Ex-Sunderland star’s ‘delighted’ Newcastle United takeover verdict – hails ‘tremendous’ signing

It’s been a whirlwind 12 months for Newcastle since the club was finally sold by Mike Ashley to a Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund led consortium.

The Magpies have moved from the foot of the Premier League to competing at the right end of the table following investment on and off the pitch as well as some sound recruitment.

And Bent, despite his Sunderland connections, believes the club have been ‘clever’ in how they’ve conducted their business in the year since the takeover.

“Newcastle fans will be delighted,” he told talkSPORT. “I think Eddie Howe and the club have been very cautious but also clever in their recruitment.

"You can remember when they were being touted as the richest club in the world, all kind of stupid names were being linked. [Kylian] Mbappe was one, all of sudden they were going to get all these players, [Erling] Haaland, I was even thinking [Philippe] Coutinho would have been the perfect, ideal signing.

"But what they’ve done in terms of recruitment has been solid, I think it’s been smart.”

The first smart move was the appointment of Howe as head coach, then the January transfer window followed.

"You think about that January [transfer window] because [Howe] had only took over in the November," Bent added.

“If you can remember, when the owners took over, [Steve] Bruce was still in charge and obviously [Howe] got the job and in the January transfer window, bringing in Kieran Trippier, that kind of set the ball rolling didn’t it?

"A lot of people were like ‘really, is that your splash signing?’ But he’s been tremendous.”

Following Trippier’s arrival, Newcastle went on to sign Chris Wood, Bruno Guimaraes, Dan Burn and Matt Targett during the winter window as they climbed out of the relegation zone and finished the season 11th in the Premier League.

Further recruitment over the summer saw Targett make his loan move permanent while Nick Pope, Sven Botman, Alexander Isak and Loris Karuis arrived. The Magpies got their season off to a solid start with just one defeat from their opening eight matches seeing them sitting seventh in the table.