The Newcastle fan theory behind the club's lack of transfer activity is a strong one

Newcastle United are still to make any kind of meaningful move in the January transfer window.

Indeed, if you listen to the interview with CEO Darren Eales or Eddie Howe's Friday morning press conference, you'd be forgiven for thinking that no moves will be made at all this month.

Both parties have pointed the finger at the restrictions imposed by FFP as to why Newcastle - the club with the richest backers in football - can't spend a penny in January to improve/repair their injury-ravaged squad.

Are Newcastle being clever with their messaging?

Now some fans have proposed that this is all a ploy by the club to highlight how restrictive and anti-competitive FFP/PSR is and to increase pressure to have the rule changed or even scrapped.

Richie Southern's post on X was timed perfectly as you can see in his replies as Keith Downie released a post highlighting the issues.

The conversation is gathering pace and with Everton now pushing back against their 10-point deduction and using the idea that FFP goes against UK competition laws, Newcastle's voice added to the mix only strengthens their case.

In no other form of business can the big companies dictate rules and regulations that keep smaller companies from growing (I mean, they probably do but it's not as blatant), but the 'big six', the FA and the Premier League have this little bundle all sewn up to prevent clubs with new owners threatening the status quo.

An owner's decisions are their own, good or bad

We understand that the rules were originally to prevent clubs falling into oblivion after making poor financial decisions, but at the end of the day, that's on the owners. If they run their business into the ground that's their fault. It's not fair on the fans, sure, but it's a consequence of poor management. On the flip side, if you have smart owners they should be allowed to grow a club as they see fit.

The wealth of the PIF is common knowledge; do the FA really think that if Newcastle goes out and spends £500million on players they're going to fall into financial trouble? Of course not, that's the equivalent of us going out and spending £100. It might sting for a while but you soon forget about it like it was nothing.

The ruling needs fixing or scrapping and fast.