Newcastle United have avoided a PSR nightmare, but it has also hindered Eddie Howe’s summer transfer plans.
The Magpies scrambled to avoid a points deduction at the end of last month, and it resulted in Yankuba Minteh signing for Brighton for £33million and Elliot Anderson joining Nottingham Forest for £35million.
The latter deal also saw Newcastle United make a signing of their own, with goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos arriving from the City Ground.
He is a 30-year-old goalkeeper, and will arrive to compete with Nick Pope for a place in the Newcastle United starting XI. Whether or not he is capable of that remains to be seen, and it feels more likely that he will simply serve as understudy to the England international.
The deal for Vlachodimos has ended Newcastle’s interest in James Trafford, who had looked set to join the club from Burnley. And he was being targeted instead of a bigger name like Giorgi Mamardashvili or Aaron Ramsdale – two goalkeepers who Newcastle had initially wanted to sign.
Newcastle move for Odysseas Vlachodimos instead
To get a deal done with Forest for Anderson, it looks like Newcastle needed to sign a player from Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
There was talk of Anthony Elanga arriving, while fans would have loved it if Morgan Gibbs-White had come in. Instead, the Magpies signed Vlachodimos to boost their goalkeeping ranks, in a deal that truly put an end to Eddie Howe‘s masterplan.
That is the view of HITC Football insider Graeme Bailey, who has spoke to Geordie Boot Boys about what Howe really wanted to do with his goalkeeping department this summer.
“Signing Odysseas Vlachodimos certainly means Newcastle are putting a lot of faith in Nick Pope getting back to full fitness,” he said.
“I can’t see Vlachodimos coming in and really competing with Pope, so it’s annoying for Eddie Howe that PSR has really impacted on his plans, because he wanted someone to come in and challenge Pope.
“He wanted to challenge him in the same way that Arteta wanted Raya to challenge Ramsdale.”
Eddie Howe’s goalkeeper plan put on hold due to PSR
If money was not an issue, you have to imagine that Newcastle would have gone big for someone like Ramsdale or Mamardashvili.
The latter would have been the preferred choice, and he has proven why during a brilliant Euro 2024 with Georgia. Mamardashvili was amazing in between the sticks, resulting in Toon fans ruing the club’s decision to switch their attention to James Trafford.
Now that deal is off too, with Newcastle seizing the chance to sign the Greece number one. He is obviously a talented goalkeeper, but the deal to bring him in feels very opportunistic.
Howe has got the depth in that department that he wanted, but has failed to set Newcastle up for the future. Even if Trafford had arrived, he would have been viewed as an eventual successor to Pope.
In contrast, Vlachodimos will merely be a number two, which means the Magpies will once again need to address their goalkeeper situation in the coming years.
Howe had a plan to challenge Pope, but that plan collapsed due to Newcastle’s PSR constraints.
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