Newcastle United’s transfer budget could be so small that they may only make two major signings this summer according to a report.
Dominik Szoboszlai, James Maddison, Moussa Diaby and Kim Min-Jae are just a few of the high-profile names linked with a move to Newcastle, and for once, they all look like realistic targets. There’s a feeling amongst fans that nobody is off limits thanks to our mega-rich backers and the fact that we’re playing Champions League football next season.
Meanwhile, there’s Luke Edwards from The Telegraph who believes that due to the constraints put upon Newcastle via Financial Fair Play, there may only be enough money in the pot for Newcastle to make two major signings this summer.
The truth about the summer transfer budget is unknown
The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. While Luke Edwards is a good journalist, his stories always err on the side of caution, often coming across as negative to fans – he probably just hasn’t fully shook off that feeling of disillusionment that Newcastle fans had to suffer for years and as such likes to try and temper fans’ expectations.
The report does go on to mention that things are progressing well with the Maddison deal, but then says that reports claiming that Newcastle are frontrunners for his signature are premature. See what I mean? Always a negative with Luke.
Seriously though, I don’t believe that Newcastle only have a £75million budget to spend this summer before player sales. Remember when it was said we only had around £50million to spend in January 2022 and we spent nearly double that? The truth is nobody outside of the club knows the true figure.
The other thing that always seems to be forgotten about is that any transfer fee is spread across the duration of the player’s contract with regards to FFP. For example, if we signed Maddison for £50million on a five-year deal, that’s £10million on FFP every year for five years rather than one big £50million hit at the point of completion.
Newcastle will only keep growing as will the FFP allowances
A lot could happen in those five years. Another four years of Champions League, maybe a trophy, or maybe we sell a couple of players for huge profit. The likelihood of the club going backwards in that time is very small given the business acumen within the club both from a football and financial point of view.
So for me, the reality is that we will sign the players we think we need this summer. There will obviously be a need to be sensible with the budget to stay within the FFP guidelines, but the situation is nowhere near as desperate as is being made out in The Telegraph.
That is of course just my opinion, I don’t claim to have any inside knowledge or real understanding of how FFP works and where Newcastle United stand in that regard, but the idea that we’ll only make two signings just doesn’t sound right to me.
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