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Opinion

£92m – £54m – £31m: The figures don’t add up at Newcastle United

7 years ago
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It has been a strange summer at Newcastle United.

Winning promotion and then a dramatic title win on the final day, momentum was definitely in the tank.

Expectations of the transfer window were pretty much universal I believe, most fans predicting a number of squad players to come in and three or four guaranteed first teamers – including a couple of significant (higher transfer fee) signings.

Fair to say that most supporters have been left a little/lot demoralised with what has actually (not) happened, the saving grace being that Rafa Benitez is still here and hopes that the five new players will have ability that is higher than their collective transfer fees.

However, the numbers don’t really add up, not that is if we hoped/expected that Rafa Benitez was being given a fair crack establishing Newcastle United back in the Premier League.

Not of course assaulting the top six or seven, just yet, just expecting/hoping that enough backing would be given to ensure no relegation struggle and a place amongst the also-rans on this return to the top tier.

Back in 2015/16 after the squad had been left desperately weakened, Mike Ashley gave the go ahead to £92m worth of spending (in summer 2015 and January 2016) to try and avoid relegation.

Then 2016/17 saw £54m paid out, to ensure a return to Premier League TV cash and worldwide exposure for Mike Ashley’s retail empire.

For 2017/18 though, we have seen only £31m (all figures courtesy of Transfermarkt who are seen as probably the most reliable in estimating transfers in this era of ‘undisclosed’ fees) spent by Newcastle and the season is only 10 days away from kicking off for NUFC.

However much money is, or isn’t, in Newcastle United’s bank account, these figures don’t add up…

Transfer fees have shot up from two years ago when much of that £92m was wasted in trying to belatedly build a squad that wouldn’t struggle, likewise we are one year on from when £54 was spent just to get out of the Championship.

Is it really realistic to only budget for £31m (Thauvin was sold for £10m this summer remember as well) to try and go in and compete successfully to stay up, without any major scare?

Other clubs are spending much of this upcoming season’s Premier League cash in advance, as usual.

Mike Ashley didn’t allow that in summer 2010 when NUFC came up but we were lucky enough to already have a Premier League team.

We don’t this time.

Money needs to be spent in these coming weeks or else both Rafa and his squad are really up against it.

Thinking we can scrape through this time then there will be money to spend next summer is no kind of sensible strategy, either long or short-term.

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