Newcastle United owners and senior management – How did they not spot PSR iceberg sooner? | OneFootball

I wrote an article for The Mag in the aftermath of Newcastle United publishing it’s financial accounts for the year ending June 2023.

My assessment of the club’s performance off the field was that…

Whilst the new Newcastle United owners had done well to grow revenues, costs had also risen sharply.

That with over £70 million of losses over the period July 2021 to July 2023, the odds of beating the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability (PSR) rules by June 2024 were a long shot, perhaps only possible by dint of Champions League qualification at the end of the season before last.

Despite this, there have been a number of folk imploring the club to spend, spend, spend. However, the January 2024 window proved ominous, no new recruits despite the crippling injury situation, against a backdrop of attempts to offload the likes of Wilson, Almiron and Trippier.

And so it has seemingly come to pass, with reports circulating last night of Yakubah Minteh’s sale to Brighton and Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest.

PSR is designed to stop clubs spending beyond their means, a laudable objective if it wasn’t so one-dimensional, with much being said (rightly) concerning how it stifles growth and protects the status quo.

David Conn, a journalist for the Guardian, wrote a book about his beloved Manchester City, entitled ‘Richer than God’. Newcastle United are even richer than that, yet these infuriating fiscal rules have caused us to offload a potential star or two.

I say potential, because ultimately Yakubah Minteh is relatively untested. After all, playing against the likes of Go Ahead Eagles and AZ Alkmar in the Eredivisie is hardly the same as cutting it week in, week out in the Premier League.

Signed in June 2023 from Danish outfit Odense Boldklub, for a fee reported to be in the region of £7 million, it could be argued that moving him on just 12 months later for £33 million is very good business… but if it’s to satisfy these oppressive PSR regulations, it does rankle somewhat.

The same with Elliot Anderson, a homegrown 21 year old, he is still on the potential side of the equation having had limited opportunities and showing a level of promise so far… but again, difficult to take if another potential star of the future is having to be sold solely due to PSR needs.

What rankles a tad more, is the rather ludicrous way in which this has all played out.

I have been in Europe (not watching Gormless Gareth’s Mob I hasten to add) this past week and so news that Newcastle United are in FFP/PSR dire straits has rather crept up on me.

If my analysis of the club’s 2022/23 accounts was that we were sailing rather close to the PSR iceberg, why on earth has it taken Darren Eales (or Simon Capper, the Chief Financial Officer) to wake up and smell the coffee so late in the day, when our negotiating position is hardly good?

That said, there has been no official communication from the Newcastle United owners.

Maybe this is a good thing, that there’s really no need to panic and what appears rather shambolic from the outside is nothing of the sort, that Minteh and Anderson have been assessed as not being able to cut it at Gallowgate and the profit that’s being generated is damn good business.

There is after all, still talk of other players joining Newcastle United.