Paul Mitchell has tried to explain what happened at Newcastle United this summer, after the Magpies failed to make any major signings.
It was a frustrating end to a pretty dismal summer for Newcastle United, with neither a winger or a centre-back arriving at St James’ Park. They were the two main priorities ahead of the window, yet neither were addressed.
Newcastle pulled out of a deal for Marc Guehi due to Crystal Palace’s £75million asking price, while the Magpies also failed with a bid for Anthony Elanga.
While the club will argue they were not going to spend money and sign players for the sake of it, Eddie Howe has been let down by Newcastle officials.
What Paul Mitchell said about Newcastle’s transfer strategy
It was a difficult summer for Paul Mitchell, who arrived at St James’ Park on July 4th. By the time he became Newcastle’s sporting director, summer plans were already in place.
And Mitchell has admitted that was difficult for him, as it meant he was playing a supporting role as Newcastle aimed to complete deals for the targets they had identified.
“I think it’s difficult coming into a predefined strategy,” he told the Daily Mail.
Mitchell went on to add: “We had a player as the key, core target. We were still in dialogue all the way through, but Eddie was very clear, and it’s not up to me after seven weeks to say ‘we’ll do this and that’ because I’m in a supporting role.”
Simon Jordan thinks Paul Mitchell’s argument is ‘ridiculous’
Mitchell’s comments have not gone down well with Simon Jordan, who has criticised Newcastle United’s sporting director on TalkSPORT.
“I don’t know why he would say ‘it’s difficult coming into a predefined strategy’ because if it’s difficult then don’t come into it,” he said.
“I’m assuming you were recruited because you met the requirements of a predefined strategy. Otherwise, why would they recruit you?
“Ultimately, once you’re in that strategy you can start to finesse and look at the way things can evolve as you’re trying to evolve the football club. So I think that’s a stupid thing to say.
“And we also understand that most football clubs want predefined strategies. You want to be able to have continuity. You want to be able to be in a situation where senior appointments can leave and the strategy of the football club does not change with the weather based upon the personality that is sitting in the dugout or sitting in an influential position.
“So I think that’s a ridiculous thing to say in the first place.”
Newcastle need to do better in January and beyond
Given the time of Mitchell’s arrival, it made the summer transfer window very difficult.
Plans were already in place, while there was not enough time for the former Monaco man to come in and implement his own strategy.
In that respect, he was in a supporting role. However, it does come across a little bit as if Mitchell is passing the buck.
Overall, it was an awful transfer window for Newcastle. The only thing worth celebrating was keeping star players such as Bruno Guimaraes, Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon.
Now Newcastle need to do better, and the pressure is on Mitchell and Darren Eales to truly support Eddie Howe when the January transfer window opens.
In the meantime, Mitchell can get to work on implementing his own strategy, since the ‘predefined’ one seemingly was not fit for purpose…
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