The craziest transfer window in Newcastle history? - From disaster to redemption
Have Newcastle United just endured the craziest transfer window in its history? It’s safe to say nobody envisioned how crazy it would wind up on the 1st of June.
Fans all expected Anthony Gordon to leave, considering he was left on the bench for the last six squads of the 2025/26 season. It also felt like Sandro Tonali was never really committed to Newcastle United anyway, so it wasn’t a surprise when news of his move to Spurs broke (although the £100m fee certainly eased any pain).
But when the Bruno Guimarães news broke - not long after Brazil had been knocked out of the World Cup and the player who’d professed his desire to be a legend decided he wanted out with Arsenal his prepared destination - United were down in the doldrums of media backlash with some outlets predicting relegation.
Scale of the squad rebuild
The scale of the squad rebuild cannot be underestimated, with eight players arriving for around £268.46m with an average age of just 21 and a new Head Coach and coaching staff joining them at a further £19m cost. United cleared out six top earners for around £239.8m whilst also removing an estimated £800k+ from the weekly wage budget.
The incomings have left United with an approximate net spend of around £28.66m, which is interesting considering part of the UEFA judgment is that we must have a transfer surplus this season and across the next three we are in European competition, which may mean we will see a sale in January or before the June cut off next summer.
Even more curious is the final day rejection of a bid of £15m for Jacob Murphy and the £17m lost on Joe Willock not moving to Besiktas which would have almost completely covered all the incomings made this window and reduced the need for a big sale next summer, although if Jaissle considers them important senior members of what is a young squad then the rejections make sense from a footballing perspective, if not a financial one.
Earlier in the window the incomings were exclusively young with concerns raised over how United would cope in the Premier League especially as by the start of August the incomings were: Ewen Jaouen, Bazoumana Touré, Sean Steur and Aladji Bamba only. And now, two games into the season, it’s only really Steur who has made any impact in the bread and butter of the Premier League.
Thankfully, August has seen the club land some key targets with either experience of the league (Nico Gonzalez), experience of Jaissle (Amar Dedic) or the “hot prospect” label in Matias Fernandez-Pardo (who made six appearances for Belgium at the World Cup). Fernandez-Pardo is a player they have long liked. It was rumoured earlier in the window would only leave Lille for European football, suggesting the pull of the club, the project and Jaissle is something highly rated players will still pay attention to.
Lukáš Horníček also arrived for £25m from Braga in much-needed goalkeeper reinforcements. Another interesting fact: of the eight signings brought in, six were playing in the Champions League last season, so these players are no mugs at the top level of European football. And in the modern SCR landscape it also cannot be overlooked that these young players will continue to increase in value and be sellable assets moving forward as we will need to continue to sell each window until our revenues have increased.
A Nick Woltemade solution
Whilst not the biggest departure of the summer, a perhaps surprising one is that of Nick Woltemade, who will spend 2026/27 on loan at Juventus.
There’s no option to buy included in the deal with it being a straight loan, so the deal has the potential to be a net positive for United and the player.
Hopefully he’ll tear it up in Italy, retain his value and we can sell him for something approaching the £69m we paid for him.
Italy is surely being a better fit for his style of play and physique, with him appearing to be a poor suited to Jaissle’s style of play, but I can’t help but be a little sad at his departure.
From disaster to redemption
If you’d asked me to rate the window at the end of July/just after Bruno left, I would have given it a one or two out of ten, given the concerns and the lack of Premier League-quality incomings. Now, with the transfer window thankfully closed until January, I’d happily give the window a 7.5/8 out of ten.
I think we are still light on the right wing and at full back and ideally, I would’ve liked another forward player to come in, but considering where we were earlier in the summer, Ross Wilson has pulled off a minor miracle by turning this crazy transfer window around to that degree.
It’ll be interesting to see if the club make any moves in January considering the UEFA judgement, but for now, we can just bask in the great start we’ve made to the season and look forward to Pardo’s debut against Bouremouth.
Keep the faith. HWTL
