Newcastle United have got to run 'an extra lap' behind their rivals because of a huge gap in revenue.

That is the view of football finance expert Kieran Maguire after the latest figures released by Deloitte revealed Newcastle's commercial income had increased to €90m (£74.94m). While this represents another significant rise, year-on-year, it still pales in comparison to the established order; Arsenal made €258m (£214.8m), Spurs generated €297m (£247.3m), Liverpool took home €343m (£285.6m), Manchester United brought in €360m (£299.7m) and Man City raised a whopping €407m (£338.4m) in commercial revenue in the same period.

To think Spurs once trailed behind Newcastle off the field. Newcastle's commercial income stood at £27.6m when Mike Ashley bought the club in 2007 but this figure shockingly dropped to £26.5m in the financial accounts for the year ending June 30, 2022, which included the final months of the former owner's time at the top, as Maguire noted.

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"The clubs they are going up against have the legacy benefit of an additional 10-15 years of regularly qualifying for Europe," he told ChronicleLive. "The Mike Ashley years were fallow in terms of the development of the commercial side of the club.

"We don't fall in love with football because of commercial deals and sponsors, but it certainly hasn't helped that there was zero growth in commercial revenue. Man City have increased theirs by five or six fold in the same period. It's a 1,500-metre race and Newcastle have effectively got to run an extra lap behind everyone else, which makes it that much more difficult."

New commercial departments, such as retail and licensing, e-commerce and partnership services, have effectively been built from scratch after chief commercial officer Peter Silverstone inherited a team of around 40 people when he was appointed in 2022. For context, during his time at Arsenal, Silverstone headed up a workforce of between 150 and 200 staff.

Newcastle have still to announce a training kit sponsor or a training ground sponsor, but Silverstone previously stressed that 'you have to pick the right partner, get the right values, the right fit and it takes time'.

"We don't want to do deals at value now, where in one to two years when we get closer to our ambitions are undervalued," he added.