When Saudi Arabia’s The Public Investment Fund bough Newcastle United in October 2021, all other Premier League clubs looked stunned. The Magpies, who were fighting relegation at the time, suddenly became the world’s richest club, looking at PIF’s wealth. Ritcher than Manchester City and PSG. But it was already 2021, and many football and money skims which were used by these two clubs in the last decade were revealed, so the Premier League was on its way to tightened the financial grip on clubs and their over-spending. When PIF came in, the fear became general, and two and a half years since the takeover, Newcastle are still a long way of becoming even a top six side in England, yet alone a title winning force.Newcastle United CEO, Darren Eales, has stated that the club will have to sell their top players to fund future transfers thanks to current FFP and PSR rules.[Craig Hope] pic.twitter.com/FoNyzqVaC1— Footy Accumulators (@FootyAccums) January 11, 2024 And the sad truth was revealed to the unhappy fans and happy opponents by the club’s CEO Darren Eales, when he presented annual accounts showing revenue of 250 million pounds – a 39% increase – but with a loss of 73.4 million, largely due to 153 million spent on new players since the takeover. He spoke about the need to sell top players, assured that coach Eddie Howe is doing a great job and announced there will be no big (if any) transfers in January.“Any decision we make will always be against the backdrop of the medium to long-term benefit for the club. It’s difficult to say specifically on certain players, but I can say that, if we’re going to get to where we want to get to, at times it is necessary to trade your players. We have seen lots of examples. Coutinho at Liverpool and they brought in Allison and Virgil van Dijk. Grealish going from Aston Villa and they have reinvested. Declan Rice at West Ham. It’s just the nature of the beast” said Eales to the press, who were specifically asking about the three most expensive players – Sven Botman, Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak.Thirst for Brazilian flair is strong at PSG: two anonymous signed but this 116,000,000 euros target is not an unknownTo be totally fair, these words could be heard almost every year by all Newcastle executives since the takeover, but now, after the first annual report, they are finally taken seriously. The good news is that selling best players will not be so often if the club raises the revenue. In the report, there are not big figures which are about to come from new shirt sponsors Sela, new Adidas sponsor and money from the Champions League participation, which will increase the revenue even more.“To put it into perspective, we want to be a top-six sustainable club and Tottenham’s latest accounts available, total revenue was 440 million. We are at 250 million, so there is a big step even to the lower end of the top six. We have also seen that Manchester City are 710 million in revenue in their latest accounts. There is a long way to go in growing those revenues” explained Eales.Newcastle ask about Solanke, Iraola says “forget it”Due to bad results, coach Eddie Howe was under microscope, while sporting director Dan Answorth was a subject of a potential bid from Manchester United.“Dan’s done a great job, there’s a lot more work to be done and we’re hopeful he’s here for the long term. He’s certainly enjoying his time at the moment. Eddie has done a remarkable job. Sometimes you have to pinch yourself that we were 19th and fearing relegation and then, last season, for the first time in 20 years we got to play in a Wembley final and we qualified for Champions League. There’s no doubt we have had that real progression on the pitch and Eddie is a huge, integral part of that. We hope he is going to be with us for many years to come” Eales said. ##NAJAVA_MECA_7789079##
