Newcastle United CEO has already responded to claims club must sell 'key' players

Newcastle United have already addressed claims they could have to sell key players this summer due to pressure to comply with the Premier League’s Profitability and Sustainability Rules.

The Magpies posted losses of £155million for the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons and spent around £130million on new signings last summer. PSR limits clubs to losses of £105million over a three-season period however this is mostly limited to losses involving the first-team, wages and transfer spending.

Spending on the academy, women’s team and club infrastructure are among several elements not included in PSR calculations, hence Newcastle still complying with the rules despite publishing losses in excess of £105million.

But Sky Sports have claimed Newcastle are one of six Premier League clubs ‘under pressure’ to sell key players before June 30.

The end of the current year for PSR calculations is June 30, meaning any clubs needing to reduce losses will have to sell assets to avoid punishment. Both Everton and Nottingham Forest were deducted points in 2023-24 for breaching PSR. And, according to Sky Sports, Everton, Forest, Newcastle, Chelsea, Aston Villa and newly promoted Leicester City are ‘under pressure of losing a key asset or two before the changeover into the new financial year’.

Darren Eales discusses Newcastle United’s PSR standing and potential player sales

Following the publishing of Newcastle’s latest accounts in January, chief executive officer Darren Eales was asked if the club were compliant with PSR.

“We're compliant in the year we're talking about [2022-23],” he said. “Our plans are always to be compliant going forward, that is part of our business plan and part of our model.”

The suggestion Newcastle would have the sell key players to comply with PSR was sparked by Eales’ comments back in January. The Newcastle CEO was asked directly if the likes of Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes would have to be sold, to which he responded: “On any player, at any time, it depends on circumstances.

“It’s difficult to hypothesise but, if we’re offered £1billion for one of those players, then no one could argue against that making sense. Any decision we make will always be against the backdrop of the medium to long-term benefit for the club.

“It’s difficult to say specifically on certain players, but I can say that, if we’re going to get to where we want to get to, at times, it is necessary to trade your players.

“Whether that is because of the contract length of the player in question, the offer is too good to refuse, you need to reload in certain areas, but all of this could make sense to trade that player.

“It is counter-intuitive and part of the inherent system of PSR that there is an incentive to trade your players if you want to re-invest, by the nature of the boundaries.”

Guimaraes has a £100million release clause in his contract that expires at the end of June.

And Eales, who admits every player at the club ‘has a price’, is an advocate of ‘player trading’ in order to create financial ‘headroom’ for the club moving forward.

“Under FFP, if you sell a £50m player and bring in an identical one on £50m and the same wages, but amortise over the five years the player you are bringing in, that's only £10m a year so you are creating £40m of headroom,” Eales explained.

“That's the reality of the FFP model. If you are churning players you create more headroom. We have seen lots of examples of this elsewhere.

“[Philippe] Coutinho at Liverpool and they brought in Allison and Virgil van Dijk. [Jack] Grealish going from Aston Villa [to Manchester City] and they have reinvested and reloaded. Decan Rice at West Ham, it's just the nature of the beast.

“If you trade players on, it creates more headroom. You have to keep growing that headroom [by] increasing commercial revenue and player trading.”

Eddie Howe admits Newcastle United ‘have to’ sell players

In May, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe admitted the club would have to sell players this summer but not necessarily top assets such as Guimaraes and Isak. “There'll have to be movement out,” Howe said last month. “But I think there's no specific bracket or brand or type of player, however, you want to look at it, that's assigned to that.

On the potential selling of players, Howe added: “I have one [viewpoint] as a manager trying to win football matches and the club have to be sustainable and comply with the rules and Financial Fair Play.

“So we work together as a team on that. There is no part of me that will ever go against the club, and there is no part of the club who would willingly go against me if they didn’t think it was the right thing for the long-term future.

“We are very much a team and the relationship, the dynamics of that have worked well since I have been here. We are wanting to push the team as far as we can, obviously within the rules.” 

Several Newcastle players have been linked with moves away from the club this summer. Kieran Trippier, Callum Wilson and Miguel Almiron were all subject to transfer interest in January and speculation has continued ahead of the summer transfer window opening on June 14.

As things stand, Newcastle are set to sign Lewis Hall from Chelsea for £28million in a deal that won’t impact the 2023-24 PSR calculations as it will officially be completed after the June 30 deadline. The same goes for the expected free-agent signing of Lloyd Kelly, whose contract at Bournemouth expires on June 30.