'They might have to': Jamie Carragher sets out plan for Newcastle to comply with FFP

Financial Fair Play rules are the main thing holding Newcastle United back from breaking into the 'elite'.

Newcastle have the richest backers in world football but that counts for absolutely nothing when FFP rules stifle our ability to actually spend that money on the team.

Eddie Howe and his team have done a brilliant job bringing in quality players on a budget but realistically, to take that next step, we need to be signing players from the next tier.

Jamie Carragher risked the ire of the Toon Army again

That was pretty much Jamie Carragher's analysis last night prior to kick-off on Sky Sports, and let's be honest - he's not wrong.

Carragher went on to lay out a scenario that Newcastle cans won't have wanted to hear.

"There's actually talk that to comply with FFP and go again, they might have to actually sell one of their best players. Maybe if someone offers £100million for Bruno Guimaraes if you like, it'll give them the opportunity to go again."

There is some credibility to what he's saying, until you start to unravel it properly.

Selling Bruno to raise funds: Good idea or bad?

It would definitely sting to see Bruno leave, but a £60million profit is not something to be sniffed at, especially when were are at the limits of FFP and unable to bring in top-quality players.

By the same token, though, we'd then have to replace Bruno and that would likely end up costing us as much as we sold him for so we'd literally be no further forward.

After a blistering start to this project, finishing last season at least two years ahead of where we were supposed to be, it's no bad thing that this season we've gone backward a bit. We're still ahead of where the owners planned to be, so as hard it is to go through this patch, we'll be all the better for it next season.