Newcastle sign £32m full-backs and midfield starlet in exciting January transfer window prediction
Eddie Howe's side are doing well in the Champions League but could improve their Premier League consistency with some January transfers.
Newcastle United’s Jekyll and Hyde season continued on Wednesday as they thumped runaway Eredivisie leaders PSV Eindhoven 3-0 at home in the Champions League to move up to seventh in the League Phase table with one game to go - higher than they are in the Premier League.
They average almost two points per game in the hardest club competition on the planet, yet despite having the richest owners in world football, The Magpies only average 1.5 in the Premier League and head into the weekend level with a Sunderland side who were in League One more recently than the top flight, and a Brentford squad that has the lowest wage bill in the division.
In many ways it’s not surprising, as Newcastle are best suited to a lower-possession game favoured by sides usually in the relegation fight, like Leeds United or Nottingham Forest this season, or Leicester City and Manchester United last season. Yet unlike those teams, Newcastle have international stars like Anthony Gordon, Bruno Guimarães and Malick Thiaw who can successfully execute that style against the very best teams.
To combat this, Eddie Howe is trying to transition his side to a more possession-based style but to do that he’ll need personnel changes, so we asked Grok to predict who Newcastle could sign in the January transfer window.
Smit could become midfield superstar on Tyneside - according to AI
Kees Smit - £25 million from AZ Alkmaar: A defensive midfielder who’s more like a quarterback for AZ Alkmaar, the 20-year-old Smit isn’t the finished article yet, but he’s a fine deep-lying playmaker who would be perfect to enact the change Howe is trying to bring about at St James’ Park.
Brooke Norton-Cuffy - £15m from Genoa: While Newcastle are looking for more possession, they also need squad depth all over the pitch and particularly at full-back. So the ex-Arsenal right-back, who’s been a mainstay for Genoa this season aged 22, could be perfect - capable of developing into a player of the standard of Lewis Hall or Tino Livramento without costing the world, and able to contribute right away.
Joaquin Seys - £17m from Club Brugge: Grok lists this as ‘more speculative’, which is a pretty bold claim considering the rest of these predictions, but the 20-year-old could be a steal for Newcastle at this price having starred for Club Brugge domestically and in the Champions League for two seasons running.
Osula Newcastle’s only departure
William Osula - £15m to Eintracht Frankfurt: Part of Newcastle’s extreme reluctance to allow Alexander Isak to leave and their urgency over signing another striker in the summer window was because the cupboard was so bare at top of the pitch behind the Swede.
Osula had played just 21 times for the club before this season kicked off, and scored four goals. Yet for a few glorious minutes it looked like he had given Newcastle their moment of the season with his strike against Liverpool, just before Rio Ngumoha had the final say, and Osula picked up his first ever league start in black and white the game after that.
However, since then he’s only played 149 minutes in all competitions and currently has an ankle injury, and there has been plenty of speculation that he could move to Frankfurt. The AI reckons that could finally come to pass this winter.