Ross Wilson and Newcastle’s ‘decision makers’ are leaving Jaissle short

Matthias Jaissle has been Newcastle United manager for barely a week and he has already made it pretty clear where responsibility for transfers sits.

At his unveiling, Jaissle said recruitment was “a job for Ross and the management” and spoke about Newcastle's future starting with the “decision makers”, management and board. After last night's 3-1 defeat to Everton, he was asked whether he was confident Ross Wilson would deliver the players he needs.

“It’s not in my hands,” was the telling part of his answer.

So if Newcastle go into this season desperately short at right-back and central midfield, I'm struggling to see how anyone can put that at Jaissle's door.

These problems existed long before he arrived.

How on earth are we here again?

I genuinely, and perhaps naively, assumed that when Newcastle agreed to sell Bruno Guimarães, his replacement would already be lined up.

Maybe not standing in The KNOX holding a scarf above their head, but agreed in principle. Advanced. Ready to move.

Instead, Bruno has gone and we're still looking.

Ross Wilson has since stressed that selling Bruno was never part of Newcastle's plan. Fair enough. But contingency planning is part of his job too.

It was publicly reported in early July that Bruno had told Newcastle he wanted to join Arsenal. The £75m agreement wasn't reached until the 5th of August, while Sky Sports reported that intermediaries had been pushing the possibility of a deal from June. Newcastle had weeks to prepare for the very real possibility that their captain was leaving.

Right-back is even harder to explain

Kieran Trippier's departure was confirmed on 4th April. This hasn't exactly crept up on us.

Tino Livramento then underwent minor surgery at the end of June and still hasn't featured in pre-season.

Lewis Miley, who filled in at right-back last season, fractured his fibula in May. He is recovering well, but that's almost beside the point. Miley should be spending this season trying to claim a central midfield place as his own, not being used as emergency cover because Newcastle haven't signed a right-back.

And we simply cannot build the squad on the assumption that Tino will stay fit and play every week.

So why, in mid-August, are we still scrambling?

The clearest right-back move has been talks for Amar Dedić, a player Jaissle knows from Salzburg and has approved since arriving.

Dedić may be an excellent signing. I hope he is.

But the fact our clearest right-back move is now for one of Jaissle's former players hardly makes the recruitment look especially well prepared.

Give the manager a chance

There are positives.

The new signings have brought some desperately needed youth and freshness into an ageing squad. Sean Steur has looked the pick of them so far and there is a lot to like about the 18-year-old.

But asking an 18-year-old who has just arrived from Ajax to start every week in Bruno's old midfield role would be an enormous ask.

We should be adding these young players to a functioning squad, not immediately asking them to carry it.

And if financial restrictions mean Newcastle cannot simply go and spend another £100m, fine. Get creative.

Where are the loans? What about experienced free agents? There may not be a perfect player available in either market, but if money is tight that makes smart, short-term recruitment more important, not less.

Jaissle has inherited a squad stripped of leaders, short in obvious positions and halfway through a massive transition he had absolutely nothing to do with.

He has now told us who is responsible for finding the solutions.

Ross Wilson. The management. The board. The “decision makers”.

The new manager and these players deserve a proper chance. At the moment, it feels like they're being let down by the people above them.

Liverpool is ten days away. Newcastle cannot spend another summer waiting until deadline day to solve problems they've known about for months.