Newcastle United's unnecessary links to James Ward-Prowse and Matheus Nunes hint at transfer strategy

If six months ago Newcastle United fans were told that the centre of the park is not a priority going into the summer, they would have laughed the person making that claim out of the room. Yet heading into the summer transfer window of 2022, the Magpies’ priorities have shifted.

Newcastle fans have awoken to find their club linked with Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse and Sporting’s Matheus Nunes. Both are talented players, who United’s scouting department at one time or another has cast an eye over but playing in a position which currently at Newcastle is oversubscribed.

It’s no secret that under Mike Ashley both Rafa Benitez and then Steve Bruce were keen to improve the club’s central midfield options. Benitez was keen on Tom Cairney, while Bruce liked Matheus Pereira and came close to signing Boubakary Soumaré, now of Leicester City, before the midfielder turned the move down. A mixture of a lack of a proper spending budget, and the club’s inability to sell a vision based on solely surviving every season, meant the lack of quality in the midfielder was never truly solved under the previous owner.

There were loan deals - Joe Willock proving successful but former Spurs man Nabil Bentelab failing in equal measure to offer the upgrade needed. The likes of Ki Sung-yueng, who signed on a free, defined the issue with the Ashley era - a lack of drive to really improve the squad.

It was perhaps no surprise when Newcastle’s now-owners moved to bring a quality midfielder in the January - Bruno Guimaraes arriving for £40m. He was the midfielder previous managers courted but could only dream of signing.

His arrival though stood for more than just a flashy signing - it stood for owners looking at the issues within the playing