The January transfer market showed how badly Newcastle United needed a permanent director of football to oversee transfer negotiations, so the appointment of Dan Ashworth is a step in the right direction. The club is, of course, renowned these days for having money to burn given the extremely visual takeover by the Public Investment Fund of Saud Arabia that saw wild celebrations take place on the streets of Newcastle.However, minority shareholders Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi have done themselves no favours by repeating this to the media for months in the build-up to the winter transfer market opening. Yes, the two directors wanted to win friends in Newcastle by promising to splash the cash and you could say that perhaps this was a PR exercise to garner support when the rest of the footballing world were raising eyebrows at the takeover.
But what this has ultimately led to is Newcastle having to pay an additional tax when they knock on the door of opposition clubs wanting to sign their players. Indeed, whoever opens that door is going to see Staveley and Ghodoussi looking smugly back and recognise them from the countless media interviews they’ve done, this will be followed by a gleeful rub of the hands as they’re invited in to ‘negotiate.’
You may think this is a somewhat unfair way to portray them in a cynical sketch but then how else do you explain the wisdom in the club spending £55 million on Burnley’s Chris Wood, Atletico Madrid’s Kieran Trippier, and Brighton’s Dan Burn? On top of that, the Toon have also shelled out £35 million for defensive midfielder Bruno Guimaraes from Lyon who by all accounts is a good player, but then again, only time will tell if that was a shrewd bit of business.
Interestingly, the Arsenal fans will tell you that it is as they are in uproar after missing out on capturing the signature of the Brazilian. Indeed, the football transfer betting in the summer of 2021 indicated that the Gooners were odds-on to seal the deal for Guimaraes in January, only for Newcastle to steal a march on the Londoners at the eleventh hour.
Astonishingly, Guimaraes went out of his way to troll the Arsenal fans after signing for Newcastle, given the failed pursuit by the Emirates club. With this being the case, you’re inclined to think that the Toon hierarchy has got this one right, but what you would also say is that Newcastle hasn’t shown the required finesse in the transfer market that is needed to conduct clever signings, given that the rest of their business has been far from inspiring and looks overpriced.
You could, of course, also argue that their battering ram approach at this stage is justified as the club stares possible relegation in the face. In other words, it’s a desperate case of needs must in order to avoid a return to the Championship which is understandable, but going forward, expect Ashworth to implement a much smarter, long-term approach to recruitment and improving the squad based on Eddie Howe’s needs.
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