe inherited a squad with very few quality players that was on its way to the Championship.
There were very few players that could have attracted an even half decent transfer fee, probably ASM and Callum Wilson were the two could have been sold but they were key to our survival chances and would have simply needed to be replaced immediately as well.
On top of that, NUFC had an academy that had been left without any proper investment across a decade and a half of Mike Ashley ownership, so no steady supply of players progressing through the club. It is just pure luck that the Longstaff brothers, Elliot Anderson and the Miley brothers were all local lads and huge Newcastle United fans.
Eddie Howe performed miracles in the transfer market and he improved pretty much every player, both those he signed and inherited.
Starting from such a low base in Autumn 2021, it was incredible the team performances and success that followed.
That success built on a very small group of real quality players and then any number of others who regularly played well above their true levels as part of the team that was built.
The net result of this is that I think a lot of Newcastle United fans then believed these players were better than they really were. It is also a natural thing for fans of any club when they are speculating about who their club could buy and sell, to then believe potential lower buying prices and higher sale prices to make it appear more feasible.
Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff were key players and automatic first choices as Newcastle United finished fourth in 2022/23 and NUFC got to their first cup final in 24 years.
Sean Longstaff was sold last summer to Leeds United for £15m and has been a squad player, 10 starts in the Premier League last season and 13 sub appearances. Joe Willock could now finally be sold with Besiktas reported to want him, I can’t imagine NUFC getting more than £15m for him, especially with his injury record.
Yet in the past these were the players who regularly were put forward as individuals who could be cleverly traded and the imagined vast transfer fees used to help bring in top quality replacements. Some fans really believed that in the past Manchester United had been prepared to pay £50m for Sean Longstaff. Whilst I have often seen a belief from many NUFC fans that post-2022/23 season Joe Willock could have been sold for £30m+. The latter is apparently due to reading lame media reports and/or relying on valuation sites online that are simply 100% made up, not based on any kind of reality.
Sean Longstaff was always a £15m (not £50m!) player who played a decent role in Newcastle’s success and selling him at any point previous to last summer would have been pretty pointless from the club’s perspective, a replacement even as a squad player costing far more. As for Willock, since the 2022/23 season he has never been a player that anyone would have paid £30m+ for. He has limited impact on the pitch and had endless injury issues, other clubs are aware of these things as well!
As for others such as Lascelles, Krafth, Hayden, Hendrick, Fraser and others, getting any kind of a transfer fee was extremely unlikely and in the case of say Krafth, he was worth far more keeping him as a squad player for so long as opposed to getting a potential negligible fee. Just look at where these players have ended up, other clubs weren’t even prepared to take on their NUFC wages.
The transfer fees banked for others such as Shelvey and Almiron have reflected their value as well, both dropping to a lower level and not suggesting they were worth more than that.
The incompetence of those running the club then impacted, when under CEO Darren Eales and Amanda Staveley who had a paid management contract, we saw them lead us into an emergency PSR situation in June 2024 that necessitated the immediate need by 30 June 2024 to generate some £60m in pure profit on transfers. The book values of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh sadly meant they were the players that made sense to sell. The fact that the remaining players then produced the most successful season in living memory for most of us, surely points to the fact that a sale of an Isak or Bruno would have been a disaster. The book values of Tonali and Gordon at the time, compared to what they could have been sold for in June 2024, would have meant the sale of just one of that pair wouldn’t have solved the emergency PSR crisis alone.
The Newcastle United owners then a year later condemned the 2025 summer transfer window to be an all but certain disaster, with no CEO or Sporting Director actively working at the club across that summer it meant no senior staff in place to help ensure Howe’s key targets were dynamically pursued and got over the line. With the owners refusing to sell Isak all summer and then a huge u-turn to sell him on deadline day, it was the final fatal blow for me when it came to the 2025/26 season. That last gasp Isak sale only then seeing two strikers signed, neither of who had been on Howe’s original wish list.
That Alexander Isak sale though has seen him become the first of four star players to be sold with a 12 month period for a collective £370m, a profit of some £170m banked on the quartet.
Sale prices and then original purchase prices in brackets:
£125m Alexander Isak (£63m)
£70m Anthony Gordon (£45m)
£100m Sandro Tonali (£55m)
£75m Bruno Guimaraes (£41m)
I can’t help but think that if the Newcastle United owners had had the key senior staff in place for last summer’s transfer window, things could have been very different. Especially with Ross Wilson or similar as Sporting Director alongside Eddie Howe, I think the Isak situation properly dealt with one way or the other at an early stage and more of Howe’s key targets signed. Maybe also the clever selling of another could have happened, such as a Tonali or Gordon, if Eddie Howe had been convinced that would have allowed an overall better outcome across the squad. I certainly think that if Newcastle had sold Isak early to Liverpool, the scousers would have stepped aside and agreed not to prevent NUFC signing Hugo Ekitike.
None of that though was the reality and instead we have had the clever selling of four of Newcastle United’s best players from a position of weakness, not strength.
It is impossible to say with any certainty how things will now turn out this season (and beyond…). I am quite happy with the players signed so far this summer and just a case of how quickly they can hit the ground and whether they can make the step up at young ages to the Premier League. Obviously more signings are needed this month and probably the odd outgoing as well, such as Willock.
All we can do as fans is get behind the manager and the players on the pitch.
Here’s hoping.