Football finance expert says Newcastle are in 'strong position' in spite of PSR scramble

Just over a fortnight ago Newcastle United were in a flap trying to find £60million to ensure they'd comply with PSR and avoid a points deduction next season.

It was a crazy time that even saw the club contemplate cashing in on Anthony Gordon by selling him to Liverpool. Thankfully that didn't happen, however, we did lose Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson as the club raised around £75million from those two sales and finally agreeing terms with Manchester United over Dan Ashworth.

When we all woke up on July 1st with that PSR deadline behind us and those deals all taken care of, it became a case of looking forward and bringing in the players that are going to take Newcastle to the next level.

The big question was, though, just how much will Newcastle have to spend? Just 24 hours earlier we were in the mire, so surely it's not going to be much, right?

Kieran Maguire says Newcastle are in a strong financial position now

Fortunately, thanks to the bizarre way PSR works, Newcastle are actually in a very solid position to spend this summer as football finance expert Kieran Maguire told the Geordie Journos as relayed by the Shields Gazette.

“Without doubt they’ve got money to spend, what people perhaps don’t realise is that the profits from the sales of the two players and whatever money they got from the move of Dan Ashworth to Manchester United, that goes into not only settling any outstanding issues for 2023-24 but it’s part of the three-year pot as far as 2024-25 is concerned.

“They are in a strong position, they are able to be competitive and that’s perhaps as much to do as being able to offer existing members of the squad and extension on their contract. I don’t see why Newcastle can’t be active as far as the transfer market is concerned.”

Maguire's claims inform the club's decision to try to sign £65m Michael Olise

That thinking does seem to line up with some of the ambitious transfer links we've seen so far this summer, namely Michael Olise and Jarrod Bowen. Surely the club wouldn't be entertaining the idea of signing such players if they weren't confident that they had the money to do so.

It seems now, then, that Newcastle's biggest problem is going to be convincing top players to forego the glory of playing in the Champions League, or indeed any European competition, for a season with the promise that their arrival will lift the club to the point where they will be qualifying for the elite competitions again.

We're still awaiting movement on any potential "big" transfers, but everything is now in place for movement to be made in the market.