I guess this was the biggest surprise for most of us knowing how rich Newcastle United potentially is. But I couldn't find a reasonable answer why they did not really become very active on the transfer market. Is there any specific reason to that or was is just consent among the club bosses?
I think it obviously didn't pay out so far and some big names on their team would have certainly helped. It is still the relatively unknown squad that everybody was surprised about last season, but some enforcements would have been so important. Now they have the perfect failure for the start of the season.
Maybe last season, or rather last season's success happened earlier than they had planned? And despite the fact that the club qualified for the Champions League, the management is not ready to change long-term plans because of this. And it's too early to judge whether it's reasonable or not - we have an example of Chelsea which spends a lot of money but achieves absolutely nothing.
Yes and I am not saying that Newcastle is making a big mistake here, but I think they could have been a bit more bold in the transfer market. The means are there and maybe they are throwing away some momentum now if they fail hard this season and so far it isn't looking good. It's still not catastrophic, but we know how quickly this can develop into a whole that they can't dig their way easily out of.