Newcastle United could only watch on this week as one of their main rivals for a Champions League place were able to splash out £125million to help beat the Magpies to the promised land.

City overtook Newcastle on Sunday after a 6-0 thrashing over Ipswich Town then went out and snapped up Omar Marmoush, Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis to help bolster their chances of at least sealing a Champions League spot. That is largely down to City's ability to spend because of their £715m mountain of revenue.

Newcastle on the other hand must box clever because although they are improving commercially they are not at the point where they can justify January shopping sprees because of the tight PSR rulebook. Of course, Newcastle have considered their options this month but buying a player now would mean offloading a squad player either in this window, or before June when it is difficult to do business.

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The drastic alternative would be to cash in on homegrown talent again with Lewis Miley and Sean Longstaff classed as potential ways of drumming up money given that Academy sales would equate to pure profit. When asked if the rules seemed fair given City's busy week in the market, Howe told Chronicle Live: "My big thing is that there is an 'incentive' to sell Academy players. Or sell the players who have a value of zero - that doesn't seem right.

"When you put all that effort in, guide them through various age groups and the work the coaches at the centre of the Academy invest that time, then they are the players with the most incentive to sell - I don't agree with that. There is probably a lot more I don't agree with. But this is not the forum to express it."

Of course, Newcastle picked up £65million last summer when they sold Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest and Yankuba Minteh to Brighton & Hove Albion. However, that is a drastic piece of action Howe seems unwilling to take this time despite the big price tags Miley and Longstaff could bring.