The fashion word within Newcastle United is 'Cabezer', an assignment of PSR that allows them to go big in the summer. But what they run is an even greater headache, if keeping their dust dry, the failures of the cannons and the champions league and a first domestic trophy in 70 years are lost.
Now there are three transfer windows without an addition of the first team. A new firm would have brought freshness to a costume where the elephant is next to the empty pegs. It was Eddie Howe who presented the word 'Rancio' last month when he talked about the dangers of not refreshing a group that has been so hard for so long.
There is also nothing like a new face to provide emotion to those of the stands. Before the second stage of the semifinal of the Caabao Cup tonight against Arsenal, delicately and nervously with a 2-0 advantage, it would have been a timely boost.
When Anthony Gordon signed exactly two years ago, he took more time than the club expected to impact. However, his arrival brought an immediate improvement in the performance of others. Newcastle made the Copao Cup final and qualified for the Champions League. They bet and won. This time, the dice are on ice.
“I don't think it's ideal,” said Eddie Howe, who has lost two players without reinforcement. 'We would have loved to bring new energy to the group, that is very honest, but that was not to be our world in this window, so we have to make the most of the situation. We are trying to manage PSR and make decisions that will benefit us in the long term. ''
Howe did not launch any blow or his stroller toys when they reflect on the window that does not. But specular to accumulate would have been the chief coach's preference and many followers. The club, rather, has adopted a policy of refraining from accumulating even more, although at a later date.
Eddie Howe admitted that Newcastle would have 'loved' to have been active in the window
The club, however, has adopted a policy of refraining from accumulating even more in the summer
There is a logic and a good degree of need for the commercial position of sports director Paul Mitchell and others: short -term pain, long -term gain. But the football argument is very different: short -term pain could still lead to long -term pain.
Newcastle has a lot of talent in its initial XI, but compared to its rivals, an impoverished squad. Of 102 substitutions made this season, only two have scored a goal. Such fragility has meant that, although the roof is high, the floor is low.
They could have tried to signing after Miguel Almiron moved to Atlanta United for £ 10 million and Lloyd Kelly was allowed to join the loan Juventus, with an obligation of £ 20 million to buy this summer. Perhaps it would have meant selling again in June to comply with the PSR calculation, but not making the Champions League and one or two of its main stars will be ready to function anyway.
It is an act of wires of wires full of complexities, some tangible, others not, and only with the benefit of time we will know if they maintain their balance or crash against the floor. As of today, there is no correct or incorrect, just an opinion on an approach that leaves the thin squad, but the potentially fat summer budget.
This debate, and the followers are divided, has formed an irritable backdrop for the visit of Arsenal, the biggest game of the season so far. Protect the leadership of a brilliant and brave first leg in northern London and will return to the capital next month, a match to end the most infamous trophy drought in the country.
But a lot has changed in four weeks since that night at Emirates Stadium, when Alexander Isak was so good that local fans lost a trick not to applaud him from the field. You can no longer reserve a train to London from Newcastle on the day of the final, such was the race for the tickets after that first meeting. However, some would have been reviewing the reimbursement policy in recent days, since the expectation gives way to anxiety.
Transfer businesses have weakened Howe's hand: when he looks at his bank there is no Aces, especially in the attack, and his team has lost at home against Bournemouth and Fulham, while Arsenal has just beat Manchester City 5-1 . Bournemouth's 4-1 victory, in particular, has baffled the locals and will serve as inspiration for the Gunners.
That is why Howe knew that it was not time to throw toys or hand grenades on the eve of the game, with fragile confidence after those consecutive house losses. In any case, it is a siege mentality that will engender between now and the end of a campaign that could still be classified as the best of the club in more than half a century. That is what the manager has reminded his players.
Lloyd Kelly completed a Newcastle transfer to Juventus at the end of the January window
Transfer transfers have weakened Howe's hand while heading to the final stretch of the season
“You have to hug everything in your situation and you have to discover how to get the best of that,” he said, comparing with a transfer embargo in his first days in Bournemouth. Now there is something that you would not have imagined under Saudi property.
'The team is now lighter in numbers but of high quality. We knew for this month's off that we were not in the incoming market. It was about controlling sales that sailed us for a problem.
'So they are different emotions for me. I think that in general there is an element of frustration, because we have not taken the team positively. But financial problems mean that the club has to act in a certain way. I have to work on behalf of the football club at all times, good and bad, and that is what I am trying to do. '
For Howe, there will be relief that commercial decisions are archived, at least for now, and that football is the only element in its agenda. Pass the arsenal and the tension that has boiled since Saturday's defeat by Fulham will evaporate in an instant. There will be no financial caution in the search for Wembley tickets and travel through the Toon Army. They will march there if necessary. But you can't get to the final and you will not talk about head space. Head loss, more like. It is a thin line between success and failure, prudence and negligence.
But there is an opinion that the club's warning about short -term pain disagree with a real opportunity to obtain short -term profits. They have a boot in a domestic final and, with a couple of traditional rivals outside the race, there is a final among the top five for the shot. When looking at the general panorama, the hierarchy may have lost the potential of one in front of them.