Statistics show that Newcastle United is a team that recruits quite a lot of expensive rookie, but it is very rare for the failure to fail. What is the reason behind the success of the injection?
Newcastle United has just performed an more popular deal in this summer, when recruiting winger Anthony Elanga from Nottingham Forest for £ 52 million, plus £ 3 million depending on achievement. Converted, this figure was 64 million euros, making him the second most expensive contract in Newcastle history.
Although the 23 -year -old has developed into a formidable talent in the Premier League, the price that Newcastle has to spend to get a former young Man United star is surprising many people.
No doubt, it was a large amount for a new player who only joined Forest more than two years ago for 16 million euros. However, if a UK club is considered to be extremely good at buying expensive contracts without encountering the “classic trap” of the Premier League, it is Newcastle. And when looking back at the most expensive contracts in this club history, it became even more clear to both fans and experts.
Newcastle's impressive shopping profile
As you can see through the statistics of major deals, Elanga will only be behind Alexander Isak (70 million euros from Real Sociedad) and surpass Sandro Tonali (58.9 million euros from AC Milan). Although Newcastle has spent strongly in recent years, it is worth mentioning that most of these rookies have played extremely impressive and become a key factor under coach Eddie Howe.
Both Isak and Tonali are bright stars at St James' Park and are among the best player in the Premier League player in their position. Besides, names like Harvey Barnes and Anthony Gordon also play an important role in the attack, while Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes are indispensable links in the middle. The defense is also firmly built with Tino Livrangeento (37.2 million euros), Sven Botman (37 million euros) and Lewis Hall (33 million euros). All are the strategic options of Howe.
Of course, there are still a few deals that are not commensurate with the transfer fee. Chris Wood is clearly not worthy of 30 million euros that Newcastle has spent, and the cult transfer Michael Owen from Real Madrid in 2005 for 25 million euros is not really successful, even though he scored 30 goals and 2 assists after 79 matches.
But if only the two names are considered “bomb” among the 15 most expensive deals in the club history, it shows that Newcastle has a superior shopping achievement compared to most of the Premier League teams.
Newcastle chose quality than quantity
Although a number of deals mentioned in 2005, most of Newcastle's most expensive contracts (10 of the top 15 deals) were carried out after the club was taken over by the Saudi Arabia's public investment fund (PIF) in October 2021.
However, contrary to the expectation of a large -scale “explosive bomb”, the Premier League's profit & sustainable regulations (PSR) significantly limited the financial strength of Newcastle.
The club is forced to sell players to balance spending. Surprisingly, since the beginning of the 2022/23 season, Newcastle's total net expenditure is only 9th in the Premier League, after both West Ham and Nottingham Forest. Although coach Howe acknowledged that these rules have “completely changed” the club's transfer strategy, but the reality may show: It was that reserved forced Newcastle to build a more quality and cohesive squad.
As shown in the above chart (illustrating the number of players who have been recruited by the clubs since Newcastle was taken over in October 2021) “injecting” has only made 21 contracts from the 2022 winter transfer period.
Surprisingly, this number only ranked 13th among the British teams, even after the clubs that have gained promotion such as Burnley, Nottingham Forest or Southampton, as well as mid -range teams, desire to rise like Aston Villa, Tottenham or Brighton.
More significantly, Newcastle bought less than half of the players that Chelsea signed in the same stage and cost less than a third of the amount of money that the Stamford Bridge team spent. However, in the last season, the distance between the two clubs on the rankings was only 3 points. One side pursues the strategy of “hitting fishing net”, and the other side is consistent with a careful way, choosing quality instead of quantity.
Eddie Howe
Of course, the recruitment and determining which players deserve to be bold is one thing, but to maximize their ability in the harshest tournament in the world is completely different. To do that, the club needs a coach capable of “exploiting potential” players, and in the Premier League today, few people do it better than Eddie Howe.
As well as Newcastle's transfer policy, Howe seems to have benefited from the financial limits that the club must comply with. Last season, the British coach used only 24 players during 38 rounds, the second priest of the Premier League (just over Nottingham Forest with 23 players).
Even so, he still brought the team to the finish in 5th, based on the excellent performance of the pillars. Of the 11 most used players, only Lewis Hall is recruited that season. Most have been in the club before, such as Dan Burn or Fabian Schar, or brought back shortly after Howe took over, such as Bruno Guimarmes or Nick Pope.
It was this stability that helped Newcastle's pillars progress. Under the direction of Howe, many players not only improve their performance but also skyrocket in transfer value. From mature “raw gem” from the training furnace such as Lewis Miley (up 25 million euros), to stars bought at high prices such as Tonali (+10 million), Guimara (+50 million) or Isak (+90 million), all have become a better version since the Newcastle jacket.
And that is the real secret behind Newcastle's impressive achievement in the transfer market.