Journalist Craig Hope spoke on his YouTube channel about the ‘message’ provided by manager, Eddie Howe on their January transfer window strategy.
The Magpies have spent a lot of cash since their takeover, in October of last year. They signed a number of players, many of them for hefty fees. Newcastle spent £40 million on Bruno Guimaraes in January, around £35 million on Sven Botman and £63 million for Alexander Isak.
However, according to Hope, fans may need to temper their expectation when it comes to big money business in January. The club will have to consider a number of factors, especially Financial Fair Play but Howe has hinted he wants to strengthen the side.
He said: “The message is don’t expect a great deal of business. And there are a number of reasons for that. One is that Newcastle are probably still limited to a degree by FFP the further down the line they have spent during the course of the last 12 months have already spent £200 million and Eddie [Howe] did stress that.”
“He didn’t want to use two things as an excuse, he doesn’t want to use FFP, or the fact that Newcastle are doing very well to sit back and say, you know, I don’t want to improve this team. He said, absolutely, you know, being third in the table isn’t a reason to rest on laurels. You should be strengthening from a position of strength.”
TIF’s view on Hope’s comments…
We believe that Newcastle fans will have to simply wait and see. Judging by Hope’s comments after talking with the boss, Eddie Howe, spending money in January could go either way.
The Magpies don’t necessarily have to spend big in order to sign players in the next window. Newcastle’s transfer strategy hasn’t been to simply throw money at every single player they’ve signed.
Kieran Trippier only cost £12 million, Dan Burn only set the club back £13 million and summer signing Nick Pope was only £10 million.
Providing depth to certain positions is where Newcastle should look to strengthen in the next window. So that doesn’t mean they have to spend big money on backup players.
Considering they sit third in the league, the Magpies have shown their starting XI can more than compete with any Premier League side.