'We had to': Eddie Howe revisits the decision that nobody wanted to make in the summer

Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) are ruining the modern game under a feint guise of being for the greater good and Newcastle United have a shining example of the big issue with the problems the rules are causing.

The misnomered "richest club in the world" are not only finding it hard to spend money on the types of players they feel they need to reach their ambitions, but this summer saw the club in a blind panic looking to raise around £70 million to plug a gap in the PSR reporting figures.

Obviously, £70 million to our 90% owners, the PIF is like a fiver to you and me. It might leave you short for a week or so but you'll soon have it back. In fact, we're more likely to miss that fiver than they are £70 million.

But the rules block the PIF from using their own money to make up that shortfall and instead Newcastle had to sell players, one of which was Geordie starlet and fan favourite Elliot Anderson.

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Newcastle fans were gutted when Elliot Anderson was sold in the summer

Fans were devastated to see Anderson moved on, but it turns out so was Eddie Howe and everyone else at the club, not to mention Anderson himself.

Now with Newcastle set to face off against Anderson this weekend as Newcastle take on Nottingham Forest, Eddie Howe has once again reiterated how nobody at the club wanted to make that sale.

Speaking to the media this morning (via The Chronicle) Howe spoke of the differences between the sale of Anderson to Nottingham Forest and the sale of Chris Wood to the same club.

Eddie Howe lost two players to Nottingham Forest under very different circumstances

Howe didn't want to sell Chris Wood either but understood his reasons for wanting the move and it's safe to say things are working out well for the New Zealander.

"No one internally wanted to make that sale [Anderson] - but we had to.

"So I think that one is a very unusual one because I think that will be happening again, not just here, but at other football clubs, when you sell footballers for financial reasons.

"Chris' one was slightly different because I think it was really thinking of Chris. We had obviously Alex [Isak] and Callum [Wilson] and Chris - three experienced strikers that would all want to start games.

"Chris felt that he wanted that opportunity to play week in, week out, and we reluctantly agreed to that. But as I said, I don't think there was any ill feeling. It was all with each other's blessing."