Four times in twenty minutes, Matthias Jaissle reached for the same two words — and between them sits the clearest account yet of how he means to run Newcastle United.

He said it rating a transfer window he refused to rate. He said it explaining a balance sheet he refused to itemise. He said it defending a squad he refused to over-promise on. And he said it again, gently, warning supporters not to expect too much too soon from a twenty-one-year-old signed on deadline day. The brave way. Not a slogan pushed out by the club’s media team, not a line borrowed from a press release — a phrase Jaissle kept returning to unprompted, in a training-ground media suite on Thursday, as though it were the only honest answer available to four different questions.

It is worth sitting with why he needed it four times.

The first came from a straightforward ask: rate the transfer window out of ten. Jaissle declined the number, then explained the refusal. “I won’t rate it, but I’m happy — a great job from Ross and his team,” he said. “A clear idea with all the signings: a young squad in general, young signings with huge potential. That’s a brave way, but this is the way we want to go here in Newcastle.” Eight arrivals across the window, five of them summer signings, five of the club’s fresh faces born after January 2005 — young enough that they do not even occupy a place on Newcastle’s 25-man Premier League squad list, because the rules do not require it. That is not incidental colour. It is the clearest possible evidence that the words match the recruitment: a sporting director building a squad so structurally youthful that half a dozen of its newest members are, on paper, still developmental cover.

The second use came wrapped in numbers he wouldn’t give. Asked about the £100m-plus spent on marquee arrivals this year, Jaissle pivoted to the ledger rather than the fee. “When you see the balance in what we spent and what we earned, it’s interesting — a great step from the club,” he said. “It’s exactly the description of that transition phase right now, and bringing the average age heavily down compared to last season — all these things are so consistent with our brave way for the future, and that will be successful.” He would not put a figure on net spend. He didn’t need to. Nick Woltemade, the club’s own £69m record signing from thirteen months ago, left for Juventus on loan this week for a fee amounting to roughly a twentieth of what Newcastle paid for him — while Matias Fernandez-Pardo, twenty-one and untested in the Premier League, arrived on deadline day to effectively do his job. That is what “brave way” costs when you say it out loud on a balance sheet: write-downs, patience, and faith that the next twenty-one-year-old is a better bet than the last twenty-four-year-old.

The third use was pure temperature control. Dan Burn had talked before the season about the squad challenging for Europe; asked whether that was realistic, Jaissle didn’t dismiss it, but he did contain it. “I like that Dan is ambitious, I like that players are ambitious — but we are realistic,” he said. “We’re clear that we have one of the youngest squads in the Premier League right now. This is a brave way, but we see a lot of potential. After last season and the 12th-place finish, we know about the transition phase, we know about the challenges ahead.” Here, the phrase stopped being about recruitment and started being about expectation management — a coach drawing a line between what his squad might become and what it currently is, three games into his tenure, unbeaten but hardly the finished article: a 2-2 draw with Liverpool salvaged only by a stoppage-time Szoboszlai penalty against them, then a battling 2-0 win away at Tottenham built on second-half substitute impact from Elanga and Wissa.

The fourth use was the quietest, and perhaps the most telling. Pressed on whether Fernandez-Pardo’s age called for caution from supporters, Jaissle didn’t hedge. “Yes, this is always needed. This is the brave way, like I said, with these signings, with young players — they need time to adapt,” he said. “Yes, some players adapt really fast, but usually there will be ups and downs, and this is something I’m aware of, hopefully the fans too.” No coach enjoys pre-loading an excuse for a signing before that signing has kicked a ball in anger. But Jaissle did it anyway, calmly, because the phrase had already done the work across three previous answers — the fans in that room had heard “brave way” enough times by then to understand it as a standing disclaimer rather than a soundbite.

Put the four together and a coaching philosophy comes into focus that owes as much to risk management as it does to tactics. Amar Dedić, plucked from Benfica specifically because Jaissle already trusts him from their Salzburg days, started the season fit and sharp inside a fortnight. Joe Willock and Jacob Murphy, both linked with exits all summer, were kept and immediately rewarded with a goalscoring impact off the bench against Liverpool. Nico González was handed his debut inside the Tottenham back four. None of this is accidental man-management — it is the operational expression of “brave way”: trust the graft of players already inside the building, absorb the occasional loss on a record signing who hasn’t clicked, and accept that youth means volatility before it means value.

Bournemouth arrive at St James’ Park on Saturday as the next examination of that patience — a side unbeaten against Newcastle in five, still carrying the scars of a 4-1 mauling the last time these two met at a 12:30 kick-off. Jaissle will not be rating this one out of ten either. He does not need to. He has already told everyone, four times over, exactly what kind of result he is building towards, and exactly how long he is prepared to wait for it.

What do you think about Jaissle’s “brave way”? Is this the new recipe for success in a Newcastle 2.0? Join the conversation on X @mytoonarmy #NUFC