Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe isn’t rushing into anything this summer. The Englishman is desperate to enhance his squad during the transfer window, but he won’t be making signings for the sake of it.
With Champions League football gracing St James’ Park next term, bringing in some high-quality players will be crucial to their ambitions of going far in the competition.
There are several key areas in which Howe wishes to improve, notably his attack. Will he be able to sign his top targets this summer?
Newcastle’s search for new signings
One area the Toon are desperate to strengthen is the attacking department. As such, a bid of around £45m was submitted to Nottingham Forest for winger Anthony Elanga.
This was swiftly rejected, but it shows the direction that Howe is looking to take. It remains unclear whether another bid will be made for the Swedish winger in the coming days.
Signing a new goalkeeper is also on Howe’s wish list and it appears as though the club are closing in on a deal to sign James Trafford.
“Newcastle are closing in on James Trafford deal, final details being sorted, said Fabrizio Romano on X.
“Agreement almost done with Burnley and then it will be here we go. Newcastle are planning to get the deal done very soon.”
Burnley value the player at £40m, and Trafford could turn out to be a better signing than Elanga.
Why James Trafford could be a better signing than Elanga
Last season, Newcastle scored 92 goals across their 48 matches in all competitions, which works out as just shy of two goals a game.
In comparison, they also conceded 58 goals in the same number of games, which is 1.2 goals conceded per match.
Given the statistics, surely the need to improve their defence is far greater than signing a winger, especially when Howe can call upon the likes of Jacob Murphy, who enjoyed his best year in Toon colours, England international Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes. Depth is no doubt important, of course, but a new forward is hardly a priority.
|
Comparing Trafford to Newcastle’s GKs (league stats only 2024/25) |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
|
Metric |
|||
|
Games |
45 |
28 |
10 |
|
Goals conceded |
16 |
35 |
12 |
|
Goals conceded per game |
0.4 |
1.3 |
1.2 |
|
Accurate passes per game |
24.1 |
13.8 |
21.1 |
|
Saves per game |
2 |
3.1 |
2.9 |
|
Balls recovered per game |
7.6 |
8.6 |
7.9 |
Last season, Trafford was excellent for Burnley as they finished second in the Championship.
Remarkably, he conceded just 0.4 goals per outing in the second tier, while succeeding with 100% of his run outs per game and making two saves per match – a success rate of 85% – for Burnley.
Overall, Trafford only conceded 16 goals from 45 matches, a truly stunning record, and there is no doubt he would improve Howe’s backline considerably.
The 22-year-old hasn’t even hit his peak yet, but he certainly isn’t short of confidence, dubbing himself “world-class” a few months ago.
Widely believed to be the next England number one, Trafford could fast-track his way into this position by securing a move to Newcastle. Evidently, his potential is huge, even bigger than Elanga’s, scoring just six times last term. On that evidence, the Swede isn’t going to improve the Magpies significantly.
Trafford may have played just 28 Premier League games during his embryonic career so far, but the youngster is heading straight for the very top and would undeniably make an instant impact at St James’.
If Howe can get this deal wrapped up as soon as possible, hopefully, it will be the catalyst for more new signings.
Never mind a better signing than Elanga, Trafford might turn out to be the best signing of the summer for Howe.
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