Ian Wright says what every Newcastle United fan is thinking as he questions why two players are still at the club

Remember the days pre-takeover when Newcastle United were being linked with post-takeover moves for the likes of Kylian Mbpappe and Neymar? Those were wild times.

We don't think that anyone was expecting those types of signings to become reality, but there was definitely an expectation that we'd be signing big stars to come and ply their trade in the North East as we launched an assault on the established order.

Eddie Howe made a good start, bringing in Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes despite the club looking almost certainties for relegation at the time.

Alexander Isak followed in the summer and anyone who'd kept an eye on his development knew that we'd signed a quality forward. Newcastle also beat AC Milan to the signing of Sven Botman who is very highly regarded. So far so good.

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PSR has Newcastle in a logic loop

Unfortunately, Profit and Sustainability Rules and Associated Party Transaction rules really took the wind out of the Magpies' sales, and despite having the money to do whatever they wanted without any fear of bankruptcy, the PIF had to abide by the rules and suddenly, the 'richest club in the world' were completely skint.

With an inability to bring in new, quality players, Newcastle's ability to sell was also hampered as the club would need to ensure they had the depth to cover for a player who left the club.

So now, Newcastle are left in a position with lacklustre players in certain positions because they can't afford to replace them until they're sold, and they don't carry enough value to sell for what they need to bring in a new player. It's an endless loop that the club are going to have to break either by selling players and potentially being left without options, or buying players for those positions and praying they can raise the funds before PSR bites us in the butt.

Ian Wright can't believe Miguel Almiron and Jacob Murphy are still at Newcastle

Ian Wright, speaking on the Kelly and Wrighty Show. has identified two players that absolutely typify this problem.

“You look at where Newcastle are, there are certain players like [Jacob] Murphy and [Miguel] Almiron.

“There’s no way when the new owners came in, how long is it since the new owners have been there? Two years on there are players who are still in and around that would be there. Nobody can tell me Eddie Howe wasn’t expecting more spending and more players.

“There’s no way two years on Newcastle thought this would be where they’d be. I don’t know where they are."

Newcastle have to take a risk one way or another

What Wright said is damning enough, but when you realise that it has actually been three years, it's even worse.

However, how can we sell Miggy and/or Murphy when we have no other decent option down the right? How can we bring in a new right winger when we have no PSR headroom?

Not that either of those players would bring in a great deal of money, the way transfers are amortised for PSR reporting, just raising a few million by selling those two players could unlock tens of millions in headroom.

However, we'd have to be certain that we'd be able to bring in the replacement(s) before their exits were sanctioned or Eddie Howe would be left with absolutely no options.

This is the mess that PSR has caused, all in a bid to protect the status quo.