Soon after the takeover was announced, there was a report in The Telegraph that the new owners would take a pragmatic approach in January. The report claimed the winter window would be used to strengthen the squad for survival push in the second half of the campaign.

The report identified a couple of targets in Burnley’s James Tarkowski and Manchester United’s Jesse Lingard. The policy was going to be to go for players with Premier League experience on expiring contracts.

The Northern Echo is reporting that Eddie Howe fully backs that approach. In fact, Scott Wilson is reporting that Howe has told Newcastle’s owners to pursue ‘tried and tested players’ in January.

Wilson also claims that Amanda Staveley and her fellow owners have been barraged by agents from overseas players trying to find lucrative deals. However, the idea is the board will focus primarily on players currently in the Premier League, or with prior experience.

Four names are broached in the report. In addition to Lingard and Tarkowski, who Wilson says Newcastle remain very confident of landing, Manchester City’s Oleksandr Zinchenko, and Liverpool’s Divock Origi are cited.

Zinchenko and Origi, who have been linked on loan in the past, are struggling for minutes on the pitch once again. Origi has made just seven appearances but has chipped in with 3 goals and 2 assists. Zinchenko, a Ukrainian International, has appeared just 5 times this season.

The report claims the move for Origi would be on loan though is unclear on Zinchenko, whose contract runs until 2024. The left-back has made over 100 appearances since moving to the Etihad from Russia’s Ufa in 2016.

Recent reports could suggest Newcastle may struggle to land any of these four targets. Football Insider recently claimed that Burnley would not risk weakening their squad by selling Tarkowski in January despite him having just six months left on his contract.

Lingard will have plenty of suitors should he leave Old Trafford before his contract ends in the summer. West Ham seem to be the leading contenders for the 28-year-old at the moment. Though Newcastle would likely be able to increase any offer made by The Hammers.

As far as Zinchenko and Origi goes, it has been claimed that fellow Premier League clubs will look to snub Newcastle in the winter. Both Manchester City and Liverpool may not want to help Newcastle stay in the league by loaning them players.

Jurgen Klopp was quite critical of Newcastle’s takeover when it was first announced saying the following:

“What will it mean for football? A few months ago we had a massive argument – issue – the whole football world, with 12 clubs trying to build a Super League. Rightly so. It didn’t happen, but this is kind of creating a super team if you want.

“It’s pretty much the same; guaranteed spots in the Champions League in a few years time. Financial fair play nowadays, nobody knows exactly if it still exists or not.

“Newcastle fans will love it but for the rest of us it just means there is a new superpower in Newcastle. We cannot avoid that.

“Money cannot buy everything but over time they will have enough money to make a few wrong decisions, then make the right decisions, and then they will be where they want to be in the long term. Everybody knows that, and obviously the Premier League, Richard Masters, thought: ‘Yeah, let’s give it a go.’”

So it remains to be seen if Newcastle can land any of these targets in this current climate.

 Loading ...