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Sky Sports expose shocking Mike Ashley Newcastle United approach to Transfer Market – Revealing stats

6 years ago
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Sky Sports get a lot of stick, quite rightly, for much of their Newcastle United coverage.

That embarrassing David Craig ‘interview’ with Mike Ashley at the start of last (2017/18) season being the very worst.

They have also given Ashley other opportunities to put out other PR/propaganda, without challenging what he has said.

As well as that, Sky Sports regularly give vile individuals such as Dennis Wise similarly unchallenged opportunities to defend Mike Ashley and have a go at the likes of Rafa Benitez and the Newcastle fans.

However, this doesn’t tell the whole story, and of course many who work for the broadcaster or who appear as guests, don’t follow the same line as whoever it is makes the decisions to assist Mike Ashley as much as possible.

This is summed up by a feature put up by Sky Sports ahead of the Cardiff match, which gives us some great stats and information about both Newcastle United and the transfer market, especially what happened this summer.

They reveal that 18 of the 20 Premier League clubs have broken their transfer records in the past two years, including  11 doing so this summer.

In contrast as Sky Sports point out…

“Bucking the trend, however, are Newcastle.

“Their club record transfer fee paid remains the £16m they shelled out to sign Michael Owen from Real Madrid in 2005.”

Many Newcastle fans would maybe be thinking a word rhyming with ‘Bucking’ would be even more appropriate.

That 13 year old Newcastle transfer record of £16m is also an interesting figure when used in another comparison by Sky Sports:

‘The average transfer fee for a player in the Premier League this summer has risen to £16m, up from £11m in 2016.’

In five transfer windows so far, Rafa Benitez has never spent £16m on any player, the most allowed has been the £12m spent on Matt Ritchie, when Newcastle were in the Championship!

Sky Sports also highlight just how lacking in ambition this summer’s transfer was overall for Newcastle United, declaring:

‘Recruitment is known to be a principal concern for the Spaniard who managed to bring in seven players for a total of £22.5m but saw £43.5m of talent depart this summer, giving Newcastle the biggest profit of any side in the transfer window.’

They presented the PL summer net ‘spending’ table as this:

Rounding things off, they give this final shocking stat from Rafa Benitez’ time at Newcastle United and how he has been treated by Mike Ashley:

‘In total, Benitez has now spent £124m as Newcastle manager, recouping £164m giving him a £40m profit in his time in charge.’

Great stuff from Sky Sports, surely nobody can argue with these stats…

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