Newcastle United face running to stand still when Saudis want to fly…

Newcastle are struggling on the pitch; off it, they must sell to buy. But only their best players would fetch decent money, and cashing in on Kieran Trippier wouldn’t even achieve that. Can the Magpies get out of this stall?

It wasn’t supposed to be like this for Newcastle…

While it would be a stretch to say things are unravelling at St James’ Park, the Magpies are certainly facing tests for which they appear to lack the answers.

On the pitch, that is evident in their form. Having finished fourth while qualifying for the Champions League last term, over halfway through the current season they are languishing in mid-table, 14 points off the top four and 19th in the Premier League form table.

The Champions League brought the odd fleeting moment in a campaign getting more miserable by the week. The win over PSG will live long in the memory at St James’ Park, but one glorious victory – their only one – makes such adventures an unsustainable prospect. The intention at Newcastle was to be in the Champions League not for a good time, but for a long time. Now, returning to the top table feels a long way away.

More concerning than their form is the state of their books. Not that it was needed, but Everton and Nottingham Forest’s predicament is a reminder for Newcastle to toe the line financially. Much as the Toon’s Saudi owners would love to pour more and more money into their club, the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) deprives them of that freedom.

More than that, those rules could prompt a fire sale. Or at the very least, force the club to focus harder on sales than further signings to strengthen Eddie Howe’s squad. Newcastle could be running to stand still – if they aren’t already. A reality which must grate on an ownership not used to operating under such prohibitive restrictions. Ironic, that.

The club are not panicking. At least that’s the impression they are trying to offer across the board, via their own words and those of the Toon-centric media. Darren Eales spoke last week after the posting of a £73.4million loss in their latest financial report to reassure fans that their current ‘challenges’ were anticipated on the road to becoming a ‘sustainable, top-six club who are competing for trophies’.

PSR is arguably the biggest obstacle between Newcastle and that objective and while, as things stand, it seems the club are skirting just on the right side of those limits, they would be hard pushed to convince anyone that selling their best players was all part of the plan.

One report suggests both Alexander Isak and Bruno Guimaraes may have to be sold in the summer while, more immediately, Newcastle are considering the sale of the face of Phase One of their revolution.

Kieran Trippier was Eddie Howe’s first purchase, and what a buy he has been. “He’s a transformative signing, someone who has taken the group on to a totally new level,” the Newcastle manager said last month. “He’s been the heartbeat of that.”

Even considering his pre-Christmas form, wretched by any measure, taking an offer on Trippier this month would not be a good look. Newcastle insist he is not for sale but they don’t seem to be convincing anyone.

Trippier, understandably, is keen to take the chance Bayern Munich are offering, which helps to illustrate the gap in status Newcastle still have to bridge with the big boys they aspire to join. Apparently, £12.9million would be enough to change the Magpies’ mind. That’s a figure that adds little to the kitty Howe might need in the coming week and certainly not enough that Newcastle could paint it as an offer they simply could not refuse.

Indeed, now it seems they are hawking Miguel Almiron around, with Joelinton’s future also uncertain amid wrangling over his next contract. Selling Almiron to Saudi for an inflated price would be an easy win. But their current sell-to-buy predicament becomes a real problem when you consider the lack of other obvious sales that would not obviously harm Newcastle’s prospects of returning to Europe – next season or beyond.

Losing Trippier, Joelinton, and one of Isak or Guimaraes before the start of next season is far from the worst-case scenario for Newcastle, but it is not one they could reasonably spin as a positive. And only the last two of the aforementioned quartet would raise a hefty amount. Sven Botman might too. But these assets would have to be replaced.

Who fills the voids that would be left by Isak, Bruno or Botman? No one, without spending much of the money made on their sales. Newcastle do not have the quality elsewhere in the squad to sell or serve as replacements, while – as Howe has recently admitted – the club ‘don’t have many friends in the market’.

Negotiating the difficult path ahead would be made all the more difficult if Manchester United were to tempt Dan Ashworth to Old Trafford – a prospect that doesn’t seem to be diminishing, no matter how hard Newcastle try to kill it.

The two Uniteds are in a similar position: under-performing, with squads not capable of taking them where they want to go but, despite having the cash to strengthen, hands are tied because of FFP. Manchester United at least generate the kind of revenue Newcastle dream of even if they have spaffed much of it up the wall. But the Magpies will struggle to grow their revenue if their profile on the pitch fails to grow.

Or, worse still, it diminishes. Which is a very real prospect amid a litany of challenges, at least some of which they cannot have foreseen and don’t appear ready to confront.

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