Paul Mitchell admits mistakes were made this summer but seems to blame everyone else

Newcastle United fans can't put this nightmare summer behind them just yet as Paul Mitchell has now faced the media to explain the club's shortcomings this summer in terms of transfers.

It wasn't just transfers that rocked the club during the summer, but as this is Paul Mitchell's purview this is what he's chosen to focus on, and we can understand that.

However, we had hoped for more accountability from the sporting director, even if he did join the club late in the window - it was still him and his team who failed to deliver Marc Guehi or any suitable alternative.

Of course, we're only going off what has been written and it's hard to pick up on a tone of voice through the written word, but going off the quotes run by Newcastle World, we feel that the blame game is still being played at the club.

Paul Mitchell says our scouting network were too narrow minded

Paul Mitchell spoke to the media about the state of the club when he arrived and has basically pointed the finger at the scouting network and said it's not up to scratch.

“‘There are things we got wrong in our strategy for sure. Me coming in when I did probably wasn’t the best timing for the organisation but what it has done is allow me to witness a process.

"As custodians of this club, we can’t just keep spending, spending, spending because at some point that won’t enable the club to facilitate its goals.

“I don’t think any Newcastle fan wants to see this club in a place where other clubs were last season with docked points (or) financial penalties because that can really affect our growth.

“Should our scouting and recruitment be driven more extensively with a wider reaching net? It definitely should be because this is becoming a really nuanced space now. You can’t just capital fund everything every year and buy loads of players at peak age and peak price.”

“Was, let’s say, the scouting network, the lengths and breadths of our process and our strategies, including the influence of Eddie Howe, bigger and broader enough? Probably not. And that’s the bit we analyse to be better. That’s the bit we have to adjust and modernise.”

Eddie Howe was involved with every potential transfer

Mitchell has basically pointed the finger and said that the scouts just didn't look far enough, and also it seemed like he aimed a dig at Eddie Howe for not thinking broadly enough, something that once again plays into the idea that Howe had told Mitchell it's Marc Guehi or nobody.

However, Mitchell did go on to say that Eddie Howe was involved in the process and gave the green light for every target they tried to bring in.

“There was no player who got to a certain level of discussion that he wasn’t part of the deciding and saying ‘That’s who I want’. Ultimately, unless Eddie really felt a player was going to bring a difference to the starting XI, we’d rather not overpay that once again in the next window.

“Would it have been easier to sit in front of you with hallmark signings that cost a load of money? Of course. But to ultimately have them at the detriment of Newcastle’s ability to grow for Paul Mitchell’s glorification? That’s not what I’m paid to do. I’m paid to do the job in the short, medium and long term.”

Mitchell also pointed the finger at PSR

And just for the final flourish, Mitchell pointed the finger toward the real villain of the piece, PSR. Naturally.

As for what we think about what Mitchell said here? As we said, there's very little culpability by Mitchell, we'd have had more respect if he'd said he dropped the ball. It's all well and good blaming other people and rules, everyone understands that to be the case, nothing he said was a surprise, other than his lack of responsibility. But again, without having seen the interview, we can only really read it in our own tone of voice and we're still a bit pissed off.

There are more quotes in other articles which we will cover too, to make sure we're getting the full story.