Why Newcastle's Will Sign Atleast ONE Of These Players
With Matthias Jaissle taking the helm at Newcastle United, we take a deep dive into his managerial career and tactical philosophy. Discover the key players from his past at Red Bull Salzburg who could follow him to St James' Park.
Video Transcript
Newcastle United may have not had the sort of summer they planned for.
I mean, which team would be comfortable losing three of their starting 11 in the space of a few months, as well as their long-serving manager?
But that's in the past now.
Matthias Jaissle is the new gaffer on Tyneside, and I have a sneaky suspicion he'll want to sign at least one of his former players.
From midfield engines to flying fullbacks and a few honorable mentions along the way, here are the players that Newcastle could sign this summer or next.
First, though, to the coach, the German, Matthias Jaissle, the man everybody wants to know more about on Tyneside.
Prior to his appointment as Eddie Howe's replacement, you'd have been hard pushed to find a Newcastle fan who knew much about him.
Still only 38, he had a modest playing career of his own, winning two promotions with Hoffenheim, before eventually hanging up his boots and turning to coaching.
Like many German coaches before him, he was schooled in the Red Bull setup, managing feeder club FC Liefering in Austria's Second Division before taking the top job at Red Bull Salzburg.
He also reportedly took his learnings from Ralf Rangnick, who, Man United stint aside, it's not a bad mentor to have at all.
In Salzburg, he won a domestic league and cup double in 2022, as well as the league title the following year.
However, in all fairness, the Austrian Bundesliga isn't exactly a fair fight most of the time.
Red Bull Salzburg have a huge networking and financial advantage over the other teams in the division, kind of in a similar way that Celtic and Rangers do in the Scottish Premiership.
Newcastle supporters are, understandably then, interested to know more of Jaissle's coaching credentials, especially considering his only other senior managerial role has been as head coach of Saudi Arabian club Al Ahli for the past three years.
Granted, again, he's won two Asian Champions Leagues, but financial advantages have undoubtedly played a big part in that.
The benefit to Newcastle of Jaissle having been at the helm of two wealthy clubs in the past five years is that he's had the opportunity to coach some very good players, and when you combine this with his tactical style, it means the man himself is an attractive prospect.
High-intensity pressing, good defensive structure, and attacking the final third with intent, it's all positive stuff.
After all, in an interview with GiveMeSport, he said he often looked at the transitions Jrgen Klopp put into place with Liverpool, whilst liking how Pep Guardiola finds structure and balance.
Find yourself producing a mix of football somewhere between those two and you'll be doing all right, mate.
But despite this all sounding very exciting for Newcastle fans, there isn't a guarantee that the squad he's inherited can pull this off to the required degree.
Are the midfielders he has left capable of playing incisive forward passes?
Are the forwards able to coordinate the counter-press?
How long will it take for the players to really get him and his style?
Well, there's a good solution to all of these potential problems.
Get the band back together in true Harry Redknapp signing Niko Kranjar style.
Here are a few players I think Newcastle should and might end up signing, perhaps not this summer, but maybe next if Jaissle is still around, because he's worked with them before.
Firstly, and no outfield player featured more frequently for Jaissle at Salzburg than Austrian Nicholas Seiwald.
He played 91 times, scoring six goals and providing 14 assists, so it's fair to say they're well acquainted with each other.
He was the engine of Jaissle's midfield diamond, press resistant and defensively tuned in, and now that Newcastle have lost both Bruno Guimares and Sandro Tonali this summer, the midfield lacks depth in the holding role in particular, which makes Seiwald a candidate to rejoin his former boss.
The 25-year-old is a regular for RB Leipzig and already has over 50 international caps for Austria, so most likely won't come cheap, but we're not talking Bruno or Tonali money here.
So it's definitely an achievable deal if he's deemed someone that the club would like to bring in.
The next player on the list is 26-year-old Oumar Solet, another former Red Bull Salzburg player.
Jaissle's defense was aggressive and operated a high line in Austria, which relied heavily on recovery speed, and if you're gonna play a high line, you're gonna need center backs who can cover lots of ground quickly, and that's what Solet can do.
He played 66 times under Jaissle, including the Champions League, which Salzburg gave as good as they got, despite going toe-to-toe with more equipped and experienced sides.
From a Newcastle perspective, the club are going to need more signings like Malik Thill in the near future, that's for sure.
Fabian Schr and Dan Burn are into their mid-30s and don't have long left on their deals, and you wouldn't describe either as being especially, athletic.
Solet is at Italian Serie A club Udinese these days, and what I'd describe as a very gettable player because his contract there is up in 12 months.
You think of what I'm thinking?
On to the third player then, and it's one I could really see happening, and not just because there have already been links to Newcastle.
Real Sociedad attacking midfielder Luka Sui was a regular under Jaissle at Salzburg during the 21-22 season, scored eight goals in the league as well.
His time in Spain hasn't exactly been great, but there's precedent for players currently experiencing a lull suddenly rediscovering their mojo when they're reunited with a former coach who did get the best out of them.
I don't expect Sui to be that expensive either, because Real Sociedad's finances aren't great, and he's kind of a bit-part player, so why wouldn't you wanna cash in?
If Jaissle's going to play a diamond midfield at Newcastle, Sui is the sort of rotation option that can play at the tip of it, interchanging with Nick Pope or Martin Dubravka, who may play as the supporting forward in a front two.
Now, there's always talk of Tino Livramento leaving St. James' Park, and his injury history makes it difficult to rely on him for an entire season.
Add to that, Kieran Trippier's left the club, so the team is rather depleted in this area, purely from a personnel standpoint.
Introducing Amar Dedic, the Benfica right back recently linked with a move to the Toon.
At this point, it's probably good to point out there's a written article online from our regular writer, Joe Donahue, that tipped Dedic to join Newcastle before any links emerged.
That's the reason we're bringing this up, because he's all about the credit, and that's pretty much it.
He may have even already signed by the time this video goes out, or whenever you're watching it.
Ahead of the curve, that's what we are at FourFourTwo.
Sometimes too much for our own good.
This one I think is less likely to happen, but I'd love to see it happen.
Mo Camara is a proper little ball winner, and whenever he's been, he's always worked his socks off, kind of like an N'Golo Kant type player.
Before earning a move to AS Monaco, Camara was the midfield enforcer and defensive anchor of Jaissle's 21-22 domestic double-winning Salzburg side.
He played 43 games under the German and was central to the team's success at home and in Europe.
He's tenacious, always gets stuck in, and would instantly bolster Newcastle's stability in the middle of the park, which, as previously discussed, is in need of some experience and steel.
The Toon Army have signed Elaji Bamba from Monaco in a 34 million pound deal already this summer, but I still think there's room to add Kamara or a player like him.
He's 26, he's been playing in Qatar for the best part of two years.
He's probably not going to have a better opportunity at a Premier League move considering where he is now than with the coach he won the League and Cup double with.
Go on, Mo, bell your agent.
What's Qatar got to offer that the North East doesn't?
Lastly, there are a few others that I'm going to put in the honorable mentions category because while I think there's a decent likelihood, it's the ones I've covered earlier in this video that I think have a realistic chance of pulling on the black and white stripes in the near future.
There's Enzo Milo, an attacking midfielder out there in Saudi who was absolutely cracking for Stuttgart before heading to the Middle East.
He's a good presser, which is good because we've already seen in training videos released by Newcastle, the ICER is really focused on drilling that Geoghegan pressing style into his players.
There's Gabri Veiga too, a Spanish playmaker who was a regular under the ICER at Al-Ahly before returning to Europe with FC Porto.
Although if Newcastle are going to sign anyone from Porto, I think it should be Viktor Fruholt, the Scandinavian Lampard.
And for my last honorable mention, I'm going with Karim Konate, an Ivorian center forward, a diamond in the rough who's found the net on a regular basis in Austria, but hasn't really been tested outside of it.
He wouldn't be coming to Newcastle to take the number nine shirt, fine.
But as a backup, I could see it happening.
He's 22 and would still have to prove himself in the Premier League, but averaging a goal every other game with Red Bull Salzburg over the course of 100 appearances is decent enough.
And the ICER was the one to give him his break.
If he fancies returning the favor on the biggest club stage of them all, he knows where to go.
