For much of the summer, Newcastle United’s transfer window appeared from the outside to be defined by turmoil and uncertainty.
Eddie Howe departed, while Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali were sold. Early moves for players including Victor Munoz and Johan Manzambi were also derailed when Premier League rivals intervened.
However, a revealing discussion with sporting director Ross Wilson, chief executive David Hopkinson and chief financial officer Simon Capper has offered a different perspective. They explained how Newcastle came through the summer in a stronger position than many expected — on the touchline, across the squad and financially.
Chief football reporter Craig Hope joined the club’s hierarchy on Newcastle’s Quayside, where they outlined the thinking behind Newcastle 2.0, explained why selling prominent players will remain part of the club’s strategy and discussed the truth behind Howe’s succession plan.
In a revealing discussion with Ross Wilson (left), David Hopkinson (right) and Simon Capper, Newcastle’s hierarchy explained how the club emerged from the summer in a stronger position than many had expected
Newcastle have begun the season unbeaten and have been highly entertaining in attack
‘IT NEVER FELT CHAOTIC… BUT LOSING BRUNO WAS NOT PART OF THE PLAN!’
Q: And breathe — the window is closed. From the outside, though, were there moments when it felt chaotic and stressful?
WILSON: ‘Honestly, no. It never felt chaotic from inside the club. We did not want to lose Bruno Guimaraes, and that was not part of our plan. It was disappointing to see him leave, although we were satisfied with the financial terms of his £75million move to Arsenal. Everything else that happened during the window was part of the plan. That does not mean every signing was our first choice, because that is never how a window works. We were clearly disappointed on a couple of occasions, but that is normal.’
Q: How, then, do you assess the transfer window overall?
WILSON: ‘It was almost like managing two transfer windows at once, because we also had the managerial situation to resolve. We kept that process completely secret for just under two weeks while simultaneously trying to conduct our player recruitment.’
‘I had a clear idea of the identity I wanted Newcastle United to have. That vision was fully shared by David and our ownership group. The priority was reaching the end of the window — rather than judging things at the beginning or halfway point — and feeling that we had established that identity. It is not perfect and we are not claiming to be completely satisfied, but we are pleased with where we have arrived.
‘We are not congratulating ourselves or suggesting the work is finished. We now have to move forward with courage and determination alongside our new coach, our new signings and the players who were already here. There is still a great deal to do before the entire club reaches the level we want.’
CRAIG HOPE’S VERDICT: Only three weeks ago, it seemed unlikely that Newcastle’s summer business would receive much praise. Since then, new head coach Matthias Jaissle has made an impressive early impact, while the final three arrivals — Amar Dedic, Nico Gonzalez and Matias Fernandez-Pardo — have brought quality, experience and fresh excitement.
There is still plenty of football to be played, but Newcastle appear to have rescued their summer. At the same time, it was entirely reasonable to view the club as being close to a crisis in early August. The work completed since then has prevented that outcome, and those responsible deserve credit.
Amar Dedic has made an excellent start to life on Tyneside after joining from Benfica for £30m
Nico Gonzalez, signed from Manchester City for £50m, has also provided a significant boost
‘WE HAD BEEN PLANNING FOR A MANAGERIAL CHANGE FOR EIGHT OR NINE MONTHS’
Q: Did Eddie Howe’s departure cause disruption or pain?
WILSON: ‘It did not feel chaotic or painful. Eddie would be the first to say that. I arrived at the club 11 months ago, and for eight or nine of those months I had been planning in the background for a possible managerial change. We already knew the direction we wanted to take.’
‘Again, that does not mean we were always going to go to Matthias, but he was always part of our planning.
‘Part of our responsibility as leaders of the club is to be prepared. Eddie is an exceptionally talented coach and at some point that meant he was probably going to do something else, and we had to be prepared for that. Clearly the timing was not one we had planned for, but we had a plan in place which is why we could execute it as quickly as we did.
‘There is big respect to Eddie for the job he did for us over a long period of time. He did a wonderful job and is a legend of the club.’
Q: Was Jaissle the only manager that you spoke to?
WILSON: ‘No. He was the No1 choice. We knew the type of coach and the type of football we wanted to play. We had to use our models to identify who those coaches might be. So it was really clear that Matthias was someone who would be really interesting to us.
‘I spoke to him on the phone and it was a really good conversation. Then I met him and when I was on the phone he (Hopkinson) said, “You sound really excited about this one”. I said, “You’re probably right!”.’
CRAIG HOPE’S VERDICT: The timing of Howe’s departure was a shock, but him going was less of a surprise. It should have happened at the end of last season, when he had doubts about carrying on. Nonetheless, Newcastle have, it appears, found a replacement that shares many of the same principles when it comes to playing style and intensity, but crucially Jaissle brings a fresh energy.
I think they’ve appointed a very good coach who will be around the Premier League for many years, even if this season could yet be one of transition and ups and downs for Newcastle.
The timing of Eddie Howe’s departure was a shock, but him going was less of a surprise
Newcastle have, it appears, found a replacement that shares many of the same principles when it comes to playing style and intensity, but crucially Jaissle brings a fresh energy
‘AGGRESSIVE, VERTICAL AND ATTACKING’ – THE NEWCASTLE IDENTITY
Q: When Howe went, did you have to change the profile of player you were targeting, or did you keep the same idea?
WILSON: ’I cannot imagine, in the short term, Newcastle United playing a style of football that isn’t aggressive, vertical and attacking. For this club to be successful, we have to play an attacking, high press, high engaging, proactive, vertical style of football – and we had to find a coach to do that for us.’
Q: Has Jaissle got a specific target?
WILSON: ‘No. He’s here for four years, I hope. If he is, that’s us all doing well.’
Q: Can you feel the rise in expectation (on the back of an unbeaten start and some big signings)?
WILSON: ‘We want Newcastle United to be a club with anticipation and excitement. Because if we’re not, it probably means we’re doing it wrong. We want to feel excitement and ambition and a rise in anticipation. Of course we have to manage that and be balanced. But we want to be a club that’s got excitement around it.’
CRAIG HOPE’S VERDICT: On the playing style… while I agree with Wilson’s assessment of the fundamental principles of an aggressive and attacking team, I also believe there needs to be an evolution into control.
We saw on Saturday, during the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth, that Newcastle still struggle to take charge of a football match when it comes to keeping possession and dictating where and how the game is played. When fully fit, Gonzalez and Lewis Miley in midfield need to have a big impact on this improvement. Cohesion must complement the chaos.
When fully fit, Gonzalez and Lewis Miley (right) in midfield need to have a big impact on Newcastle’s ability to control games
‘WE HAD TO DO A DEAL LIKE ANTHONY GORDON… AND BRUNO MEANT MORE SIGNINGS!’
Q: What is the club’s position now with Squad Cost Ratio rules?
WILSON: ‘It (our SCR position) wasn’t hanging over the whole window, but where the club were previously, strategically and financially, led to the sale of Elliot Anderson (to Nottingham Forest) and Yankuba Minteh (to Brighton) and a UEFA sanction (£5m fine).
‘That’s the facts, that’s the reality. Nobody wanted to be there again. Going into this transfer window, we had to do a deal like Anthony Gordon (sold to Barcelona for £70m). It might have been another player, but it had to be a deal like that.
‘The window started with a new contract for Lewis Miley, which was a big signal for us in terms of identity and what we wanted to look like. A young player with an unbelievably high ceiling.
‘But until we had certainty over that transaction (sale of Gordon), we had uncertainty. Now, we’re very clear that we’re in a positive place.’
CAPPER: ‘Every top-level football club in Europe is managing their budget on every transfer. Sometimes, you have to link transactions together, “So we can do this if that player comes in or goes out”. For example, we were able to sign more players because Bruno left. That gave us more headroom to be able to invest.
‘That’s the other point. The club has managed to utilise as much of our headroom as we can strategically afford to lose. You can’t use 100 per cent on day one, because there’s more than just the squad cost moving. If you finish two places lower, that’s £7m off your revenue, for example. So you need to have a bit of a margin of error in your planning, because lots of things can change.’
Anthony Gordon has hit the ground running at Barcelona after his £70m move, providing four assists in his first four LaLiga matches
‘FERNANDEZ-PARDO WAS ONLY POSSIBLE BECAUSE OF WOLTEMADE LOAN’
WILSON: ‘Because we try to link things together, the ultimate deal for Matias Fernandez-Pardo was only possible because we did the Nick Woltemade loan to Juventus. That (Pardo) was the ultimate deal. Now, if we didn’t do the Woltemade deal, we might have done another, but that’s what we mean by linking things together.
CAPPER: ‘So the conversation we were having internally was, “If you want to do that, you’re going to have to give me something back, otherwise we’ll be in a position we’re not comfortable with”. We managed to get that.
‘We have come out of this transfer window, I wouldn’t say in an absolutely comfortable place, we have some risk around all of our Financial Fair Play measures, but it’s an acceptable amount of risk at this point.
‘Our forecasts are all compliant as of today and we can afford a few little things to go wrong and remain compliant. As an organisation, that’s the right place to be. We’re not going with £100m headroom, just in case. I’m not going to say what the headroom is, but it’s not that.’
WILSON: ‘But there is headroom, and that’s the key point.’
CRAIG HOPE’S VERDICT: Former sporting director Paul Mitchell had some fair ideas when it came to changing Newcastle’s transfer strategy. It was an approach to diplomacy akin to a bull in a china shop that meant it was never going to work.
Wilson has arrived with far more footballing statecraft and, primarily because of the sales of Gordon and Tonali (£100m to Tottenham), he has got the club on a sound footing from an SCR perspective. Internally, they’re calling it ‘ripping off the sticking plaster’, and I get that. It’s better to do the big sales at once as opposed to drip feed over several windows, and it serves to redraw the reality of where the club is at.
I’m still not sure about one or two of the younger players brought in at big fees this summer – they will clearly need time – but the evolution of the model was necessary and has been overseen in a relatively short period. With that, they’ve signed some top players who look ready to impact immediately.
‘The ultimate deal for Matias Fernandez-Pardo was only possible because we did the Nick Woltemade loan to Juventus’
‘IF YOU DON’T TRADE PLAYERS, YOU’RE GOING TO GET STUCK’
Q: Do the players you’ve signed fit into the 2030 Vision (of being among the top clubs in the world)?
WILSON: ‘We hope they’re with us on our journey to 2030, but we’ve got a player trading model as well. I’m sure there will be players in the 2030 squad that aren’t in the 2026-27 squad – I hope there are anyway! We want to have players here who are on a journey with us, but equally if some of those players’ journeys go at a rapid speed, they might go somewhere else. That’s part of football.’
Q: Does that (SCR headroom) allow you to spend in further windows, if you’re not so close to the limit?
WILSON: ‘Of course, but we built a squad for the season. That doesn’t mean we might not make further alterations to it in January. If you want to be a successful club in the Premier League, you have to trade players. If you don’t, the chances are you won’t be a successful club, particularly when the revenues of this club are in a phase where David and his team are making those really, really grow. But without that, if you don’t trade players, you are going to get stuck.’
HOPKINSON: ‘We’ve been consistent the whole way through – we are going to be consistently and credibly competing for those top prizes. Part of consistently competing means we’ve got to be compliant with the regulatory regime.
‘We know what our revenues are going to be projected, we can figure that part out. At the end of last season, and we did not have a strong finish, we ended up in 12th. When we started our pre-planning for the window – with each match we lost it got worse, because it meant our ultimate envelope would be smaller. So we came into this window knowing how much we would have to work with and a strong recognition that we have to be compliant.’
THE £60-70MILLION CHAMPIONS LEAGUE QUESTION
Q: Does the financial forecasting mean that you need to get in Europe this season?
CAPPER: ‘We forecast all (the scenarios), and basically we’re good for this season now. While we’ve got different scenarios, the answer is the number is quite different depending on where we are. If we’re in the Champions League, we’ve got a much bigger number to spend next summer than if we’re not in Europe at all.
‘The revenue difference is so big. We’re talking £60-70million minimum for the Champions League. Probably £30-40million for the Europa League and £20million minimum for the Conference League. So even the Conference League is material.
‘Once you get to the Champions League, it ends up being potentially 20 per cent of your revenue. So of course that affects our budgets. Again, we spend what we’ve got.’
‘If we’re in the Champions League, we’ve got a much bigger number to spend next summer than if we’re not in Europe at all’
WILSON: ‘But these are the conversations that every club’s got to have. So this isn’t a choice. And if you don’t do it (trade players), then you just keep the squad you’ve got and they’ll grow old and achieve less and leave for nothing.’
CRAIG HOPE’S VERDICT: I left the room with a clear sense of the direction Newcastle 2.0 will be taking. The thinking behind it is sound – and necessary – and I believe those leading that reboot are well intended.
What I’m less certain of is the likelihood of delivering the 2030 Vision the club has as its stated ambition. For that, there needs to be a big upturn in revenue and, probably, a new stadium for that to be possible. Also, the trading model they talk about cannot afford too many misses, not when margins are so tight. Manchester City can get a couple wrong, the chasing pack cannot.
But this, because of SCR and the like, is how a club outside the established top order must operate now. As is the way at Newcastle, it will never be dull seeing how it all plays out.