Former Celtic man Nick Hammond already wowing Newcastle support with transfer work

By David Walton

January 5, 2022

Former Celtic Head of Football Operations Nick Hammond has made a big impression early on into his stint as a transfer consultant at Newcastle United.

Hammond resigned from his role at Parkhead back in March as a wave of change was set to hit the club. The miserable 10-in-a-row pursuit fell largely on the shoulders of the transfer guru, who oversaw a big summer of spending for very little return back in 2020.

It was something of a shock then when he landed such a major role with mega-rich Newcastle. With the EPL club entering their first transfer window under Eddie Howe and their Saudi owners, it was mind-boggling to many of us that Hammond was being entrusted with a big part of that process.

But after news of his first transfer deal has come to light, Newcastle fans can’t stop praising him. Indeed, Sky Sports reported yesterday that the Toon have agreed a fee with Atletico Madrid to sign Kieran Trippier. They claim that a £12m figure has been lashed out plus add-ons for the England international.

Trippier has been a regular for Madrid this season, playing 18 times including in their UCL campaign [Transfermarkt]. At face value, it looks like a phenomenal bit of business for Newcastle.

Nick Hammond praised for producing early magic at Newcastle United

Granted, it remains to be seen how the rest of the January window plays out. Newcastle currently sit 19th and 2 points off safety. That means they’ll be doing some extensive work this month to try and build a squad that will prove too good to go down.

It’s not clear how major a role Hammond will play in every deal. However, his role in the North East of England is a high-profile one. Every transfer reflects on him, just like it did at Celtic.

Hammond was caned at Parkhead for playing a major role in deals to bring in the likes of Vasilis Barkas, Albian Ajeti, and Diego Laxalt respectively. Not to mention the dreadful January window of 2021 in which we only managed to sign Jonjoe Kenny.

His reputation took a major hit in Glasgow, make no mistake about it. But even at this early stage, he already appears to be getting positive early reviews from the supporters.

And below, we take a look at some of the Twitter responses as Newcastle supporters rejoice with the Trippier news:

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