Was £5.4m, now £2.25m: NUFC must brutally axe plummeting dud who "embarrassed himself" - opinion

Newcastle United are set to head into their first summer transfer window with PIF in charge at the end of the current season. 

The Saudi Arabian consortium completed their takeover after the start of the campaign and had no say on the business done in pre-season, as Joe Willock was the sole summer 2021 signing under Mike Ashley.

PIF flexed their muscles in January as they brought in Bruno Guimaraes, Matt Targett, Dan Burn, Chris Wood and Kieran Trippier, and it will be intriguing to see what they do in July and August this year.

Along with incomings, Newcastle will also need to let players go, and one who must be brutally axed is defender Ciaran Clark. The Irishman already has one foot out the door after he was omitted from the club’s Premier League squad for the second half of the season.

Leaving him off the list is the first step but they must now take the next, and final, one by selling him permanently ahead of the 2022/23 campaign. His current contract expires in 2023, so the Magpies would need to put up with his wages for another season if they are unable (or refuse) to cash in on him before then.

Clark has become a liability for Newcastle on the pitch in recent years as he has allowed his performance levels to plummet.

In the 2018/19 and 2019/20 Premier League campaigns, he averaged WhoScored ratings of 7.06 and 6.89 respectively. This shows that he was putting in solid displays on a consistent basis and Transfermarkt valued him at £5.4m – the highest point of his career – in December 2019.

Since then, it has been all downhill for the centre-back. He averaged an underwhelming WhoScored rating of 6.64 in the 2020/21 campaign and then endured a disastrous first half of this season before being left out of Howe’s