Dan Ashworth compensation from Manchester United helped Newcastle to comply with PSR - Luke Edwards

We suspected that it was no coincidence that Dan Ashworth being released by Newcastle United just happened to occur the day the PSR reporting deadline passed.

While we still (at the time of writing) don't know what the two clubs agreed in terms of compensation, Dan Ashworth is now free to take up his role at Manchester United.

Luke Edwards posted on X this morning that the fee, whatever it may be, helped Newcastle to avoid sanctions for breaching PSR.

A statement that had a lot of fans feeling a tad confused.

Did we need the money for PSR or did Man United only have the money after the deadline?

Obviously, we know the fee that we received from Manchester United would have counted towards the total the club were chasing to comply with PSR, but the way in which Edwards worded his post was like it was the final piece of the puzzle rather than an added bonus.

Bear in mind Newcastle had just brought in almost £70million by selling Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh to Nottingham Forest and Brighton and Hove Albion respectively.

Considering early last week we thought we only had to make up £25million, but by the end of the week it was believed to be £40million, is Edwards saying it was actually more like £70million?

We may never know the true figure Newcastle were chasing

It'll probably be a while before we know the full truth, if indeed we ever do.

This whole weekend has been an utter shambles in terms of the transfer market, not just for Newcastle but for all other clubs who were running close to the wire in terms of PSR.

The Premier League needs to take a long look at what happened in January and June and seriously think about whether PSR is doing what it's supposed to be because from the outside, it just seems to be killing the game.