‘Negativity’ - Newcastle United given £300m FFP warning as Eddie Howe future questioned
Newcastle United kept Anthony Gordon, Bruno Guimaraes and Alexander Isak but failed to make any marquee signings in the summer transfer window
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher believes Newcastle United must sell either Anthony Gordon, Bruno Guimaraes or Alexander Isak to “go again” in the Premier League.
Toon CEO Darren Eales saw keeping Newcastle’s holy trinity as an essential victory at the beginning of the transfer window. But in an FFP/PSR-dominated world, the Magpies were left with few alternative options to create headroom on the balance sheet.
Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson were sold for £68million to help scramble Newcastle over the June 30 deadline. The Daily Mail reported that selling Gordon was considered a “nuclear” option amid reported interest from Liverpool.
United, despite boasting world football’s wealthiest owners, ultimately failed to make any marquee signings over the summer. Financial restrictions have prevented Newcastle from using the Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) bottomless pit to their advantage.
Speaking to Sky Sports, former Liverpool defender Carragher claimed the Magpies will need to offload a prized asset in the near future. He also warned Newcastle they must be “careful” not to lose Eddie Howe to England.
“What they will say is they haven’t lost any big players,” Carragher said. “You go back to them coming in, going for the biggest trophies. I feel for Newcastle in the sense that this money has almost come at the wrong time.
“The rules now of Financial Fair Play, it doesn’t matter how much money you’ve got, it’s what you’re bringing into your club. They’re trying to build that up through sponsorships. If we’re being totally honest, they may have to sell one of their biggest players for £100million to £120million and go again.
“They might have to do that for two or three years before they can bring that revenue in to keep bringing in better players at maybe lesser prices, like what they’ve done with Guimaraes, with Isak, with Gordon. I wasn’t worried about Newcastle. Let's talk about them getting all the money and getting trophies, I’m not sure you can right now. You can argue with the rules and how they’re set up, but I think it's a bigger problem for them.
“If they get beat today and they go into the international break, there’ll be a lot of negativity. There’s a lot of pressure from supporters on Darren Eales the CEO, on Paul Mitchell the sporting director as well. They’ve got to be very careful they don’t lose Eddie Howe. Eddie Howe is the number one person, I think in most people’s eyes, for the England job. If he’s not happy, he’s going to go to the England job. He will.”