Newcastle sporting director: We must continue selling players, or they will age and results will decline

Sporting director Wilson believes that after a turbulent summer transfer window, Newcastle United must continue to maintain its identity as a club that trades players in order to keep succeeding.

Wilson insisted that despite the departures of Anthony Gordon and Tonali, there was no panic inside Tyneside, although the Scot admitted he would have been more reluctant to see Guimaraes leave for Arsenal.

Another experienced player, Trippier, also departed, but Newcastle United signed eight players aged 24 or younger, with the expensive arrivals of Nicolas Gonzalez and Fernandez-Pardo particularly encouraging.

Wilson said: “If you want to be a successful club in the Premier League, you have to trade players; if you do not do that, you probably will not become a successful Premier League club.”

“We have to do this. If you do not, you can only keep the existing squad forever, the players will continue to age, results will get worse, and eventually they will leave for free.”

Newcastle United were fined £5.2 million for breaching UEFA financial sustainability rules, with a further £6 million fine suspended on the condition that they remain compliant in the future.

They did not qualify for European competition this season, and chief financial officer Simon Capper expects the club to comply with the Premier League’s more relaxed financial rules.

Chief executive Jonathan Davies said: “We will continue to credibly challenge for these highest honours. To keep competing, we must comply with regulatory requirements.”

“We have discussed the measures required for compliance and are very satisfied with the final outcome, but we must comply with this agreement. We knew this before the start of the summer.”

In addition to player movement, Newcastle United suffered another setback: Eddie Howe departed and was replaced by Jaisle, who has remained unbeaten in the league since taking charge.

Wilson said: “I think we want Newcastle United to be a club that creates anticipation and excitement. If it is not, then that probably means we have done something wrong.”

“Internally, this summer never felt chaotic. We do not need to pretend otherwise — we did not want to lose Guimaraes. Reaching that point was genuinely disappointing.”

“In terms of numbers, we were reasonably satisfied with the outcome, but it was not part of our plan. However, the other things that happened during the transfer window were within the plan.”

Wilson, who joined the northeast of England last October, revealed that since then he had spent a lot of time preparing contingency plans for Eddie Howe’s coaching staff in the months before his resignation in July.

“Eddie is an extremely talented coach, which also means he was likely to do something else at some stage, and we had to prepare for that,” Wilson added.

“It is not painful. Clearly, the timing was not what we originally planned. But we had a contingency plan, which is why we were able to act so quickly.”

“It may have caught some people off guard, but the reason we were able to move forward so quickly is because we had been preparing for several months.”