It’s going to be the most interesting of summers for Newcastle United in the transfer market.
No longer able to just splash the cash on whomever they wish, the Magpies need to have one eye on Financial Fair Play before making a leap with any business they conduct before the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
That will immediately rule them out of signing certain players unless the Saudi Public Investment Fund and Eddie Howe are willing to accept that other players would need to be sold or loaned in order to land new targets.
Newcastle ruling out Mamardashvili signing
The other issue that they will find this coming season of course is that there is no European football for potential signings to look forward to, thus narrowing the talent pool significantly.
In some respects, not having the extra workload might actually help Newcastle in the Premier League, and in 12 months time, they could be in a far healthier position than they ended the 2023/24 season.
There’s no doubt that a gruelling Champions League campaign last season – their first in more than two decades – took its toll on the team, with Howe and his backroom staff having to cope with a large amount of injuries across the season.
As the campaign wore on, so the Magpies kept sliding down the Premier League. The final insult was when Man United won the FA Cup against Man City, a result which meant that Newcastle were bumped out of Europe altogether, having been placed in the Europa Conference League position by virtue of their final Premier League finish.
With all of the above in mind, Relevo have reported that Newcastle have now definitively turned their backs on signing Valencia’s Giorgi Mamardashvili becasue of the asking price.
The Northern Echo suggest that Burnley’s James Trafford is now the preferred goalkeeping target, and the Clarets will be forced to listen to any offers given their relegation from the Premier League.
