Newcastle United are improving, but so are the other sides…
Posted on September 5th, 2022 | No Comments |
There is no doubt that Newcastle United have improved significantly in the last year. The expenditure has been considerable and so far, the new signings have been a credit to Eddie Howe and Technical Director, Dan Ashworth. However, the hyperbolic talk of how the Magpies are now the richest club in the world, a club which is about to brush aside even the likes of Liverpool and Man City aside is misguided.
The first reason of course is ‘Financial Fair Play,’ something that Chelsea, Manchester City and Paris St Germain didn’t have to worry about in the early days of their new wealth, but that has been discussed already. However, there is something else, whilst Newcastle’s spending has increased significantly, so has the spending of many other clubs in what was a record busting transfer season just gone.
At the time of writing, despite spending of over £200 million in the same last two transfer windows, Newcastle United are still only an average mid table side in terms of overall squad value according to football transfer website, Transfermarkt. Acording to them, Newcastle United still only had the 12th most valuable squad in the Premier League after the Summer window with an estimated overall squad value of £320.67 million, between Wolves (£325.67 million) and, rather amazingly, Brentford at £255.24 million. Even if another £100 million were spent in the next window, that would still only see Newcaastle on the same kind of level as Leicester City (£430.47 million). They are currently 8th in betting markets at 250/1 to be Premier League champions though and you can bet at this resource if you think they can do it.
The fact is though that like Newcastle United, most teams are spending to their limits within the fair play structure, The Magpies were only 5th in terms of net spending in the last window, behind Nottingham Forest(!) They will make progress, but it will be certainly be a more gradual process than many have been saying.