Newcastle United's head of recruitment Steve Nickson was singled out for praise by co-owner Amanda Staveley earlier this year after his work in the new regime's January window.
Speaking earlier this month the Ripon financier said: "Mehrdad and I and our PIF colleagues went up to the club and it was a lonely place. Fortunately, we have an amazing head of recruitment in Steve Nickson, who has been with the club for a long time and has a really deep knowledge of the player markets. So we were able to quickly put together a transfer committee."
With incoming technical director Dan Ashworth set to join the Magpies later in 2022, Nickson is likely to dovetail into the new structure due to his excellent links. Nickson was the target of critics at one stage in the 2019/20 as £40million signing Joelinton struggled to adapt to life in the Premier League.
However, he has since proved his worth in midfield under Eddie Howe and arguably a chance of coach has brought out the best in the Brazilian. In fact, some would argue that Joelinton's enforcer role has been one of the key reasons for Newcastle's inevitable survival.
Nickson joined the club in 2014 as Under-21 scout but when Rafa Benitez shook things up in the scouting department, the 57-year-old replaced Graham Carr on Tyneside. Since then he has been involved in a host of brilliant deals that have benefited the club. Here's a rundown of Nickson's success stories so far.
Ayoze Perez
Nickson's initial brief at Newcastle was to find players that could have sell on potential between the ages of 17 and 21. Well when Nickson spent time flying back and forward to Tenerife to look at a young forward called Perez, those four and a half hour flights proved to be worthwhile.
It would be remiss to not mention former managing director Lee Charnley in this deal as he pushed hard to win the race to sign Perez with the likes of Borussia Dortmund and the B teams of Barcelona and Real Madrid keen on the then 20-year-old.
But the fight was worth winning as he scored 48 goals for the Magpies and then went on to win a £30million move to Leicester. Despite some fury at the time from supporters, nobody could deny it was good business for a player that had cost just over £1.5million.
Miguel Almiron
Rafa Benitez made it clear he wanted the former MLS playmaker but Steve Nickson clocked up some air miles in order to make this deal a reality. Nickson jetted out to Atlanta in November 2018 to do the hard yards for the deal and set up some vital meetings.
By the time he'd filed his final report to Newcastle all that was needed was an agreement on a fee, and while that took some time for Mike Ashley to sign off the £21million package went through in late January 2019. Almiron may not be firing on all cylinders at the moment but he has clocked up over 100 Premier League appearances and scored some important goals with 13 to his name.
Allan Saint-Maximin
The Saint-Maximin deal was all but tied up before Steve Bruce was appointed as head coach of Newcastle in 2019. And while Bruce did give it the green light it was stressed that the winger was a player United were keen on based on the scouting reports of Nickson and his team.
Bruce's man-management actually brought the best out of Saint-Maximin and he helped the team stay up in 2019/20 and 2020/21 - winning the Chronicle's player of the year award back to back.
The winger is unplayable at times and has scored 12 goals and made 14 assists in 84 matches meaning his involvement record is high. He was an absolute snip at £16.5million with Nickson using his knowledge of French football to bring Saint-Maximin to the table.
Joelinton
At one stage the combination of the number 9 shirt and a £40million price tag weighed heavy on Joelinton. But he has come good when it matters. For all the critics, he has 12 goals and eight assists in 112 games.
Joelinton's best moments have come this season when used as a midfielder. Nickson pushed for Joelinton in 2019 but Rafa Benitez wanted to spend the £40million elsewhere in the team and perhaps that part is understandable given how tight the previous owner was.
Nickson's contacts with agency ROGON, who look after Joelinton, helped eventually push the deal through. This was another transfer that was ready to go for Bruce and perhaps the fact the Brazilian was given the number 9 shirt piled presser on him to play him as a central striker. Joelinton is at home in midfield but may be used on the right of a front three moving further forward under Eddie Howe.
Kieran Trippier
Established players like Trippier don't need to be scouted so much, but it was Nickson who worked closely with CAA Base Ltd to get this deal in place back in January. Don't forget Manchester United were also in the hunt for Trippier the deal was completed within a week of the winter window.
A marquee signing and a memorable first purchase for the new owners, given the fact Newcastle don't have a director or football or managing director, Nickson's role to step up and get Trippier signed was appreciated by the co-owners at St James' Park.
Bruno Guimarães
The £33.5million signing from Lyon has already paid dividends with an important winning goal at Southampton. Bruno is a true Rolls Royce of a midfielder whose stats are already off the scale with Newcastle.
The Brazil international was looked at extensively by Nickson and his scouting team with their contacts in South America helping get this deal done. Remember this was a whirlwind deal and Lyon weren't exactly sure they wanted to sell him.
Once it became knowledge that Lyon were up for selling the midfielder, Newcastle were ready to go and Nickson was waiting in place to push the deal through in Brazil.
