Whisper it quietly but I think Newcastle United might just have a plan.
That is, a plan on what will happen after this 2025/26 season finally ends.
It might have felt never-ending at times and seen Newcastle United face 58 matches in total, but I think when the final whistle blows on Sunday 24 May 2026, that will be when things are set to get very busy for those at NUFC.
I think this will be due to two main factors.
Lessons learnt from a shambolic summer 2025 for Newcastle United, then the fact that we have a World Cup this summer.
This won’t be just any old World Cup finals.
This 2026 version will have more teams (48), more players (1,248), more matches (104) and last longer (39 days) than any World Cup finals previously held.
It all feels a little surreal that this World Cup will kick off in just 37 days time.
These are some key dates ahead
Sunday 24 May 2026 – The 2025/26 Premier League season final round of matches will be played.
Thursday 11 June 2026 – World Cup kicks off.
Monday 15 June 2026 – The 2026 summer transfer window will open for Premier League and EFL clubs.
Sunday 19 July 2026 – World Cup final is played.
Saturday 22 August 2026 – The 2026/27 Premier League season kicks off this weekend.
Monday 31 August 2026 – The 2026 summer transfer window will close for Premier League and EFL clubs.
When you have a summer that has a major tournament, especially when it is a World Cup year, the transfer window activity is massive affected. Clubs (and players) looking to get deals arranged early on, as once international squads get together in advance of the finals it makes transfers so much more difficult to put together and national team bosses wanting as few outside distractions as possible.
After these World Cup finals, players will be heading off on holidays as well. It just then pushes back things further and creates complications of getting deals done after the tournament. You also have the ridiculous format which means that even after 72 group matches you will still have 32 countries in the competition as the top two in all 12 groups automatically go through and the eight best of the twelve to finish third in their groups. Reality is that pretty much all of the best teams and players will still be involved after the group games have finished.
Summer 2025
Players out – I think that this was all sorted well in advance of last summer’s window. Conversations between Eddie Howe and the rest of the recruitment team and indeed the players themselves. The likes of Longstaff, Targett, Vlachodimos, Hayden, Dubravka and Wilson all were heading to other clubs. Alexander Isak was the additional surprise, though he claimed the club had known about his intention to leave before the 2024/25 season ended. The Newcastle United squad had already been heavily depleted and down to pretty crazy low numbers already, with the PSR forced sales of Anderson and Minteh, as well as in summer 2024 and January 2025 the departures of Dummett, Hendrick, Ritchie, Almiron, Kelly, Karius and Lewis.
Players in – This is of course where things really fell apart and different people have different ideas of who to blame for the shambles of summer 2025. What was the plan and if there was indeed a plan, what went wrong? The facts are that Eddie Howe made clear at the end of 2024/25 season meeting with the Newcastle United owners that he needed his top targets pursued ASAP and as aggressively as possible, so that the best possible preparations could be made. The reality ended up as only Elanga signed in time to have a proper pre-season at NUFC and the other five eventual summer 2025 signings coming in far too late.
If there had been a cunning plan, it had ended up torn in shreds due to not dealing with the Isak situation and an inability to get the deals done for key targets. The club owners having no CEO or Sporting Director working across summer 2025 can only have massively harmed the execution of whatever plan there had been.
Summer 2026
Players out – I have no doubt that with less than three weeks of this 2025/26 season left to go and with a World Cup finals swiftly following on, Eddie Howe and Ross Wilson will now have their plan in place on outgoing players. Conversations had with individual players, players told whether or not they are part of the 2026/27 plans, plus of course feedback from the players themselves and what they would ideally like to happen.
Trippier, Ramsdale, Ashby, Targett, Krafth and Schar are all set to be no longer contracted to Newcastle United after 30 June 2026 and I can only see the possibility of Schar still here next season from that half dozen. Hopefully a one year extension set to be announced in the near future once he is back fully fit.
What does look for sure, at least to me, is that the rumours of Newcastle United planning to sell one or more of their highest valued players this summer to help fund squad strengthening, is going to be the case. So long as one of the interested clubs bids something around Newcastle’s valuation, then Anthony Gordon looks set to go to Barcelona, Bayern Munich, or wherever. Whether it is more than one automatic first team choice that leaves, remains to be seen.
Woltemade, Wissa, Thiaw, Gordon, Hall, Burn, Livramento, Elanga and Bruno all look set to be at the World Cup finals this summer, Joelinton a possibility as well. I am sure that Eddie Howe and Ross Wilson will know what the plan is with all of these players and whether they are set to be at the club for next season. I am assuming they will have also made decisions regarding the other main first team squad players who aren’t going to the World Cup finals – Tonali, Pope, Miley, Botman, Willock, Barnes,, Jacob Murphy and Ramsey.
When you add up those two groups of players and if you assume Anthony Gordon plus maybe one or two others are going to leave, you are only really looking at 16 or so at the most senior players still around for next season. When fans and journalists talk of having a far bigger clear out this summer than what I have suggested could happen above, I think it is all a bit unrealistic. It didn’t take many injuries this season to leave Eddie Howe short on numbers.
Wishful thinking?
I know it might be wishful thinking but I am getting the feeling that there is more of a plan now than there was 12 months ago. Maybe the Newcastle United owners were distracted by the trophy win on 16 March 2025 and then the subsequent Champions League qualification, a second in three years.
Maybe it all felt a bit like job done and the essential plans needed to build on that success, fell by the wayside a bit. Certainly having no Sporting Director or CEO working at the club last summer felt like they had taken their collective eye off the ball.
David Hopkinson and Ross Wilson have both now been here for the best part of a year and they can only be huge positives compared to this time last season.
I know they have an owners and senior staff get together towards the end of every season but this time feels a bit more significant, a bit more serious, an underlying sense of they are now ready to push on. Maybe a case of believe it if/when we see it but for me I am feeling a lot more positive. The line may have been fed to the journalists but the media mentions of a 25 strong Saudi Arabia PIF ownership group travelling to Tyneside for the meetings this past week did sound like they meant business. Especially with NUFC Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan here in person. I know he is usually at these end of season meetings, but as he is also the Governor of the Saudi Arabia PIF, there are currently a lot of high profile other issues for the PIF at this moment in time and indeed of course the whole world/political climate. Put it this way, there would have been plenty of reasons they could have gave if the Newcastle United Chairman hadn’t came to Tyneside this time.
Whilst we also of course hope that progress has finally been made on plans for the major infrastructure projects (stadium and training complex) with public announcements to come, I think there can be confidence that Yasir Al-Rumayyan has signed off the plan that Eddie Howe and Ross Wilson presented to him this past week.
The move by the Premier League from PSR to SCR (Squad Cost Ratio) has already been reported to be something that will give Newcastle United some extra flex and reach when it comes to ambitious player recruitment. The record 2025/26 revenues that will see Newcastle United record £400m+ for the first time, can also play a huge part in helping give a great platform this summer. The sale of Anthony Gordon and potentially others, then giving a huge additional financial shot in the arm to help finance team and squad positive progress.
I can’t help but think that one of the key reasons for the failure to move quickly on signings last summer, was the Newcastle United owners needing/wanting to wait until we moved into the new financial year on 1 July 2025 before major incoming deals could be done.
I don’t see any issues on that front this time, the move to SCR, the record 2025/26 club revenues AND then very early deal to sell say Anthony Gordon. That in turn would allow some serious early incoming business to be done by Newcastle United ahead of the World Cup finals, with the paperwork then officially going through later when the transfer window opens.
Last summer, Anthony Elanga arrived on 11 July 2025, then the second player bought was Malick Thiaw who arrived on 12 August 2025 (only four days before Newcastle’s first Premier League match of the 2025/26 season).
Laugh at me if I am proved wrong but I think there is zero chance of a repeat of that Sloth-like behaviour happening this time with Newcastle United when it comes to key summer recruitment. It doesn’t mean that all of the players Newcastle United ideally want to sell and buy this summer will all end up happening. However, what it does mean is that plenty of transfer business, in an out, will happen in time to allow proper preparations for the 2026/27 season.