Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe admits that the fear of points deductions caused by PSR rules has had a "dramatic" effect on life at St James' Park.

The day that former co-owner Amanda Staveley walked into the club she boldly claimed that Newcastle could win the Premier League within "five to 10 years". That was back in 2021 but Newcastle are still way off the pace in terms of a title push and since then a major change in the Premier League's Associated Party Transaction rules mean that Saudi millions simply can't be injected into the kitty to deliver silverware quickly.

In 2023, Staveley told Talksport's Jim White that the club would go on to win the Carabao Cup, FA Cup, Champions League and Premier League no less, something that Howe later admitted added pressure on his shoulders when speaking in a piece with Simon Jordan. But as Newcastle prepared for their quarter-final tie with Brentford, the boss has hinted that the Carabao Cup is pretty much the Magpies' holy grail these days.

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And Howe went one step further by saying the APT rules mean that Newcastle's precarious position with finances mean that they are living just as much in fear of points deductions, like Everton and Nottingham Forest suffered last term, as much as dreaming of trophies.

Indeed, Newcastle had no choice but to sell Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest and Yankuba Minteh to Brighton & Hove Albion with sporting director Paul Mitchell admitting to fans that the club would have been docked points. Howe hinted that it offered "sobering" reality ahead of the January window with expensive deals seemingly not on the card unless stars are sold.

Howe, speaking at his pre-game press conference ahead of the home tie with Brentford, said today: "I would say it has had a dramatic effect on the speed of the journey. That has dramatically changed because of the rules. You can feel that change as everybody gets to grips with PSR.

"And the actual reality of it. Because I think there was a period of time where it was unclear on how it would change and what the punishments would be. The punishments are now very real for the clubs and there is nothing more sobering than a points deduction in terms of changing what you have to do to comply.

"I think that has been the biggest change in our reality in what we can and can't do. And of course that will effect our ability to change things with our view to winning a trophy."

Howe also admitted that winning a domestic cup had now become a more "realistic expectation" externally on Tyneside. When asked if the Carabao Cup or FA Cup was the club's best bet, Howe said: "I don’t think we’ve necessarily had those conversations. I don’t think a lowering of expectations has happened internally. There hasn’t been one moment where we’ve gone, 'We can’t do this or we can’t achieve that'.

"I don’t think that’s healthy either. From my viewpoint, I would not encourage that from an internal perspective either because your players will soon pick up if you’re not ambitious or think something is not possible. I always like to think the impossible is possible, especially with my players. I push them to believe we can achieve anything. In saying that, there has to be some kind of realistic expectation externally, because the external expectation will harm us internally.

"The external view from media and everyone alike has to be moulded around our reality. Our reality has been very different in the last two transfer windows."