Opinion 

©TM/IMAGO

Newcastle fans would be forgiven for hoping the World Cup will rumble on until the end of the year. While the top nations tussle for the title of World champions, the Geordie club have seen their summer transfer window go up in smoke. Just one year on from losing Alexander Isak to Liverpool, Newcastle have been forced to sell Anthony Gordon to Barcelona, Sandro Tonali to Tottenham and now look set to lose Bruno Guimarães to Arsenal, following the player’s reported demands to depart St James’ Park. This, undoubtedly, is an unmitigated disaster for the Premier League side.

Rumour
	B. Guimarães
	Central Midfield
Newcastle   56 % Arsenal Premier League Premier League

Even the most optimistic among the club’s passionate fanbase will currently be looking at the exodus from Eddie Howe’s squad and scratching their head over the prospect of Newcastle improving on last season’s disappointing twelfth-place finish. When the club were bought over by the Saudi Public Investment Fund in 2021, many assumed Newcastle would be propelled into title races and regular Champions League football, but instead the club has finished in the top six just twice in the last five seasons. However, while things look rather chaotic at this moment in time, the St James’s Park side could use this difficult transfer window to begin a hard reset and put the inconsistent struggles of the last few years behind them.

For example, while it’ll undoubtedly be hard for Newcastle to replace the likes of Tonali, Gordon and, perhaps most notably, Guimarães, we must first acknowledge that the team hardly thrived under their leadership last season. All three players were some of Howe’s most-used stars in the previous league campaign and either struggled for form or had already had their heads turned by the prospect of a summer move. As such, selling them for good transfer fees in this window is perhaps the best the club could have hoped for. But there’s also another problem that their departure helps to solve.

After the transfer of ownership in 2021, Newcastle went from being one of the most frugal clubs in English football to arguably the wealthiest. And, understandably, the club thought its finances could allow it to leapfrog a few stages in their development and go straight from mid-table side to league contenders. This, inevitably, led to the club signing ready-made stars that could guide them towards the top of the table as quickly as possible. Whether it be Guimarães joining at the age of 24 in 2021, Tonali joining at 23 in 2023, or Yoane Wissa at the age of 28 and Jacob Ramsey at the age of 24 in 2025, Newcastle signed players either on the cusp of their prime years or firmly in them. And that’s led to long-term problems.

As we can see in the graph above, the average age of Newcastle signings in each of the last five seasons has often been over 25 years of age, with the five-year average working out at 24.6 years. That, subsequently, has led to the average age of Newcastle’s typical starting XI hovering around the 27-year mark. That may not sound so bad, but it means that Newcastle’s starting XI have consistently been in the sixth oldest in each of the last five Premier League seasons. Last season, only Burnley, Everton, Aston Villa and Fulham typically fielded older teams in the English top-flight.

That wouldn’t be an issue if Newcastle had built a squad to consistently win silverware and was full of players committed to the long-term future of the club. But, aside from winning the League Cup in 2025 and reaching the knock-out rounds of the Champions League last season, genuine moments of success have been few and far between, and along the way the club have had to sell key players who – due to being in their peak years – are determined to play at a higher level and challenge for silverware on a regular basis.

This, in turn, has led to Newcastle, perhaps inadvertently, making a huge amount of money from player sales under their Saudi owners. Since 2021, the club have made €512m from player sales and should they sell Guimarães for more than €70m, they’ll likely move into tenth place among all clubs for transfer income in that time and sit fifth among all English clubs. That may be music to the ears of the club’s accountants, but it has played havoc with Howe’s ability to keep his team in one piece, having lost Isak last season and now no less than three key players this summer.

Rumour
	S. Steur
	Central Midfield
Ajax   95 % Newcastle Eredivisie Premier League

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	S. El Mala
	Left Winger
1.FC Köln   37 % Newcastle Bundesliga Premier League

Rumour
	J. Manzambi
	Central Midfield
Freiburg   60 % Newcastle Bundesliga Premier League

As such, a change in tactics is not only advised but perhaps necessary. To the club’s credit, they seem to have recognised this and have duly gone about buying younger players with far smaller profiles than the likes of Tonali and Isak. For example, new winger Bazoumana Touré has joined from Hoffenheim for €47m, Stade Reims goalkeeper Ewen Jaouen has made the move to the club for €21.5m and Ajax midfielder Sean Steur has arrived for the best part of €27m. All three players are just 20 years of age or younger and are far off their peak years and any desire to use Newcastle as a stepping stone in the near future. When coupled with other potential signings like FC Köln winger Said El Mala (19) and Freiburg box-to-box star Johan Manzambi (20), it points to a transfer policy that is prioritising young prospects over ready-made stars.

Will this bring more immediate success to St James’s Park? Perhaps not. But it paves the way for long-term stability. And, rather than getting the rug pulled from under them each season when key players announce their intentions to leave once they hit 27 or 28, Newcastle could perhaps use this summer transfer window to build a platform on which they can sign young players at a faster pace than their need to sell older ones in the future. That, perhaps, may lead to cries from fans of the club becoming a stepping stone for bigger clubs in the Premier League, but in truth, the club have been exactly that over the course of the last five years. They simply never acknowledged it. Until now.