Financial Fair Play or Profit and Sustainability Rules, whatever you want to call them are officially ruining the game as Newcastle United move a step closer to losing one of their most promising stars.
Buying a player and selling them when they become profitable was the Mike Ashley way at Newcastle and when the PIF fronted by Amanda Staveley booted the doors down at St James' Park and hauled him out of there, we thought those days were behind us.
Newcastle now had the backing of the richest owners in world football and were being linked with moves for Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo and Kylian Mbappe.
However, all of the financial restrictions that now face clubs meant that we ended up with Chris Wood and now just a few years into the new ownership, we are back to selling young stars to make a quick profit so the Premier League don't hit us with points deductions. It's an absolute farce.
Saturday saw a lot of speculation around the future of 19-year-old Yankuba Minteh who signed for Newcastle just last year for £6million, had an impressive season at Feyenoord on loan and is now valued at around £40million with several clubs lining up to sign him.
The Chronicle have now reported that Minteh's agent, Bakary Bojang (great name) had said on Saturday morning that they were in talks with several clubs, and by Saturday night that had evolved to Minteh having agreed terms.
"It is correct that Newcastle are willing to sell the player if they receive a good offer. From our side if Newcastle wants to sell and the sporting project is good we will definitely look at it. We are in communication with some clubs."
Then a few hours later.
"I can't confirm clubs who are in communication with us. We have agreed terms with one of the clubs. So now the rest is with Newcastle."
A player of Minteh's potential should not be being sold by Newcastle before he's even kicked a ball for the club. It is outrageous, ludicrous and maddening that we even have to entertain the idea.
Newcastle's loan manager Shola Ameobi praised Minteh after his stint at Feyenoord, calling him 'athletically gifted' so it's not like the club doesn't believe in him.
"Yankuba Minteh done amazingly this year. I think the vision for him was to see if he could play at that level. It was a big jump coming from Denmark with Odense but what he's done and the attitude he's got he's achieved that. He is athletically gifted but we knew he would develop tactically and technically."
Eddie Howe hasn't even had the chance to have a look at him in person yet, and we're contemplating moving him on just to appease the Premier League and their restrictive rules that are crippling the game.
I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed. That's a lie. I'm absolutely effin' livid!
PL | GD | PTS | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Liverpool
|
12 | 16 | 31 |
2 |
Manchester City
|
12 | 5 | 23 |
3 |
Chelsea
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
4 |
Arsenal
|
12 | 9 | 22 |
5 |
Brighton
|
12 | 5 | 22 |
6 |
Tottenham Hotspur
|
12 | 14 | 19 |
7 |
Nottingham Forest
|
12 | 2 | 19 |
8 |
Aston Villa
|
12 | 0 | 19 |
9 |
Fulham
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
10 |
Newcastle United
|
12 | 0 | 18 |
11 |
Brentford
|
12 | 0 | 17 |
12 |
Manchester United
|
12 | 0 | 16 |
13 |
Bournemouth
|
12 | -1 | 15 |
14 |
West Ham United
|
12 | -4 | 15 |
15 |
Everton
|
12 | -7 | 11 |
16 |
Leicester
|
12 | -8 | 10 |
17 |
Wolves
|
12 | -8 | 9 |
18 |
Ipswich
|
12 | -10 | 9 |
19 |
Crystal Palace
|
12 | -7 | 8 |
20 |
Southampton
|
12 | -15 | 4 |