Football agent Laurent Schmitt has revealed that Newcastle have changed their transfer policy in this window.
The Magpies have signed six players so far in this transfer window, with Salomon Rondon, Yoshinori Muto, Fabian Schar, Martin Dubravka, Ki Sung-yueng and Kenedy joining the Toon this summer.
The Tyneside club used to be renowned for signing a lot of France-based players, including Sissoko, Thauvin, Cabella and Ben Arfa in recent seasons.
However, football agent Laurent Schmitt has said that Newcastle no longer follow that model with transfers.
“It shows that they’ve changed their transfer policy, since before they were buying up established Ligue 1 players such as Sissoko or Ben Arfa and others which didn’t work out,” Schmitt told GetFootballNewsFrance.
“Now we see that through Benitez they are targeting younger players, following a model closer to that of Leipzig or Dortmund.
“This can be a good thing, as young players are likely to be more adaptable to the Premier League than the players that came before. Even Thauvin, a World Cup winner now, struggled over there.
“What Newcastle are doing now is something that’s been done by many clubs in France – Lyon and Monaco – or Germany – Dortmund and Leipzig – for a number of years.”
OPINION
Judging by the signings so far this window, it doesn’t really back up Laurent Schmitt’s claims. Of the summer signings, Yoshinori Muto and Fabian Schar are both 26 years old, Martin Dubravka and Ki Sung-yueng are both 29 years old and Salomon Rondon is 28. They’re not exactly spring chickens are they? The only signing you could realistically class as young is the loan signing of Kenedy, who is 23 years old but even then, he’s quite far off from being a teenager. So, the agent’s comments are a little strange considering the age of the signings they’ve brought in this summer, yes there are no France-based signings, but his comments still don’t make much sense. The Newcastle fans will hope this agent doesn’t represent any of the players they want to sign because he clearly hasn’t done any research on the club, he doesn’t even know the age of their new players.
