Newcastle could announce a new huge sponsorship deal before the end of the season - journalist

One big thing that is holding Newcastle United back from breaking into that "elite" group is the current Financial Fair Play/Profit and Sustainability rules.

The Magpies have the wealthiest backers in world football, and there's no doubt that if they could, the PIF would throw money at the transfer market to get Newcastle closer to the likes of Manchester City and Liverpool, but financial restrictions put in place to prevent clubs buying their way to success have slowed progress right down.

At least, they say that's what the rules are for, but it looks more and more like they were created simply to keep the big clubs ahead of the rest. Essentially, they locked the stable door after the horse bolted but ensured that the foals couldn't ever get out. Does that even make sense?

The current FFP/PSR rules are set to be ripped up in place of a model that is more in line with UEFA's system whereby a club can spend a certain percentage of their annual revenue. That percentage is thought to be set at 85% and with Newcastle's turnover last year being £250million, that means we could potentially spend £212.5million on transfers next year. In its most basic form that is, there's probably a lot more to it than that.

Financial restrictions are more like big iron gates around the top six sides

That still doesn't fix the issue of clubs who have backers with wealth that far outweigh that of the club's own, like Newcastle. £212million to the PIF is like what you'd spend on a Friday night session in the boozer for us. You might miss it in the morning but you soon get over it.

We could effectively spend that money, and more, and be nowhere near close to bankruptcy, but the financial restrictions don't take things like this into account so the club itself has to generate more and more income in order to spend more - it's kind of fair, but also not when there's such great disparity between the top of the league and the bottom.

So now Newcastle have to increase their income as much as possible in order to be able to improve the team which means more and more commercial partners. The deal with Sela for front-of-shirt sponsorship and Noon for the sleeve along with the upcoming Adidas deal have all been huge leaps forward from what we were previously bringing in, but there's still such a huge gap to close.

Newcastle are working on more sponsorship deals to increase annual income

There is about a £400million a year gap to close if we're being honest as Manchester City manage to bring in over £700million a year.

Luke Edwards has posted on X today that he's expecting the club to announce a big sponsorship deal before the end of this season but isn't sure what the deal will be for, nor does he say who it will be, but it could be training gear or even stadium sponsorship.

There was uproar when Mike Ashley changed the name of St James' Park to incorporate a sponsor, but that was really mainly because he was pimping his own business and not paying the club for the privilege. If done right, a stadium sponsor shouldn't have to be controversial.

The club are also looking at ways to expand St James' Park or even looking at building a new stadium, which would of course increase revenue by increasing matchday takings: more tickets = more money,

We're a long way off catching up the big six in terms of revenue, but our rate of growth since PIF took over means it shouldn't be long before we close the gap.