According to various news sources over the past week, Crystal Palace and England international central defender Marc Guéhi is close to a transfer to join Newcastle United, for a fee in the region of £60 million pounds, potentially breaking the club’s transfer record for an incoming player. At the time of writing this article, news reports suggest personal terms between the buying club and the player’s agent are a formality, the player is in favour of the move to the North-East, and both clubs are locked in talks over the structure of the transfer.
Should the transfer come to fruition, some suggesting it could be completed as soon as the first weekend of the new season, it would represent a significant upgrade for manager Eddie Howe’s first team squad in a season which they are expected, by many, to launch an assault on the upper echelons of Premier League as well both domestic cup competitions.
Among many areas of the team, the club have targeted central-defence as a key area for improvement, with long-term injuries to key stalwarts Sven Botman and Jamal Lascelles meaning greater strength in depth was required at the position. Guéhi, aged 24, would not only be an upgrade in the short-term, with top competition provided for incumbent starter and fan favourite Fabian Schär, but would create the spectre of a future centre-back partnership with a fully fit Botman. This would be the envy of clubs in England and across Europe, and would strengthen the spine of the team (which already includes Alexander Isak, Brazilian midfield duo Bruno Guimaraes and Joelinton, and returning goalkeeper Nick Pope after his own challenges with injuries last season). Finally it would continue to bring the average age of the squad down further from last season.
Perhaps, more interestingly, it would also send a clear signal of intent from both the ownership group, the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund and RB Sports & Media, and the new-look senior management team as to the club’s ambitions. This is particularly relevant in the short to medium term, at a time when uncertainty has fought against hope in the minds of supporters, during a difficult close season which saw the club face challenges including (but not limited to): Profit & Sustainability regulations, changes at boardroom level, and speculation surrounding the manager’s future. Were the club to be successful in fending off other interested parties to Guéhi’s signature, it would be deemed a real coup by many supporters and observers within the sport — some labelling it a “statement signing”.
The term “statement signing” is one which personally evokes mixed emotions, having watched the club make a number of high profile transfers over the previous three decades with varying degrees of success and returns on the fees invested. When I look back down the years at “statement signings”, I think of players like Les Ferdinand, David Ginola, Tino Asprilla and Alan Shearer from the mid-nineties; Laurent Robert, Jonathan Woodgate and Michael Owen early in the millennium; and more recently Kieran Trippier, Bruno Guimaraes, and Alexander Isak.
The most successful of the signings referenced was, without doubt, Alan Shearer. Signed for a then world record fee of £15 million pounds in 1996 from Blackburn Rovers, Newcastle made arguably the biggest statement across Europe by securing Shearer’s signature ahead of Premier League rivals Manchester United, the same club they had just unsuccessfully battled for the league championship. At the time, Newcastle were considered one of the elite English football clubs under manager Kevin Keegan and the acquisition of Shearer, who had just won the Golden Boot as top scorer for England at Euro ’96, was one which would push the club over the line in the quest to win a trophy. Although winning that elusive silverware never materialised, Shearer’s transfer to his hometown club was a roaring success. He almost instantly became the face of the football club in the eyes and minds of fans around the world, continued to earn plaudits for his combination of strong, direct centre forward play and prolific goalscoring, and earned his place in the history books by becoming Newcastle’s all-time leading goal scorer.
While the signing of Shearer was one of success, on and off the pitch, other statement signings yielded mixed results. Michael Owen, like Shearer, was a prolific English goal scorer at both club and international level and joined Newcastle in 2005 for another club record transfer fee following one season in Madrid. His arrival, despite being greeted with much fanfare during his presentation on the St James’ Park pitch, was a complicated one. Not only was it common knowledge he would have preferred a return to his previous English club Liverpool, but Newcastle was in a state of decline having recently sacked Sir Bobby Robson as manager, and failing to qualify for European football. Ultimately after four injury filled seasons which witnessed a change of ownership, seven managerial changes and a decline which had worsened to the point of relegation from the Premier League, Michael Owen left on a Free Transfer and riding a wave of ill-feeling from supporters.
A more recent “statement signing” was the acquisition of Kieran Trippier, signed for a modest sum of £12 million pounds, from Spanish club Atletico Madrid in 2022. The 2021/22 season had begun with Newcastle making a slow start which saw them languishing in the bottom three by the turn of the year, going through a seismic change in ownership with the consortium, which included the significantly wealthy Public Investment Fund from Saudi Arabia, assuming control of the club and having a change in manager with Eddie Howe brought in the revolutionise the club’s prospects on the pitch. Therefore, with the first-team squad in need of strengthening and the new ownership looking to make a statement of intent, the first major move of the new era was to convince Trippier, a full England international and recent La Liga champion in Madrid, to switch regular UEFA Champions League football for an immediate relegation battle. Trippier would prove to be more than a true “statement signing” for the club. His signing would be a transformative one as not only did the club go on to avoid relegation and qualify for UEFA Champion League competition in eighteen months since his arrival, he became a lightening rod for other top footballers around Europe to join the club in the months and years that followed.
In the case of Marc Guéhi, although the player profile is different from those discussed, it’s hard to disagree with the notion of this being a “statement signing” for Newcastle United, one of the highest calibre. This a player in his early twenties and considered by many experts and as not only a promising young English footballer, but one of the very best at his position. Having built solid foundations coming through youth levels for Chelsea and England, he went on to accrue senior first-team experience playing multiple seasons at Swansea City and, more prominently, Crystal Palace. In his time at Selhurst Park, Guéhi continued to improve all aspects of his craft as a central defender in the modern game, showing a high degree of comfort in defending opposing attackers as well as playing out from the back. That progress has seen him recognised at senior international level, earning multiple England caps, including at the recent European Championships in Germany where he started all but one match, and played a pivotal role in England’s route to the final.
Placing the “statement signing” label on a player conveys a strong message to the external audience of a football club including the local and national media, fan groups, rival clubs, and internally to people within the football club. It sends a message of a shift in the landscape of the sport, an alteration in which the order of things are done, and a sign of the events that may follow. It’s an exclusive label, one reserved for a certain type of player with a particular skill set, reputation, personality or cache to carry the pressure and handle the spotlight which follows with such a designation. Fair or not it generates a level of excitement, an air of hope, and a feeling of expectation among supporters when the term is uttered. And for Guéhi, these are all the elements that will come with being labelled a “statement signing”, particularly for a club with rabid support and ambitions of becoming a permanent fixture among the contending teams in the Premier League in the years to come.
However, everything he has achieved in his young career up until now makes him the ideal profile for such high profile transfer, and an exceptional building block for the club. A footballing centre-back for the modern era, with the skill set which would fit the need of every top club, both in England and across Europe. His rise from the Chelsea academy grounds at Cobham to full England international at Euro ’24 has almost been as rapid as his prospective new employer’s own journey from relegation ‘fodder’ to top 4 contenders.
Whilst statement signings haven’t always guaranteed the glory of winning the big prizes in football, they go a long way to enhancing the chances of doing so. And should both Newcastle United and Marc Guéhi become partners for the next chapters in their upward journeys, it would represent another big “statement signing” under the owner’s relatively short stewardship so far. It would be one of the biggest the fans will have witnessed, and one which adds another significant component to their team for short and long term success.
My Point of Toon 
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