'Hopefully' - Newcastle United have already agreed £20m summer deal as Eddie Howe stays coy
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Eddie Howe remained coy when asked if Newcastle United will have money to spend this summer.
The Magpies have gone three consecutive transfer windows without a major signing and last month weakened the squad with the sales of Miguel Almiron and Lloyd Kelly.
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Hide AdBut the suggestion is that taking these bold steps will put United in a much better position financially, and in turn allow them to bolster significantly in the summer.
Asked if that were the case, Howe replied: “I’ve said many times, it’s a difficult thing to give clear, definitive answers, and that’s not me being difficult, as to what the future looks like.
“I think, certainly for the past year, we’ve been managing a situation that we had to make decisions that we necessarily wouldn’t make from a football perspective.
“Hopefully, by being prudent, in the future we won’t be making those decisions and will be just making purely football decisions.
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Hide Ad“But for when we get to that point, I can’t give you a definite date and it would be wrong of me to do so. Everything we are doing is trying to lead us to that point.”
Newcastle banked £10m from the sale of Almiron to Atlanta United, while Kelly has joined Juventus on an initial loan which includes a £20m obligation to buy in the summer.
Howe said at the time of Almiron’s sale was “needed” for Premier League Profitability and Sustainability Rules (PSR) reasons. He then denied Kelly’s sale gave Newcastle extra PSR headroom to recruit in the January transfer window.
“No. That did not give us any positive headroom to bring a player in,” said Howe. “We knew from the off this month we weren’t in the incoming market. It was about controlling sales that navigated us out of a problem. So that’s where we were the whole month, and it never changed.”
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Hide AdAll is to play for Newcastle in the second half of the campaign. They host Arsenal on Wednesday with a place in the Carabao Cup final up for grabs, while Howe’s side are currently in the mix for Champions League qualification.
Asked when discussions over the summer will take place, Howe said: “I'm sure when the dust has settled from this there will be a way forward and we'll have discussions in the coming weeks.”
But whatever the budget, Howe says it won’t be a set amount.
“There’s no set figure, I know people have said all sorts of things, war chests... it doesn’t quite work like that,” said Howe. “We’re still in a possession where of course where we will communicate and discuss what is going to happen in the next window but that’s not now for a few months.”
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