Everton warning for Newcastle United owners that can’t be ignored | OneFootball

The takeover back on 7 October 2021, sparked much debate on whether or not Newcastle United were going to be the new Manchester City.

Well, one thing is for sure, Newcastle United don’t want to be the new Everton.

No disrespect to our blue scouse ‘friends’ but they have become a car crash of a club since their big takeover six years ago.

Farhad Moshiri (Alisher Usmanov?) buying a 49.9% stake back then in February 2016 and later taking full control.

Whilst there may be plenty of discussion on where the money comes from that finances what goes on at Everton these days, there is no argument when it comes to the sheer amount of cash that has been poured into the club in recent years.

There have been absolute fortunes spent since February 2016 but a bit like waking up with the world’s worst ever hangover, not a penny left in your pocket and the remains of a kebab and chilli sauce smeared over the furniture, you wonder where exactly all the cash actually went…?

There are all kinds of red flags here for Newcastle United, Everton having written the official handbook on how not to run a football club when willing to pile the cash in.

In less than six years they have already seen an incredible six managers exit Goodison Park.

Only three months after moving into Everton, the new ownership sacked Roberto Martinez in May 2016. That is the Roberto Martinez who Everton are now desperate to employ again, having gone through another five permanent managers since his departure. The next big favourites if not getting Martinez, are what look real desperate alternatives, with Duncan Ferguson and Wayne Rooney next in the betting.

Bearing in mind the fortunes that have already been spent and that they are already further committed to spending, handing over the reins to one of those two would be quite extraordinary.

This Everton ownership have already seen Koeman, Allardyce, Silva, Ancelotti and Benitez follow Martinez out of the door, no wonder it appears that nobody credible is too keen on taking the job.

Especially when, as Rafa Benitez found out, the astonishing amount of money ‘invested’ in player recruitment in recent years, meant the Everton owners are hamstrung by FFP (Financial Fair Play), so even if happy to pour more personal cash in, they are only able to spend relative pennies, unless selling existing players. As has happened this month with Digne out and a couple coming in.

I see Newcastle United fans coming out with this kind of stuff…

‘Just pay whatever it takes to get…(whatever the latest name is that the media have thrown up)’

‘Pay the extra £10m / £20m….’

‘Doesn’t matter how much it costs, the new owners have to go out and get two centre-backs, two full-backs, two central midfielders, two strikers and….this month.’

“Howe has to go.”

“About time the owners started to deliver, give Barcelona / Real Madrid / Man Utd / Sevilla / Lille / Bayern Munich what they want. We don’t have time to be messing around with trying to save money.’

Despite the sheer volume of media ‘updates’ on the endless list of potential signings and at what stage any deal is at, at any particular time, these fans, like us, in reality know absolutely nothing, the same as the vast majority of journalists who are reeling them in with creative ‘insider’ knowledge.

Anyway, back to Everton.

£21m Schneiderlin

£26m Bolasie

£20m Tosun

£20m Walcott

£24m Klaassen

£26m Pickford

£26m Keane

£44m Sigurdsson

£27m Mina

£35m Richarlison

£22m Gbamin

£22m Gomes

£25m Kean

£27m Iwobi

£20m Doucoure

£23m Allan

£25m Godfrey

These stats to get ballpark figures on spending, are from transfermarkt and here is the money in and out, plus net spend figure, in each of those five seasons the players above were brought into Everton:

2016/17 £77m spent, £55m banked, net spend £22m

2017/18 £183m spent, £114m banked, net spend £69m

2018/19 £90m spent, £26m banked, net spend £64m

2019/20 £109m spent, £79m banked, net spend £30m

2020/21 £67m spent, £4m banked, net spend £63m

Overall totals across these five Everton seasons (2016-2021):

£526m spent, £278m banked, £248m net spend

This is before you get to the soaring wage bill AND already so much cash having to be written off due to bad decisions on who Everton signed AND how much they spent on them.

Then you have serious costs when recruiting and firing all these managers.

Whilst all this is going on, Everton have also committed to a new stadium which from what I read, is going to cost a minimum of half a billion pounds to get the whole project sorted.

So many Newcastle United fans (as well as outsiders) assume that the Saudis are going to pile in an endless pile of cash, with the UK’s richest family the Reubens also potentially willing to do whatever it takes.

The truth is, none of us know exactly how far the plan goes, exactly how much money could be spent year on year.

What is for sure though, is that with FFP, even if owners want to spend whatever it takes, these days, as Everton have proved, clubs aren’t allowed to.

I hear a lot of people talk about spending something like £200m in this January 2022 window as though it is next to nothing. The reality is though, that it isn’t monopoly money and it is real life. The new owners would have to be willing to put that kind of cash in AND then plan for what would happen in the future, if say relegation happened, with the extra implications that would have for FFP further down the line.

Personally, I think that with £37m already spent on Trippier and Wood, I think the very upper limit for more spending would maybe be another £40m-£50m on permanent deals, at the very most. If that happened on a couple (or even just one!) players, it would be a mad transfer window. As I think we will also see at least a couple of loan deals happen as well, possibly with an option to buy as well if staying up. The better loan deals though tend to happen later in the transfer windows, as clubs want to be sure of what they otherwise have, before letting them leave on loan arrangements.

Again, if Newcastle United do end up buying players in this window for around £75m-£85m in total, that would be a huge outlay. Especially when you factor in wages, agent fees, then on top of that loan fees and wages.

There is no doubt that in these up and coming seasons and transfer windows, Newcastle United will make some painful mistakes. After all, every club does the same, even ones that have been stable with the same ownership for years.

However, the more lessons that can be learnt at the expense of Everton, all the better for NUFC when it comes to smoothing the path to hopefully success, on and off the pitch.