The eye-watering figures behind Newcastle's shirt sponsorship deals shows the ineptitude of previous regime

It's no secret that the Mike Ashley era at Newcastle United was a barren one when it came to the commercial side of the business with the owner more interested in using the club to promote his Sports Direct brand than growing the club into anything other than a giant advertising hoarding for his red and blue tat.

Since Amanda Staveley kicked the St James' Park doors off the hinges and booted Mike Ashley out of his office, the new Saudi PIF-backed board have worked tirelessly to get the commercial side of the business up to speed with the rest of the Premier League, while aiming to catch up to those in that "Big Six" category that are so far ahead of the "Other 14" of which Newcastle are currently one.

When the kit deal with Castore was announced and the figures behind that deal were made public, it was clear to everyone how little Mike Ashley actually cared about generating income for the club.

The deal with Castore, along with the Fun88 front-of-shirt sponsorship and KAYAK sleeve sponsorship netted the club a paltry £13.5million a year. The deal with Fun88 was with more than than that of Castore which is absolutely mindblowing.

The new owners wasted no time in scrapping the existing deals

The new owners moved quickly to bring in new partnership deals that would grow the club's revenue, they cut short the partnerships with Fun88 (although they do remain a partner, just no longer as prominent) and more importantly, Castore.

First up was the sleeve sponsorship deal with Saudi Arabian online retailer Noon which, at £7.5million a season was worth more than the front-of-shirt deal with Fun88. Then a deal was struck with another Saudi Arabian company, Sela to replace Fun88 on the front of the shirt, taking that partnership from £6.5million a year up to £25million a year.

Finally, there was the big one. The agreement with German sportswear giant Adidas to replace Castore from next season which comes in at a delightful £40million a year, taking our new total to £72.5million a year.

There's still a long way to go to catch the "Big Six"

As pointed out by X user @1892nu that's an overall total increase of 537%.

What was Mike Ashley doing with our club that £13.5million a year was the best he could do? Isn't he supposed to be some kind of business tycoon?

Of course, this is just the kit sponsorship we're talking about, other partners such as Saudi Airlines, Monster Energy, Quidd and several others have also come on board as the commercial team work hard on further partnerships behind the scenes. We were so far behind thanks to Big Mike that we've got a long way to go to catch the "Big Six" and as long as the Premier League stay out of our way and doesn't create new rules to halt our progress, we will get there.