Forget Mbappe, history suggests Newcastle United will buy domestically after takeover

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News of a Saudi-backed potential takeover at Newcastle United has seen clamour for big names to arrive at St James Park. The likes of Kyllian Mbappe have even been mentioned. 

But whilst it might be exciting to, even tongue in cheek, suggest such big names, what lessons from Chelsea and Manchester City can Newcastle fans take which might suggest the direction the club go in when it comes to player transfers. 

It would seem that domestic transfers are in fact on the horizon. 

After Roman Abramovich took over at Chelsea in 2003 plenty of big names were linked with the club.

But whilst Adrian Mutu, Hernan Crespo and Claude Makelele arrived, the majority of players were signed from Premier League rivals, where they were either out of favour or playing in the bottom half of the table. 

Glen Johnson and Joe Cole were snapped up from recently relegated West Ham. Wayne Bridge, Damien Duff and Juan Sebastian Veron arrived from Southampton, Blackburn Rovers and Manchester United respectively whilst Scott Parker joined from Charlton Athletic in the winter. Even Cameroonian international Geremi arrived from Real Madrid after a stellar season on loan at Middlesbrough.

But that was 17 years ago, what about at Manchester City following their 2008 takeover from QSI. The first signing was Robinho, out of favour at Real Madrid, in the dying minutes of the summer transfer window. 

Then, the domestic route became apparent again. Wayne Bridge, Craig Bellamy and Shay Given all arrived from Premier League rivals in January. The following summer? Gareth Barry, Roque Santa Cruz, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor, Kolo Toure, Joleon Lescott and Adam Johnson all arrived from other Premier League teams. The two who didn’t were Sylivinho and Patrick Vieira, who both had previous Premier League experience.

It was only after that initial influx of domestic-based talent that more big names from abroad began arriving at both Chelsea and City. 

If Newcastle’s big takeover goes through then expect them to be raiding the best talents from the likes of Norwich, Aston Villa and Bournemouth or poaching out-of-favour stars from Liverpool, Manchester City or Manchester United before any big names arrive from Spain, Italy France or beyond.