Newcastle United are earnestly hopeful of rebounding from an underwhelming season in 2024/25 where the early season highlight was the way in which they dismantled Paris Saint-Germain at St. James’ Park.
Unfortunately for Eddie Howe and the Saudi Public Investment Fund, that was the high point with the skittles tumbling all over subsequently throughout the rest of the campaign.
Howe’s squad were decimated by injuries from then on, which saw the Magpies irreversibly slide down the table.
They were ignominiously bundled out of the Champions League at the group stage, just when they thought they’d just earned their way back into Europe for the following season.
Then when Man United surprisingly edged out Man City in the FA Cup final, any notion of European football for 2024/25 was removed.
Under the circumstances – with no extra revenue from a European campaign and Newcastle needing to stay on the right side of the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules – it was apparent that a big name player would need to be sold to massage the situation.
The two stars in the stable that could command a hefty fee are invariably Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes, with The Guardian suggesting that the club value for the former could be around £115m.
The outlet reports that the high price is necessary to ward off the interest of the likes of Arsenal and Chelsea, although there’s a reason why they might be able to keep hold of both stars this summer, as the club are in discussions with a Saudi Pro League club regarding Miguel Almiron, according to a post on X (formerly Twitter) from Sky Sports’ Keith Downie.
With both having already been sold this summer, a decent fee for the Paraguayan international should help in keeping the prowling wolves from encroaching.
It’s also believed that Isak’s happy at the North East giants.