Lewis Hall is the new name on the list of talented young names involved in the mass exodus of 2023-24 transfer season window. The talented, versatile fullback is set to join Newcastle United on a one year loan deal with a mandatory buying clause after one year. The fees for the mandatory buy clause is set at £28million+ £7 million in add-ons. This arrangement has been strategically devised to enable Newcastle to navigate around the Financial Fair Play regulations. Furthermore, the agreement encompasses a substantial sell-on clause, intended to come into effect once Hall achieves a status of significant renown.
Cobham “Hall” of Famer
Lewis Hall, born in 2004, has been on Chelsea’s books since he was 8 years old. Ever since his introduction at Cobham, Hall has been a mainstay in England’s national team setup at various age groups. He already boasts significant appearances for England’s U15, U16, U18, and U19 teams. The talented player broke into Chelsea’s main team when he was announced in the squad for the EFL Cup quarter-final match against Brentford in December 2021.
Lewis Hall became Chelsea’s youngest player to feature in the FA Cup when he made his first-team debut against Chesterfield in the FA Cup tie on January 8, 2022. He made his Premier League debut in a 1-0 defeat to Newcastle on November 12, 2022. Despite being on the losing side, his performances earned him praise from all corners. He made 12 appearances in the Premier League last season, thus earning him the Chelsea Academy Player of the Year award, following in the footsteps of Mason Mount, Reece James, and Tino Livramento.
The Toon Splash
Post their last season’s exploits in the league, Newcastle have spent big in this transfer window. They have spent a combined £130 million on Yankuba Minteh, Sandro Tonali, Harvey Barnes, and Tino Livramento this summer. This has forced the Magpies to look for cheeky ways to stay within FFP bounds when bringing new players.
With the added Champions League fixtures this season, the Magpies have gone on and added depth at every position and the Lewis Hall signing fits the bill perfectly. With Livramento they have a long-term replacement and competition for skipper Kieran Trippier. Meanwhile, Lewis Hall is set to contend for the left-back position, competing with Dan Burn.
Dan Burn, who can play both – a centre as well as left back, has done a tremendous job at the latter, in fact so well that he has kept Matt Targett a conventional left back out of the first team. Although it looks like 18-year-old Lewis Hall is not going to be a starter from the get-go he can learn a lot from The Toon Army favourite 31-year-old Dan Burns who still has a big role both on the pitch and in the leadership role. Lewis Hall does give the Magpies a balance on the pitch as his crosses and runs are like Trippier’s on the right side something which they lack on the left side dynamics.
Eddie Howe has long been a big admirer of Lewis Hall and has praised his versatility and skills. Hall can play across various positions ranging from central midfield where he can play a box-box role, he can also go out wide as a winger or wide midfielder on the left side. He has good ball possession skills and couple that with his Marauding runs, deadly crosses, and versatility across various positions and he is going to be an indispensable tool in Eddie Howe’s army. Although he is not going to be a starter with Tonali, Willock, and Joelinton ahead of him in the midfield lineup and Gordon, Harvey Barnes competing for Left Winger positions but Hall can be a very good backup across all these positions.
Sins of Past
Cobham has long been arguably among the best academies in the last decade in England – with likes of Mason Mount, Reece James, Tariq Lamptey, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, Ruben Loftus Cheek, Trevoh Chalobah, Callum Hudson Odoi, Tino Livramento, Lewis Hall.
With all these names being on Chelsea’s book at the same time in the previous five years no one is going to believe that the club further spent more than £1 Billion in the transfer market in the last three windows. One could argue that the club is selling these talented players for profit but the problem arises when big-money replacements for these players in the transfer window fail to live up to the mark and a Chelsea fan is left making canons in his head like a proverbial Marvel’s What-If episode.
Just imagine had Chelsea not spent more than £100million on Lukaku and rather given time to the likes of Tammy Abraham and maybe Chelsea would have gotten rid of the curse of “No.9”. This long-standing problem hints at a big management and long-term vision which plagues the club when it comes to transitioning its academy products into the main team.
Furthermore, Chelsea have sold a lot of the aforementioned players to clubs that are competing with Chelsea in the league or Champions League and you have a perfect recipe for Chelsea fans to pull their hairs when these players end up delivering A-star performances for their respective clubs. Only time will tell if Lewis Hall is going to add to this list.
Verdict
On paper, the signing makes sense as Hall deserves to be at a place where his development is horned and Chelsea’s bloated squad is further trimmed. One added benefit is the sale of academy players is accounted as pure profit for the club as any academy player has zero book value in the club’s account books so the deal is going to help Bohely manage the fallout of his big money spending. Furthermore, Lewis Hall’s time on the pitch seemed limited with Ben Chilwell, Marc Cucurella, and Ian Maatsen already vying for the left-back spot. For Newcastle, Lewis Hall presents a signing for the future who can be a versatile player in multiple positions for a long time to come.
