Newcastle United chief drops FFP update and transfer hint following Allan Saint-Maximin departure

Speaking to BBC Newcastle on the eve of the new Premier League season, CEO Darren Eales was asked a range of questions by the hosts and supporters about the day-to-day running of the club. Naturally, one of the hottest topics of conversation was regarding Financial Fair Play and how Newcastle United can best navigate those constraints to keep up with their main Premier League rivals.

The Magpies have been slightly hampered by FFP constraints this summer and Eales was asked about how the club can best navigate this, particularly regarding player sales and how Allan Saint-Maximin’s departure - and potential future other player exits - would impact their ability to spend in the future.  Eales said: FFP is a particularly hot topic, every club has to abide by it.

“Part of the role I have here at Newcastle United, we want to grow as quickly as we can as a club but we have to do it within the rules. They’re obviously quite strictly enforced and they look a lot at those ‘loopholes’ but we have to make sure we do things the right way.

“The first way we’re trying to meet FFP as a club is to grow revenues. The more revenue you have, the more you’re able to spend on players, on salaries and on transfers.

“One of the ways you can get the income is by moving players. If you move a player, you recognise all that revenue at that time but when you buy a player, you amortise that.

“What that means is you spread out the cost across the length of the contract so what that does mean is that if you are churning players, you get more availability to spend money. But for us, what we’re focusing on is how do we have the most efficient spend?

“We know we’ve got a certain amount, so that’s why we spend a lot of time talking to Dan [Ashworth] and Eddie [Howe] about what the squad looks like, how we want to build it and what type of players and profile are Eddie and Dan looking for?

“The second way is looking at growing the revenues. You’ve seen already some of the new things we’ve done from our new front of shirt sponsorship through ideas we have for the future as we grow what is an amazing club.

“We were up 30% global viewing figures around the world. The Premier League on average went up 6% - so we’re clearly a club that is growing in terms of interest and that is very attractive to corporate sponsors.

“When we’re talking to our partners, we’re saying ‘look, here’s an opportunity for you to get on this rocket ship that’s launching to being a top-six sustainable club’. Those revenues will give us more spending and we’re looking at every angle.”

Eales continued: “We’re very clear as a club that those [FFP] are the rules and we knew that when the takeover took place. Those are the rules that everyone has to abide by and we’re going to abide by them.”