When should we start to worry?

Don’t get me wrong, the transfer window is far from over, and plenty of exciting business could be going on behind the scenes. However, with just a few days to go until the first game of the season, Newcastle are alarmingly still yet to make a signing that improves our starting 11. 

Even the rumour cycle has mostly dried out, with the only known ongoing transfer saga being that of our attempts to sign England star Marc Guehi. Our third bid for the centre-back - thought to be £55m plus add-ons - went in over the weekend and it's hoped it will tempt Crystal Palace into a sale, but it's dragged on for over 10 days after Luke Edwards' 'exclusive' claimed it was almost done two Friday's ago.

Given that there are no real signs of any other transfer activity elsewhere, with key positions still yet to be addressed, at what point do we all start to worry?

For me, the time to worry is now. We have, if anything, regressed in squad depth following one of the most injury hit campaigns in Premier League history, and are seemingly just hoping the same does not happen again. The club has seemed nothing short of chaotic behind the scenes, with many unforeseen movements in key positions at both board and coaching level. Those behind the scenes changes, such as the Ashworth saga and sudden changes in ownership structure, would have been far less panic inducing if they didn’t run simultaneously with the PSR deadline day disaster.

The rushed sales of young talents Elliott Anderson and Yankuba Minteh prominently display the lack of preparation and the misjudgement behind the scenes. If either didn’t cooperate and agree to their respective moves, our season could easily have been over before it even started due to the vast points deduction we were likely to receive. 

Many would argue, and rightly so, that selling Anderson and Minteh was a worthy sacrifice if it meant avoiding a points deduction whilst holding on to our more prized assets. However, we never should have put ourselves in such a desperate position in the first place, especially when everyone at the club was well aware of the PSR deadline and the consequences of any potential breaches.

Anderson may not have been one of the first names on the team sheet, but he was undoubtedly an important and frequently used asset to the club.  As a local lad, who was a vital addition to our quota of homegrown players, he made 50 appearances for the club over the last two seasons. At 21 years of age, his true ceiling is still yet to be seen.

Although his sale is beyond understandable given the circumstances with PSR and the generous fee he commanded, we’ve shown no signs of even attempting to replace him. Given our injury crisis last year, and how frequently Anderson did start and feature for the club, it’s incredibly naive to go into a new season without replacing him even with Tonali returning from suspension.

As for Minteh, he has displayed at Feyenoord that he is an absolute force to be reckoned with. He came on leaps and bounds and developed exponentially in his one season in the Netherlands, and the fact that a club with Brighton’s scouting prowess were willing to drop such a figure on him proves his insane potential. 

Signing a player as exciting as Minteh only to never even see him play in black and white is absolutely heartbreaking. Once again, the circumstances with PSR certainly made his sale an easier pill to swallow, however his position on the right wing is our weakest in terms of both depth and in the starting 11. Our inability to sign a right winger, especially after selling a player of Minteh’s calibre in that position, is extremely concerning given the alarming lack of output from the right hand side last season.

As for our limited incomings, Lloyd Kelly is a good squad addition in individuality, and we should be utilising the free market to make even more signings like him. Vlachodimos was essentially a pawn in the emergency PSR trade with Nottingham Forest, and was clearly viewed by them as an expendable asset. As much as depth in goal is certainly nothing to complain about adding, and he could certainly end up proving me wrong, how easily he was displaced at Forest by Tyneside flop Matz Sels certainly does not fill me with any hope or excitement.

As much as Osula showed positive signs on his friendly debut, and he could also leave me eating my words if Howe develops him correctly, his weak goalscoring record cannot simply be ignored. He has scored just two goals in 47 league games in professional football, both of them coming in League One for Derby County. If our financial situation is as dire as it appears, it begs the question why we are using our limited resources to make risky youth signings at the expense of plugging major gaps in the first 11.

If we had the exact same transfer window as we have had thus far in the Mike Ashley era, we’d all be standing outside Sports Direct with our signs and banners raging at the mediocrity and lack of ambition. With Livramento and Hall still likely not as favourable to Howe as Burn and Trippier, there is a genuine possibility we start the first game of the season with no additions to our starting 11 since Anthony Gordon signed in January 2023.

I understand many will think I am overreacting and ungrateful, and I understand that PSR is of course a major hindrance to our attempted progress, but teams such as West Ham and Aston Villa are proving it possible to have exciting transfer windows despite the rules that limit clubs so heavily outside the 'big six'. It is not an excuse we can use forever, no matter how great an obstacle it undeniably is.

Admittedly, I’m a ‘Here we go!’ for Guehi or a new right winger away from impulsively booking time off work for our title parade, but as the days pass without any activity my excitement for the upcoming season is quickly withering away. With not even a week to go until our opening fixture, and with our rivals out performing us in the transfer market, I think it's fair to say the time to panic has already arrived.