Newcastle's 'harder and harder' PSR excuse falls foul after £125m transfer mishap

View 4 Images

Eddie Howe claimed after Newcastle lost to Sunderland in the last minute, resulting in boos from some fans, that it is getting "harder and harder" for the Magpies to compete in the market.

Howe's side sit in the bottom half and their lack of consistency means that Champions League football looks beyond them. It would mean that the club have only qualified for Europe's top club competition in two out of the past four years.

Their fourth-place finish in 2023 was followed by a steep drop off. And after returning to the party in 2025, another dip has occurred. Newcastle's preparation for the season was far from ideal as they dug their heels in to try and keep a wantaway Alexander Isak, only to admit defeat late on.

Howe claimed the summer was "the hardest transfer window I’ve ever had", but it still ended with him landing two strikers worth £125million - one of whom was captured for a club-record fee. The return for that investment, in the Premier League , has been eight goals in 40 outings.

Wissa's early-season injury was a blow, and has cost him serious game time. Woltemade was a huge shift from Isak and represented a need to change the team's style if they wanted to get the most out of it, but they were ultimately decisions the club took.

When Newcastle first came to the party in 2022, backed by the newly found Saudi Arabian money, they had all the hallmarks of a team who were ready to be flag bearers for how to conduct your recruitment. Now there are serious questions being asked...

They captured Bruno Guimaraes in their first window under the current regime. The following summer, Isak was signed. Anthony Gordon would arrive from Everton six months later. Then came Sandro Tonali, Tino Livramento and, initially on loan, Lewis Hall.

All of those players are worth far more than Newcastle initially paid for them and all have the peaks of their careers ahead of them. But ever since then, Howe has continued to plough out a narrative, which has a fair amount of credibility to it, that Newcastle cannot spend like their rivals.

True to a degree, but to bemoan your spending power when you've rendered your £125m strike force only good enough for the bench for your biggest game of the season deserves questioning. For both Champions League ties against Barcelona they began with Wissa and Woltemade as substitutes. In both games, that's where they remained for the entirety of the 90 minutes.

View 4 Images

Sky Sports has reported that a striker is on the club's shortlist for this summer, which again points to the issue being as much about poor recruitment as it is about financial restrictions.

Isak was the first major asset to be sold during the club's Saudi era, and there is no getting away from the fact that the money he brought in has not been re-invested well. Maybe they will prove good decisions in time, but their struggles this season are in part down to the goals they've failed to replace.

Howe said at the weekend that Newcastle "we don’t want to lose momentum in any way" and they want "to bring the best players to the football club if we can, and we desperately don’t want to lose our best players."

He also added: “I think the rules have made it very difficult for that momentum to go with the speed that it initially did. I don’t know a way that we can beat that system. We have to follow the rules that are set."

So do Newcastle have the revenue of other clubs? No. But one thing they do have that puts them on bar with their rivals is assets. Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon. These are all players who would be in and amongst the starting XI at a top Premier League side.

Manchester United have been linked with Guimaraes. Arsenal were credited with interest in Tonali in January and Gordon was tipped for a move to Liverpool two summers ago. None of those switches materialised, but it serves to underline the interest that exists in Newcastle's brightest and best.

View 4 Images

In an age where financial restrictions do carry some weight, seen by the points deductions handed out to clubs previously, senior figures need to be prepared to make difficult decisions, unpopular decisions, but ones that have to have an element of long-term thinking behind them.

If Newcastle can't spend like Manchester City , Arsenal and co then they have to act differently. They sold one of their own in Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest for £35m in the summer of 2024. Howe has bemoaned his exit and claimed it "was a sale we didn’t want to make" but felt the financial rules meant "you’re incentivised to sell academy products".

That cash represented pure profit, but a similar - or likely greater - profit could've been made had Newcastle chose to cash in on one of their more established stars. You can't keep them all, but producing your own talent is a way to beat the PSR regulations. In three years' time will Anderson be as good, or better than, Guimaraes or Tonali? It's looking increasingly likely.

View 4 Images

Newcastle could be in a similar scenario with young midfielder Lewis Miley, who has all the hallmarks of a future star. Interest in him will exist, but interest also exists in Tonali, for example.

Even trophy-winning clubs like City cash in on their top players, Julian Alvarez a case in point. The initial blow of losing a star can be offset by the avenues it opens up if you spend that money wisely.

PSR certainly exists as a hurdle for Newcastle, but it is not the immovable object it can sometimes be made out to be. A shrewd combination of smart recruitment and deciding that, sometimes, selling a top asset is merely taking one step back to take several forward.