Newcastle United’s success is not only down to spending huge sums of money.
Clearly, there is little point in denying that having vast sums to spend on new players has helped Eddie Howe but the reason Newcastle United are doing so well isn’t solely down to the influx of the PIF money from October 2021 onwards.
Indeed, the Newcastle United manager has done a brilliant job in coaching the players he inherited from Steve Bruce. Howe has been praised for turning Newcastle players’ careers around, with Joelinton, Jacob Murphy and Fabian Schar among the headline examples.
Having huge money to spend is not an instant fix, and that’s without even mentioning the fact Newcastle have been hamstrung by the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules.
The funds still need to be spent on the right kind of players, as Chelsea manager Enzo Maresca was recently keen to stress.
Enzo Maresca’s comments on Premier League spending power
The Blues are in Sweden to play against Djurgardens in the Conference League semi-finals. Interestingly, Newcastle have qualified for the Conference League, but are aiming to improve on that by reaching the Champions League.
Speaking before the game, it was put to Maresca that the Chelsea squad is worth €992million (roughly £783m) compared to just €21million (£17.8m) for their opponents on Thursday night.
The Italian stressed that the actual sum of money meant little and that it had to be spent on the right kind of players.
Newcastle’s recruitment has been praised in the PIF era, with the Newcastle United owners overseeing a largely successful time of things in the transfer market.
Newcastle United’s signings under PIF
Newcastle’s most expensive signing in history is Alexander Isak at £63million.
Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon, Joelinton (pre-PIF), Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman all cost a pretty penny too, although they hardly broke the bank compared to some of the signings Newcastle’s Premier League rivals have made.
| Player | Fee |
| Alexander Isak | £63m |
| Sandro Tonali | £55m |
| Anthony Gordon | £45m |
| Bruno Guimaraes | £41.5m |
| Harvey Barnes | £39m |
| Sven Botman | £35m |
Maresca is right. Chelsea and Manchester United have proven that simply throwing money at a problem does not fix it.
A calm, coherent and considered approach in the transfer market is what Newcastle needed in the initial wake of the takeover. Luckily, that’s exactly what they got.
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