Adam Smith

Newcastle went from relegation candidates to Champions League in one year. They spent a lot of money to transform that relegation squad into one that won the Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League twice in three years. They had no quality players to sell, it was a bad team, so… They were forced to sell players they didn’t want to lose to comply with PSR rules, including their best academy player in Elliot Anderson for £35m as it was “pure profit.” But it is the wages that really kill them. Newcastle can’t offer the same wages at the Big six with their ingrained financial advantage. SCR has baked this in, So when they get an elite talent, they can’t keep hold of them. Hence Isak, Gordon, Tonali and Bruno all leaving in the space of 12 months. All but one of them went to a domestic rival. Newcastle “competed” for a short period of time and then, like Aston Villa, they were forced to sell or players demanded to leave. And this process is now repeated every summer. Well run clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are perfect to keep the eco system running. They identify and develop players for the richer clubs to buy. It’s their business model and it’s pretty much the same business model #nufc have had to switch to now. There has always been a food chain in football in my lifetime but that food chain is now enshrined by the financial rules Unregulated spending is not what we need either. Nobody serious is saying that. No club should just be able to spend what they want based on the wealth of their owners, but the rules need to be looked at. This isn’t a dig at @RorySmith either. He has raised another strand to the debate in his usual eloquent style. I’m just offering my view.