Incredible £375m Newcastle United success story laid bare

We are just over three weeks away from celebrating the fifth anniversary of the Newcastle United takeover.

When we finally escaped the woeful decade and a half of Mike Ashley.

At last having once again a club that is doing its best to be successful.

It has always been the case, but now more than ever, that the financial side of things in the Premier League massively determines how likely you are to succeed, or fail.

Which brings me to this incredible £375m Newcastle United success story.

It is never a good thing to see you club lose players that you’d rather they had stayed.

There are levels however.

The reality is that players move on from every club and the ones that leave will include individuals that they didn’t want to see go.

What is important then is how much money you can get when selling such players, to reinvest in the playing squad.

For Newcastle United this is even more important with their UEFA SCR situation and also the huge advantage that the half dozen usual suspects have, due to them building empires whilst Mike Ashley was dragging NUFC in the other direction.

In a 12 month period we have seen Newcastle United sell four players for around £375m (Isak £130m, Gordon £70m, Tonali £100m, Bruno £75m).

Fair to say that to varying degrees Newcastle United fans didn’t want any of these four players to leave. All four playing key roles in the success of recent seasons, Wembley finals and Champions League qualifications, plus of course a trophy.

They were four of many brilliant Eddie Howe signings and Newcastle United have almost doubled their money across the quartet, compared to the transfer fees that were paid. Astonishing business really when you also factor in what they achieved with Newcastle United in the intervening years.

In achieving the sale prices they did, one thing can’t be ignored.

Whisper it quietly but Newcastle United have been very good in terms of how they deal with player contracts.

A major factor when it came to the sale price of all four of these United players, was the fact they all had a healthy numbers on their existing NUFC deals. There was no contract pressure to sell any of the quartet at a knockdown rate.

In an ideal world the club wouldn’t have wanted to sell any of Gordon, Isak, Tonali, or Gordon, but they did get top dollar in each case. The £375m in deals for the four of them has then allowed a major overhaul of the Newcastle United squad.

Imagine if say Newcastle United had only got their £200m back on the four players, or even worse, could only have sold them for a collective £100m??? The limitations on being able to overhaul the squad would have been serious.

It is an ongoing process and the Newcastle United owners and senior staff have managed the contracts situation really well in recent years. It may cost a certain extra amount in the short-term to enhance and extend existing contracts but those amounts are dwarfed by the long-term benefits/promises.

On Friday we saw a new enhanced and extended contract for Lewis Hall announced, this follows Lewis Miley and Harvey Barnes also getting new longer Newcastle United contracts as well.

We all know that if a player really wants to leave a club, the fact that they are under contract only goes so far.

However, the strong contract positions means that Arsenal, Barcelona, Tottenham and Liverpool were only able to sign Bruno, Gordon, Tonali and Isak once they met United’s valuation on each.

If/when Newcastle United sell the likes of Hall and/or Miley, I can guarantee you that the buying club won’t be able to get them on the cheap.

I think that there have been failings at times with how Newcastle United have operated in the years since the 2021 takeover but certainly when it comes to players contracts and protecting the value of key assets, they have played it so well.

This is where we are now in terms of Newcastle United contracts overall.

Newcastle United Contracts

This is how Newcastle United contracts currently look (via official club releases and media reports), when current deals are up. Best viewed in landscape mode on mobile.

Newcastle United Contracts

Expiry Date	Players
2027	Pope, Burn, J. Murphy, Willock, Schär, Ashby, Gillespie
2028	Livramento, Joelinton, A. Murphy
2029	Vlachodimos, Wissa, Thiaw
2030	Elanga, Botman, Ramsey, Jaouen, Barnes
2031	Woltemade, Steur, González, Horníček, Touré, Dedić, Bamba, Fernandez-Pardo, Hall, Diabate
2032	Miley

This is following the new Lewis Hall contract having been announced on Friday.

Source