Keep £300m trio, £100m warchest and the forward conundrum - Paul Mitchell's first tasks at Newcastle

Newcastle United have announced the appointment of Paul Mitchell as their new sporting director and he will have to get to work immediately ahead of a hugely busy summer for the club.

Mitchell arrives on Tyneside after highly successful spells with Southampton, Tottenham Hotspur, RB Leipzig and Monaco and he replaces Dan Ashworth at St James' Park, after his move to Manchester United was confirmed earlier this week. Newcastle are expected to spend big in the transfer market after the sales of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh ensured they did not fall foul of profit and sustainability rules.

But there are players they need to sell, as well as players who may need to be sacrificed, in order for United to bring in the players to help them re-establish themselves consistently at the top end of the Premier League. As such, Chronicle Live has taken a look at the five key tasks Mitchell will have to get to work on almost immediately on Tyneside.

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Put a line under the futures of key trio

If Newcastle are to move towards the next phase of their development, they must do so by building the team around their three key players: Bruno Guimaraes, Anthony Gordon and Alexander Isak.

All three players have been linked with moves away from Newcastle, though, this summer and the Magpies could do with putting a line under their futures.

Talk of interest in Guimaraes from the likes of Man City, PSG and Arsenal have died down since the expiration of his £100million release clause but links about Gordon and Isak won't go away.

Liverpool and PSG are interested in Gordon, who Newcastle offered to the Reds as a potential route around solving their PSR woes, while Chelsea have enquired about Isak's availability.

Newcastle would recoup around £300million if they sold all three players but the impact of all three of them on the side is far too great to put a price on it.

Sign a right-winger and centre-half

Newcastle's transfer priorities this summer are to sign a new right-winger and another centre-half, following the arrivals of defender Lloyd Kelly from Bournemouth and goalkeepers Odysseas Vlachodimos and John Ruddy from Nottingham Forest and Birmingham City.

It is believed Newcastle can still spend in excess of £100million this summer and the majority of this transfer warchest will go on these two priority positions.

The Magpies have been linked heavily with a move for West Ham United's Jarrod Bowen but it is believed a bid at least three times the £22million they paid to sign him from Hull City four-and-a-half years ago would be needed for the Hammers to sanction a sale.

They are monitoring other right-wing targets, too, but any new arrival will also likely be supplemented by the sale of Miguel Almiron, who has been linked with a move to Saudi Arabia.

Similarly, with Jamaal Lascelles and Sven Botman set to miss a significant chunk of the opening months of the season, Newcastle are light in the centre-half department and will need to bolster their ranks.

The likes of Malick Thiaw, Riccardo Calafiori, Fikayo Tomori and Max Kilman have been linked with the Magpies so far this summer.

The Callum Wilson conundrum

With Wilson now aged 32 and coming off the back of an injury ravaged campaign, there is a school of thought that the time might be right for Newcastle to cash in on their number nine.

No Magpies player has scored more Premier League goals for the club, with the exception of Alan Shearer, but with one year remaining on his current contract, West Ham United, as well as clubs in Saudi Arabia are monitoring his situation.

Newcastle must ensure, though, if they do sell Wilson that they bring in an adequate forward replacement. Everton forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been linked heavily with a move already this summer.

The goalkeeping dilemma

Newcastle now have five goalkeepers on their books, with just four spots in the squad up for grabs. With Nick Pope the undisputed number one, Mark Gillespie just signing a new contract, and the arrivals of Vlachodimos and Ruddy this week, Martin Dubravka's time on Tyneside appears to be up.

The Slovakian international has spent six-and-a-half years at St James' Park but has spent the last two seasons as second choice to Pope. He has interest from Celtic, as well as clubs in Germany and Saudi Arabia, as the 35-year-old will look to cement himself as a number one elsewhere.

Assess the future of Newcastle's 13 players heading into final year of their contracts

Newcastle have no fewer than 13 players heading into the final year of their contract and decisions will need to be made over their futures, as to who they offer new deals, and who they try to sell before the expiration of their contracts.

Decisions will be made this summer over the futures of Dubravka and Wilson, while first team players Sean Longstaff, Kieran Trippier, Dan Burn, Fabian Schar, Jamaal Lascelles and Emil Krafth are all in the final year of their deals, too.

Returning loanees Jamal Lewis and Ryan Fraser are in their final years of their contracts and Newcastle will look to offload both players this summer.

Decisions towards the end of the season will be taken on goalkeepers Ruddy and Gillespie, while 21-year-old Joe White faces a big season to try and prove his worth to the club before the expiration of his deal next summer.