If Newcastle United’s board had £1 for every time someone has said they needed to become better sellers in recent years, they’d have staved off PSR concerns a long time ago. The Magpies’ own sporting director even said as much when reflecting on a hectic summer transfer window that saw limited arrivals and some panic selling in late June.
“Even this year if you look what Liverpool did, I don’t think they lost a big one [player], but they did sell Fabio Carvalho at £25million and they did do the centre-back [Van den Berg] at £25m, that’s still £50million and then you can fund a big one yourself,” Mitchell told reporters. “So there has to be a more balanced approach, there has to be a more balanced model and there definitely has to be a more strategic approach here that we haven’t had the last two and a half years.”
The forced departures of Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson last summer did not scream ‘strategic’ at the time but have ultimately helped unlock a brighter financial future for Newcastle. That is evident with the release of the club’s 2023/24 accounts, with the Magpies reporting a turnover increase of £70m [£250.3m to £320.3m].
The financial statement also shows how much United made offloading players during that time period, with profit totalling £69.8m – £67m more than the £2.8m of 2022/23 – mainly arising from the sales of Anderson, Minteh and also Allan Saint-Maximin in the summer of 2022.”
The statement also shows United’s net spend on 2023/24 transfers was £20m, significantly down from the £124m net spend of the previous season.
Next year’s accounts will show the departures of Lloyd Kelly and Miguel Almiron – two fringe players who were struggling for game time on Tyneside before their January 2025 exits. Both players could fall into the category of Carvalho or Van den Berg at Liverpool that Mitchell has previously heralded.
It means Newcastle can now, hopefully, attack a summer transfer window with spending of their own, with club chiefs now confident there will be no enforced sales of any big-name talent when the next trading period rolls around.
“We’re in a position now where because of the fact we were able to move a couple of players in January (2024) that weren’t really impacting on minutes on the pitch,” Eales told journalists over Zoom. “We’ve got that wish and desire to keep our key players, they’re all under long-term contracts.
“So from that perspective we have no intention at all of those players being moved on, and we’re not under the gun or anything like that. We’ve got an ownership that is ambitious, wants the best for the club. So from that perspective, it’d be crazy for us to consider it.”
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