How do you eventually 'fund a big one' as Paul Mitchell termed it? Well, it was instructive that Newcastle United's sporting director pointed to Liverpool's 'good learnings' a few months ago in his bid to develop a 'sustainable model' at St James' Park.

Liverpool may have admittedly started from a higher base, but the league leaders raised £40m from the sales of Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg to Brentford last summer and Mitchell cited those examples as he explained what Newcastle needed to do moving forward.

"We've got to balance out the aggregate," Mitchell admitted. "At the moment, it's like 100 to zero and we've got to find our position in the market where both of them attribute and feed each other because every other club does that."

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That recruitment background was one of the main reasons why Mitchell was appointed last summer. Newcastle, after all, have traditionally been poor sellers; the Magpies averaged just £12m profit on disposal in the previous three-year cycle i.e. before last summer. For context, the average of the so-called top six at the time was £156m while even the other 13 clubs generated north of £60m.

Digging deeper, between January, 2020 and January, 2024, Newcastle only raised significant fees from the sales of Chris Wood and Allan Saint-Maximin. This failure to balance the books very nearly caught up with Newcastle back in June and the black-and-whites only narrowly avoided a PSR breach by the skin of their teeth following the 11th-hour sales of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh.

Senior figures have repeatedly stressed Newcastle never want to be in that situation again. The lasting scars help explain why Newcastle walked away from a deal for Crystal Palace captain Marc Guehi last summer, why Eddie Howe stated the Magpies 'needed' to sell Miguel Almiron for PSR reasons earlier this week and why the black-and-whites may end the window without a senior signing even if Lloyd Kelly departs.

On one hand, Kelly moving on in the mid-season window would leave Newcastle lighter in a particular position; on the other, could the Magpies be tempted in a PSR world if Juventus end up finally making a suitable offer for a fringe player?

This is where football logic collides with business logic a little. Why? Well, Kelly offers valuable cover in two positions but, equally, the defender has made just four league starts for Newcastle. Three of those were at left-back before Lewis Hall nailed down a spot in the first XI.

Sven Botman may have been injured for the opening five months of the campaign, but it was rather telling that Kelly only got a look in at centre-back in the top-flight when Dan Burn was suspended. That sole outing proved one to forget for Kelly after the defender lost Tomas Soucek for West Ham's opener in Newcastle's shock 2-0 defeat back in November.

Kelly departing would leave Newcastle thin on the ground, particularly if the Magpies are unable to strengthen yet again, but this feels like a new era for PSR. Trading really is king.