Ambition and pragmatism: Newcastle pin survival hopes on two-tier transfer strategy

It always promised to be a transformative transfer window. If Newcastle United’s status as the Premier League’s biggest winter spenders was predictable ever since a takeover was completed, three verdicts on their business will be delivered.

The first comes immediately, the second at the end of the season, when it is determined if it has kept them in the division, and the third in the more distant future. Did they lay foundations for something grander or simply spend a lot?

Certainly Eddie Howe has addressed most of the problem positions in his squad; that his additions include defenders, midfielders and forwards show that included virtually every department. But his buys can be divided into two categories which have nothing to do with roles on the pitch: short- and long-term. There are some who could be crucial components of a United side found much higher up the league in two or three years’ time. There are others who are in effect signed for four months.

Officially, only the loaned Matt Targett is. Nevertheless, the left-back can be bracketed with Dan Burn and Chris Wood. In an ideal world, Newcastle would not have been paying £13 million for perhaps Brighton’s fourth-best centre-back, especially when he is 29, or £25 million for a 30-year-old Burnley forward. Neither is likely to be a starter for a top-half Premier League side now.

They turned to Burn after missing out on players with more potential, who could have been the cornerstone of their defence for years, such as Lille’s Sven Botman. Yet it has long been apparent that most of their centre-backs were declining. Captain Jamaal Lascelles required a better partner and Burn probably figured a long way down their original shortlist but is still an upgrade.

Chris Wood threatens to prove the most pragmatic purchase in footballing history. If the New Zealander scores a few goals, Burnley prove insufficiently potent without him and Newcastle stay up at the Clarets’ expense, it will look a brilliantly Machiavellian deal. That Callum Wilson was injured meant Newcastle had an added imperative to get a striker. Wood arrived ready for the Premier League.

Allan Saint-Maximin, right, and Javier Manquillo during Newcastle United's training session in Jeddah. Newcastle are in Saudi during the Premier League's winter break. All photos by Getty
Joelinton during the Newcastle training session in Jeddah.
Newcastle players at Al Ittihad’s training ground in Jeddah.
Newcastle midfielder Jonjo Shelvey on the rowing machine overseen by manager Eddie Howe, left, and his assistant Jason Tindall.
Kieran Trippier passes the ball under pressure from Fabian Schar.
Left to right: Jonjo Shelvey, Joe Willock, Allan Saint-Maximin and Jeff Hendrick.
Kieran Trippier during training in Jeddah.
Jonjo Shelvey during training in Jeddah.

The Reims prodigy Hugo Ekitike represented his antithesis, a 19-year-old brimming with potential who Newcastle targeted with the future in mind, hoping he would improve with them, but with less of a guarantee for the here and now.

At 31, Kieran Trippier is the oldest, but the player with the most pedigree now and, given his form in recent seasons, one who should nail down a place even as others are eased aside in future transfer windows and can improve Newcastle both defensively and with his crossing. While Howe arguably needed two full-backs, Trippier feels the opposite of Targett, who was himself displaced by the former Newcastle target Lucas Digne as Aston Villa secured a higher-calibre left-back.

Bruno Guimaraes may rank as the most auspicious arrival, neither a work in progress, like Ekitike, nor a player in his thirties, such as Trippier, but, at 24, one approaching his peak. An Olympic gold medallist last summer and a Brazil international was one of Ligue 1’s best midfielders and a target for Arsenal. “Bruno is a hugely exciting talent and has been one of our primary targets,” said Howe. Such words could not honestly be used to describe Wood, Targett or Burn.

But this has been a two-tier window for Newcastle, of more ambitious recruits and practical moves which reflect their predicament. There are prosaic figures who might not be expected to be in the team of the world’s richest club and there are the auspicious arrivals who have more stardust and the ability to take Newcastle to greater things. If, that is, they can survive.

90 notable January transfer deals

While you're here

Richard Jolly: Man City's appeal win eradicates uncertainty over club's future prospects

Nick March: City fans don’t miss the bad old days, they’re too busy living in the moment

Damien McElroy: What the failed Newcastle takeover says about Boris Johnson's Britain

Iraq politics

First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus

Dubai Bling season three

Cast: Loujain Adada, Zeina Khoury, Farhana Bodi, Ebraheem Al Samadi, Mona Kattan, and couples Safa & Fahad Siddiqui and DJ Bliss & Danya Mohammed

Rating: 1/5

Kanguva

Director: Siva

Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley

Rating: 2/5

Our family matters legal consultant

Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais

Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.

Low turnout

Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.

Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.

"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."

Company profile

Company: Eighty6

Date started: October 2021

Founders: Abdul Kader Saadi and Anwar Nusseibeh

Based: Dubai, UAE

Sector: Hospitality

Size: 25 employees

Funding stage: Pre-series A

Investment: $1 million

Investors: Seed funding, angel investors

Bareilly Ki Barfi
Directed by: Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari
Starring: Kriti Sanon, Ayushmann Khurrana, Rajkummar Rao
Three and a half stars

Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

While you're here

Con Coughlin: Grandstanding in Turkey leads to terrorism in France

Con Coughlin: The terror threat in Europe remains as potent as ever

Sholto Byrnes: After Charlie Hebdo, is religion dividing the world?

The National Archives, Abu Dhabi

Founded over 50 years ago, the National Archives collects valuable historical material relating to the UAE, and is the oldest and richest archive relating to the Arabian Gulf.

Much of the material can be viewed on line at the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive - https://www.agda.ae/en

Stree

Producer: Maddock Films, Jio Movies
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Rajkummar Rao, Shraddha Kapoor, Pankaj Tripathi, Aparshakti Khurana, Abhishek Banerjee
Rating: 3.5

• Remittance charges will be tackled by blockchain

• UAE's monumental and risky Mars Mission to inspire future generations, says minister

• Could the UAE drive India's economy?

• News has a bright future and the UAE is at the heart of it

• Architecture is over - here's cybertecture

• The National announces Future of News journalism competition

• Round up: Experts share their visions of the world to come

Recipe

Garlicky shrimp in olive oil
Gambas Al Ajillo

Preparation time: 5 to 10 minutes

Cooking time: 5 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

180ml extra virgin olive oil; 4 to 5 large cloves of garlic, minced or pureed (or 3 to 4 garlic scapes, roughly chopped); 1 or 2 small hot red chillies, dried (or ¼ teaspoon dried red chilli flakes); 400g raw prawns, deveined, heads removed and tails left intact; a generous splash of sweet chilli vinegar; sea salt flakes for seasoning; a small handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Method

▶ Heat the oil in a terracotta dish or frying pan. Once the oil is sizzling hot, add the garlic and chilli, stirring continuously for about 10 seconds until golden and aromatic.

▶ Add a splash of sweet chilli vinegar and as it vigorously simmers, releasing perfumed aromas, add the prawns and cook, stirring a few times.

▶ Once the prawns turn pink, after 1 or 2 minutes of cooking, remove from the heat and season with sea salt flakes.

▶ Once the prawns are cool enough to eat, scatter with parsley and serve with small forks or toothpicks as the perfect sharing starter. Finish off with crusty bread to soak up all that flavour-infused olive oil.

Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

2016 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)

2015 Nico Rosberg (Mercedes-GP)

2014 Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes-GP)

2013 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

2012 Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)

2011 Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)

2010 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

2009 Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull Racing)

More from Neighbourhood Watch:

Wooded greenery and community feel keeps residents loyal to The Gardens

A taste of tradition at RAK's old souq

Mushrif is a small town with big designs

Our legal columnist

Name: Yousef Al Bahar

Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994

Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers

From Zero

Artist: Linkin Park

Label: Warner Records

Number of tracks: 11

Rating: 4/5

Ambition and pragmatism: Newcastle pin survival hopes on two-tier transfer strategy

The Premier League's big January spenders have brought in mix of ambitious recruits and purchases of the more practical kind

90 notable January transfer deals

While you're here

Iraq politics

Dubai Bling season three

Kanguva

Our family matters legal consultant

Low&nbsp;turnout

Company&nbsp;profile

Know&nbsp;your&nbsp;cyber&nbsp;adversaries

While you're here

The National Archives, Abu Dhabi

Stree

Recipe

Past winners of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

More from Neighbourhood Watch:

Our legal columnist

From Zero

More from Neighbourhood Watch:

World Mental Health Day

Towering concerns

UAE currency

Low turnout

Company profile

Know your cyber adversaries