Eddie Howe has admitted that he is 'torn' on the experience prospective signings need - but the Newcastle United head coach has vowed to look at the 'strength' of a target first and foremost this summer.
Newcastle have stepped up their preparations for the new campaign after the Magpies qualified for the Champions League for the first time since 2002. Talks about the summer budget will be held in the coming days and Howe was the first to recognise that 'a lot of our success next year will be down to what I do now'.
Although life at Europe's top table will bring its own unique challenges, when coupled with the intensity of Premier League games, Howe's focus is on bringing in quality rather than quantity once again with 'the right two or three players to make us better'. So will additions with Champions League experience as well as individuals who have sampled life in the Premier League be needed?
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"Ideally you would like experience of everything, but there is no player that ticks every box," the Magpies head coach told reporters. "I'm always a little bit torn on experience.
"But you don't have to have played in a competition to be able to play in a competition. We will look at the strength of the player first. If they have the experience of certain things, even better."
That is what makes this summer so intriguing. Do Newcastle pay more to try and sign a younger international with a potentially higher ceiling in Dominik Szoboszlai, who has already played in the Champions League for RB Leipzig, but may need time to adjust to the Premier League? Or do Newcastle plump for a longstanding target like James Maddison who, while a few years older, already has vast top-flight experience with Leicester City?
It is one of many welcome dilemmas Newcastle face in the coming weeks and months as the black-and-whites assess a very small pool of players. Given how much it will cost to improve the starters Newcastle already have in various positions - from a right-sided centre-back and left-back to a central midfielder and wide forward - this summer looks set to be the most expensive window in the club's history.
“Unfortunately, players don’t come cheap, especially good players," Howe said. "Yes, we are going to have to spend a certain amount of money. How much that is? I don’t know.
"I still don’t know what our current budget is at this moment in time, but there will have to be some expenditure. It will all have to be controlled. It will have to be under Financial Fair Play restrictions, which we have worked under and will continue to work under. They are definitely impacting us and what we will be able to do."
However, it will be another summer of evolution rather than revolution. Howe has predicted that '95% of the squad' will be given the chance to stay on because they have 'earned the right to do that' after overachieving this season and the Newcastle boss is conscious of not 'breaking up the core fabric of what we have got'.
Character checks will be carried out to ensure any prospective signings do not disrupt a tight-knit dressing room, but that is just one aspect of a transfer. A move to Newcastle may appeal to top-tier targets, after the Magpies qualified for the Champions League, but selling clubs are not going to let these key players go without a fight.
"It makes us a bit more attractive and desirable to certain players, but we have challenges ahead," Howe added. "It's not as easy as everyone thinks it is to navigate the transfer market. There is always a blockage in the road you've got to navigate yourself around, so it's not going to be a slam dunk."
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