Advertisement

Newcastle United find interim PSR solution 'without a new stadium'

-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited
-Credit:Reach Publishing Services Limited


Eddie Howe has admitted that trading will be the 'most important' short-term PSR solution for Newcastle United.

Newcastle finished a second successive window in profit following the departures of Miguel Almiron and Lloyd Kelly after the black-and-whites were 'not in the incoming market' in Howe's own words because of a lack of headroom. Sanctioning Almiron's return to Atlanta United was a deal Newcastle 'needed to do' and although it was not necessarily Howe's call to let Kelly go to Juventus, the Magpies boss stressed the club were 'trying to manage PSR and make decisions that will benefit us long-term'.

Newcastle have been left thin on the ground, as a result, but finding a way to bring in funds through sales on a more regular basis is going to become a key part of the club's strategy moving forward.

READ MORE: Anthony Gordon lifts lid on Newcastle United unveiling that left him 'devastated'

READ MORE: Newcastle United see transfer tears as £30m moves unlock exciting future plans

"Trading is probably the most important short-term way without a new stadium and all the other things we have discussed many times," Howe told reporters at a time when the club's match day and commercial revenues pale in comparison to their rivals. "Trading takes on huge importance.

"I'm not going to go on about the history of Newcastle's trading but, just in the last few windows, it's not been clear and easy for us to navigate our way through this situation so we're trying our best to comply with the rules."

CEO Darren Eales was the first to recognise that Newcastle had 'not done a very good job' at trading in the last decade or so. For context, Newcastle averaged just £12m profit on disposal in the previous three-year cycle i.e. before last summer whereas the average of the so-called big six at the time was £156m while even the other 13 clubs in the league 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 following the 11th-hour sales of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh.

Paul Mitchell was among those senior figures who warned Newcastle never wanted to find themselves in that position again and the sporting director has since referenced the 'good learnings' in Liverpool's practices when it comes to 'balancing out the aggregate'. Mitchell even highlighted how the league leaders banked £40m from the sales of Fabio Carvalho and Sepp van den Berg last summer to be able to then 'go and fund a big one' down the line.

Liverpool have not been alone when it comes to using trading to good effect over the years. Although Manchester City have also admittedly started from a much higher base compared to Newcastle, who were fighting relegation just three years ago, the champions generated more than £158m in sales last summer which, coupled with staggering commercial revenues, enabled Pep Guardiola to splash out more than the other 19 Premier League managers combined in the mid-season window.

Newcastle United were interested in Abdukodir Khusanov but Manchester City had the headroom to complete a mid-season move
Newcastle United were interested in Abdukodir Khusanov but Manchester City had the headroom to complete a mid-season move

Newcastle will be in a better position in the summer, but much will still depend on whether Howe's team qualify for the lucrative Champions League.

"It's a difficult thing to give clear, definitive answers - and that’s not me being difficult - as to what the future looks like," the Newcastle boss added.

"I think, certainly for the past year, we’ve been managing a situation that we had to make decisions that we wouldn’t necessarily make from a football perspective. Hopefully, by being prudent, we won’t be making those decisions in the future and will be just making purely football decisions.

"But for when we get to that point? I can’t give you a definite date and it would be wrong of me to do so. Everything we are doing is trying to lead us to that point."