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da 888： Newcastle United have been operating on a stringent budget under Mike Ashley’s tenure.
That the January arrival of Miguel Almiron, a player with no experience in European football prior to his move to the North East, was greeted with such unparalleled enthusiasm speaks volumes about the distinct lack of exciting transfer activity at Newcastle in recent years.
But did the Magpies actually allow a potential Premier League star to slip through the net before he had been afforded ample time to discover his mojo? Well, a recent report from CIES Football Observatory certainly appears to suggest so.
According to the well-respected website, Florian Thauvin is now worth a whopping €61 million (£52.6 million) and is the most valuable player residing within Marseille’s squad.
That is some turnaround from a player who was frozen out of the first-team at Newcastle after failing to impress on a handful of appearances for the club.
To place this valuation into perspective, the same report reveals that Jamaal Lascelles is the most valuable player at Newcastle, yet his valuation is a measly €18 million (£16.4 million) – just under a third of what Thauvin is reportedly worth.
Perhaps that valuation would have been considered a touch unfair on the Newcastle enforcer at the end of a phenomenal 2017/18 campaign. His influence this season, however, has diminished and he has often been overshadowed by the brilliance of Fabian Schar, who supplements a similar level of defensive solidity to his counterpart with a daring but effective level of ambition when distributing the ball from deep.
The knee-jerk reaction would be to label the 26-year-old as one that got away. He has since gone on to notch an eye-watering 41 goals in all-competitions and provide a further 28 assists in less than two seasons. Marseille got all this for just £9.9 million.
It must be considered that there was little evidence to suggest that the winger was worth the £12 million fee they paid for him in his 13 Premier League appearances. But therein lies the problem: 13 appearances, just three of which were starts, is an obscenely transient length of time for any player to be expected to prove themselves after landing in a new division.
Steve McClaren’s personal ruling on the French wing-wizard’s talents following his arrival hint that the trigger was pulled prematurely, per Chronicle Live.
“He is a perfect for this club – someone who is young, with great potential and is one of the best young players in Europe.”
If he was indeed one of the best in Europe at the time, why on earth was he not not afforded a proper chance to prove himself at Newcastle? A greater level of patience should have been shown towards Thauvin as the transition from Ligue 1 to top-tier English football is seldom a seamless process.
The short-term thinking employed by McClaren and the decision-makers deprived the club of a game-changing talent when he was staring them in the face.
Almiron has injected a level of flair, creativity and dynamism into Newcastle’s midfield which has been absent for longer than most supporters would care to remember, but Thauvin’s scintillating form in France proves it didn’t have to be that way.