A massive summer transfer window lies ahead for Newcastle United.
An expectation that a significant number of arrivals will come to St James’ Park.
Whilst if you believed the media, each and every decent current Newcastle United player guaranteed to leave.
What to make of it all?
Whilst we all know it is easier to find a Mackem in Milan than any truth in the media when it comes to Newcastle United players set to leave, obviously some are more coveted by rivals than others.
That is why the media concentrate on making stuff up about the likes of Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon, Bruno Guimaraes, Tino Livramento and Lewis Hall. Journalists pretending they know whatever about these United stars because everybody knows they would have no shortage of other clubs desperate to sign them.
Sadly, many Newcastle United fans are happy to believe the worst of our players, willing and even wanting to believe anything negative about them.
So what will actually prove the reality this summer, beyond the current phony stories put out by the media?
When it comes to the key Newcastle United players named above, the most sought after, the first thing to say is that the club are under no significant contract pressure to sell. Livramento and Bruno have two years left on their Newcastle deals, Hall and Tonali three years, Gordon four years. United also have an extra year they can unilaterally trigger on Tonali, so in effect he has four years, the same as Anthony Gordon. The other four Newcastle United players may also have the option of an extra season to be triggered by NUFC but the Tonali one has been made public.
None of this means they are guaranteed not to sign for another club this summer BUT it isn’t the position that Palace ended up in when they sold Marc Guehi for only £20m in January, or otherwise they’d have got nothing at all this summer. The same when last season at Liverpool, they allowed a situation whereby they were only months away from Van Dijk, Salah and Alexander-Arnold set to leave for nothing. In they had to give the first two of that trio huge new deals to prevent them leaving last summer as free agents, whilst the scousers eventually got £10m for Alexander-Arnold so that he would be available for the 2025 Club World Cup.
When it comes down to which Newcastle players could be sold this summer, it will come down to what offers actually come in AND which NUFC stars that the club are most comfortable with letting go.
My belief is that Newcastle United will trade some starting eleven players this summer in order to help fund serious squad rebuilding, restructuring.
I don’t see any chance of Lewis Hall or Bruno Guimaraes leaving, even if huge bids come in for them. I can’t see these two having any interest in leaving and the same from the club point of view.
As for the other three, I think there will be interest in all of the trio from other clubs AND I think the club may well end up selling two of them.
I don’t think there is a great desire to sell any of these players and certainly they won’t be leaving unless big enough bids are received, but I reckon Tino Livramento and Anthony Gordon will be at other clubs when the 2026/27 season kicks off.
It is never going to be exactly like for like, what money is received and what money is spent. At the same time though I think we can look at it as Tino Livramento to be sold and then that allowing a replacement to be signed and also allow the financial flex for a left-back to come in and compete as back-up for Lewis Hall. Lewis Miley has shown more than enough to be able to be cover for a new right-back, as well as primarily play in midfield.
A sale of Anthony Gordon can be key to enabling a couple of attacking threats to be added, to play on the wing and through the middle.
One player I am convinced won’t be leaving is Sandro Tonali.
I think he is happy at the club and despite so much hot air in the media, the midfielder has given no indication that he wants to leave. It is shocking these days how quotes in interviews with foreign media will be deliberately taken out of context, even worse, deliberately mistranslated! The same with a lot of what his agent has said, he owns the agency that is most prominent in Serie A and with top Italian players, Tonali’s profile means his agent will always be asked about him in interviews.
Regardless of that, I just think Sandro Tonali is far too valuable to Newcastle United when it comes to getting back on track next season.
We saw on Saturday yet again, how the partnership of Tonali and Bruno is integral to this team, with this pair together it means Newcastle United are capable of going up against any other midfield. On Saturday they got the better of Rice and friends in the middle of the pitch and that was despite Bruno still yet to get back to full fitness.
Even if a tempting offer did come in, my belief is that Sandro Tonali would also want to give us at least one more season. I think he is very genuine in his appreciation of the support he got from the fans, the club, Eddie Howe in particular, when he had his ban due to gambling on football when playing in Italy. Tonali has been at Newcastle three years but effectively only really played two seasons due to the ban, I think he will be more than ready to play for NUFC the minimum of at least one more season.
It is exactly seven weeks today when the transfer window officially opens and we descend into that madness for close on three months.
This week Eddie Howe is meeting the Newcastle United owners and for sure he will be presenting them with his plans for the summer transfer window and how he wants to prepare for next season. That plan will surely include details of the players that he thinks would potentially be worth trading to help fund a stronger and better team and squad.