Why it’s time for Newcastle to sell a “future England captain”

The message from PIF is clear: Newcastle United are in transition, and they are calm and patient about Matthias Jaissle’s chances of succeeding in the hot seat.

For Newcastle to have lunged so greedily for the kind of success so often reserved for the Premier League‘s big six was an ambitious gambit, but ambition and danger often walk hand-in-hand in football, and the Eddie Howe era ground to a bleak stop this summer after a meteoric rise.

PIF are urging patience over Jaissle, but they have to start seeing results, with the senior members of the Magpies persuasion now needing to step up.

Why Newcastle are struggling in the Premier League

Last season’s 12th-place slump in the Premier League was a bitter pill to swallow at Newcastle. Over previous years, the Toon had qualified, twice, for the Champions League and had lifted the Carabao Cup in 2025, beating Liverpool in the final at Wembley.

To have lost Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes after such a decline was always going to put a dampener on Jaissle’s hopes of making an emphatic impact from the start, but measures can still be enforced to mitigate damage and avoid a landslide toward the relegation zone.

Jaissle deserves time. Newcastle have lost their four best players one year after failing to effectively replace Alexander Isak, who joined Liverpool in a record-breaking £125m move one year before. That said, his ball-playing tactics and combativeness and aggressiveness need work.

Defensively, the St. James’ Park side are also in big trouble. As a partnership, Sven Botman and Malick Thiaw are not working – and replacing them with veterans Dan Burn and Fabian Schar may not provide the significant improvements many supporters believe would take place.

Lewis Hall has been a pillar of strength out on the left, and Amar Dedic looks a really solid addition at right-back. Indeed, with the £30m summer signing from Benfica sidelined last weekend against Aston Villa, Lewis Miley deputised out on the flank, not enjoying the desired effect.

Newcastle need another dimension out there at the back, and that may require a visit to the transfer market in 2027.

Newcastle must boldly sell future England captain

Newcastle have to steady the ship this season, but they also have to spend and sell precisely in 2027. They can ill-afford a continuation of the frustrations that have prevented them from cementing themselves as one of the Premier League’s most powerful outfits.

With that in mind, it might soon be time to accept that Newcastle need to cash in on Tino Livramento, whose latest fitness setback suggests the 23-year-old might be in for yet another season of stop-starts in the Premier League.

Thus far, the England international has only featured twice under Jaissle, both times from the bench, and that having only made 14 starts in the league last season.

Jaissle has confirmed that he suffered a knee injury last month in training. Not serious, but enough to keep him out until after the November international break, in all likelihood.

It’s a shame, because Livramento has shown plenty of potential in the past, but the management staff’s patience must be wearing thin, with the Toon certainly not getting bang for their buck with the dynamic defender.

Make no mistake, Livramento is one of the most talented full-backs in the country. Theo Walcott once hailed him as a “future England captain” during their shared time with Southampton.

However, the best ability is availability, and while he and Hall are a frightening wide duo, there’s no use keeping such a profitable star around if he’s not going to maintain his fitness levels.

At the backend of the 2025/26 campaign, it was mooted that Arsenal had agreed informal personal terms with the English wideman over a potential summer move. Perhaps his injury withdrawal ahead of the World Cup scuppered that.

Nonetheless, the Gunners had been quoted at £70m, and even if Livramento struggles to recover his finest level this season, there’s no question that Newcastle could sell him for a pretty penny.

It’s a sad one, for sure, but Newcastle have signed a proper player in Dedic, and Livramento’s latest injury blow is becoming an all-too-familiar tale for the Magpies fanbase.