Jamie Carragher gives his opinion on PSR when asked by Newcastle fan if it should be scrapped

As a Newcastle United fan we are confident that we know what side of the PSR debate you fall on as it has completely stifled our growth since the 2021 takeover.

Profit and Sustainability Rules or Financial Fair Play or whatever you want to call it, was brought in to ruin Newcastle's chances of mounting a serious title challenge prevent clubs from overspending and falling into debt.

Instead, what it has done is put a nice safety barrier around the Sacred Six so that any other club with money and ambition is hamstrung by the rules and find it more difficult to compete.

This year Newcastle had to sell two of its brightest young stars to comply with PSR, even though, if those rules weren't in place, there would have been no need to do so. In fact, the irony is, now that we have sold two young players, the club will need to go out and spend money to replace them. The system is completely broken.

Carragher was very pro-PSR

During a fan Q&A with Paul Scholes and Jamie Carragher for The Overlap, Lee from Newcastle Fans TV asked Carragher if he thinks PSR should be scrapped, but as a fan of one of those protected clubs, of course his answer was Pro-PSR.

“There has definitely been a lot of frustration from clubs.

“Maybe I am saying this from a Liverpool point of view, because we have almost been seen in the past as the model to try and challenge Man City or a Chelsea. But it’s not just about buying, it’s about selling well as well. It’s not just we have loads of money, we are going to buy loads of players. It’s actually being clever and cute in the transfer market and that’s what certain teams have been. Liverpool have been one of them, I think Arsenal have been one as well.

“I think if we just allow everybody to spend exactly what they want and there’s no fall back. If you’re City and there’s no FFP at all, Pep Guardiola will come in and buy five players, they don’t work – it doesn’t matter because they are going to buy another five and eventually it will work because of the quality of player you are bringing in and this could be City or United or Chelsea or Liverpool. Any of the big clubs.

“I like the fact that if you buy someone and it doesn’t work, your judgement or scouting has been wrong, your system you’re playing has been wrong, that’s got to hurt you. You have to think we have spent that money nobody is going to buy him at the moment because he isn’t playing great, we are going to have to stick with him. So I actually think some limits in terms of spending should bring the best out of coaches.”

We still don't have the answer to PSR

What Carragher seems to be overlooking is that it's all well and good saying you need to be "clever" and "cute" in the transfer market, but when you're seen as "The richest club in the world", other clubs tend to ignore PSR and try and milk you for every penny - look at what Crystal Palace are doing.

Also, the likes of Liverpool and Arsenal are starting from much stronger bases than Newcastle, so they can afford to be "clever and cute", Newcastle need to build their squad to be competitive and then we can start being more selective.

It's such a narrow view by Carragher. Of course, one might say the same about Newcastle fans who want PSR out of the way so we can be all we can be.

At the end of the day, there is a balance that needs to be struck, there are good intentions buried in PSR, but there's no denying that it is far from perfect.