I’m a first time contributor to The Mag and like many of you reading this have been perturbed by recent goings on at ‘the biggest football club in Britain’ (King Kev’s words not mine).
Little to no communication from the Newcastle United hierarchy excluding the ludicrous PR spin from David Hopkinson about being the biggest football club in the world by 2030 (I’ll save my thoughts on that for a separate article).
No announcements from the Newcastle United owners or senior staff about infrastructure, never mind spades in the ground, for a new stadium, or training ground.
However, the thing which has got to me most in recent weeks was the failure to land Johan Manzambi and the glee exhibited by Gabby Agbonlahor at Aston Villa’s hijacking of the deal.
Like many others I questioned how this could happen. I was a very young man in the 1990s when all the best players would sign for Newcastle United. We were breaking world transfer records and were streets ahead of Man City, Chelsea and Spurs, never mind the likes of Aston Villa.
I, like many others, will reluctantly accept losing out on targets to the ‘so called’ big six who can offer much higher transfer fees, wages and recent success. But to Aston Villa, come on?
All the old insecurities from my teenage years, in the 1980s when Newcastle United really were abysmal, came back. Are we not as big as we think? Is Newcastle really that unattractive as a club and a city, where players would prefer to go to Birmingham? etc. etc.
Why do NUFC make Gabby Agbonlahor, Villa fans more generally and football fans more widely feel so insecure about their football clubs, even though it is abundantly clear that the Premier league is a rigged game and Newcastle United will never be allowed to spend the bottomless pit of riches at their disposal?
I decided to dig a bit further, present some facts and try to answer these questions.
According to Sky Germany’s Florian Plettenburg Aston Villa are going to pay 10 million euros more than NUFC agreed to pay for Manzambi and higher wages than NUFC agreed also. This has not (other than by Sky Sports) been reported anywhere else in national media. I wonder why? Plettenburg has been all over this story and when it comes to the Bundesliga is one of the most respected journalists in Germany.
70 million euros for an untried twenty year old on huge wages. Did NUFC just think there’s a limit beyond which we won’t go and walk away?
It’s all about the money, money, money!
Besides this Gabby Agbonlahr, what else do Aston Villa have to offer that Newcastle United don’t?
Who is bigger, NUFC or AVFC?
Which criteria do you use to judge?
Local fanbase?
Well, I think we all know the answer to that one, don’t we? Some mitigation here though with Villa having to share the Midlands with Birmingham City, Wolves and West Brom.
Worldwide fanbase?
From everything I have read and understand, NUFC again with a bigger worldwide fanbase than AVFC.
National media interest?
The national media are absolutely fascinated by Newcastle United. This I personally believe is for a combination of reasons. We are probably the last truly massive very traditional working class club that hasn’t sold out to the cooperates (yet) in England.
The soap opera element. The national media which is dominated by the London press loves to see Newcastle United fail. Who do this northern lot think they are challenging our far superior clubs? We’ll soon put them in their place.
I think many football fans around the country are also like this, always disrespecting Newcastle without ever visiting or knowing anything about the area.
However all of this displays a huge level of interest in Newcastle United that the likes of Aston Villa, Everton and Leeds just don’t get. No one apart from the fans of those clubs are really bothered about them.
I think the great Oscar Wilde’s quote sums all this up perfectly when he said, ‘the only thing worse than being talked about, is not being talked about’.
Social Media followers?
NUFC has more social media followers and a bigger digital footprint than AVFC across all digital platforms.
Turnover?
Admittedly Aston Villa’s turnover was greater than Newcastle United in the latest available published accounts for the 2024/25 season. However this was largely due to the extra 60-70 million pounds that they made from reaching the quarter finals of the Champions League the season before last.
If that was removed NUFC would have had a greater turnover and have had a greater turnover in recent seasons until these last published accounts. When neither had Champions League NUFC’s turnover was greater and will likely be again for the 2025/26 season due to our participation in the Champions League, even though we only reached the last 16.
Merchandising sales?
Adidas has, in its vast stable of football clubs, an elite set of clubs that receive, amongst other things, unique merchandise specific to their club. Adidas classic Trefoil branded third kits and merchandise etc. However, these elite clubs are broken down further into two tiers: elite and local elite football clubs. NUFC and AVFC fall into the second category as does Celtic.
Of the three British local elite clubs NUFC sold the most Adidas merchandise followed by Celtic. Aston Villa didn’t make the list.
Major Trophies won?
This is the only category where Villa far outstrip Newcastle and some might argue the most important. I was really quite surprised to discover that Villa have won more than twice as many major trophies as Newcastle. NUFC have won 12 major trophies including the Fairs Cup. AVFC have won 25 major trophies. I can’t argue with Gabby on this one!
I have attempted to compare all of the most modern criteria for judging the size of a football club and despite Villa winning much more silverware, Newcastle United appears to be a bigger football club than Aston Villa. But not only that, the potential to be a far bigger football club is clearly evident.
Yes! There are levels Gabby Agbonlahor, aren’t there? and based on all of the most recent evidence Aston Villa are clearly a level below Newcastle United.
Can someone please put Gabby AgbonlaBORE (as Mehrdad Ghodoussi christened him due to disparaging remarks about Newcastle United from a couple of years ago, that players would prefer to play for Brentford rather than Newcastle, simply because they are located in London) right about all of this, because I work nights, so I only see Talksport clips on YouTube.