The PSR Conundrum

Short-term pain for long-term gain, is it worth the hit?

The three letters every football club dreads hearing; the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules are impacting every club’s ability to spend in this summer transfer market including our own beloved Newcastle United. The legacy of these rules mean that Premier League clubs have now been scrambling to complete late business on what was dubbed online as a 'mini deadline day' in June this year, with certain teams having to make last minute deals to avoid possible charges and points deductions in an attempt to balance their books accordingly.

The Premier League's PSR regulations state that a club is not allowed to make a loss of more than £105 million over a three-year period - and even less if they've spent part of that period in the Championship. Last season, Everton and Nottingham Forest were both punished for breaches, with other clubs desperately vying to avoid a similar fate. The June 30th date marks the end of the Premier League's financial year and it sees clubs submit their accounts to prove they've complied with the league’s financial requirements.

Now that we have the boring stuff out of the way, I would like to pose the question; should clubs like Newcastle United consider breaching PSR by “accident” in order to build their squad up and compete with the bigger clubs in the league? Taking the hit of a points deduction for one season in order to bring in elite players and allow the club to bolster its squad depth? It is no secret that Newcastle have been gifted a dream by being funded by the Saudi PIF and for the last few years we have seen some phenomenal talent come through the door, but we have been unable to flex our muscles in the market due to the lack of spending and revenue generation under the previous ownership, not because we have don’t money to spend. We know we can’t splurge cash like Chelsea in 2003 and Man City in 2008, but it would be nice to build out a squad without having to sell homegrown talent like Elliot Anderson or elite potential like Yankuba Minteh to fund any future deals. We have been able to bring in Lewis Hall on a full time basis along with Osula, Vlachodimos and Lloyd Kelly but with Newcastle there will always be injuries and I do worry about our squad quality and depth as we target Europe for next season.

Soooo... if we did breach PSR what would the benefits be? Building out the squad with even more talent; 20-22 players which would allow us to be much more competitive in the league and cups, but negatively even a single charge could mean a number of points deducted or even financial repercussions, but my feeling is Everton were too honest by pleading guilty straight away. Man City have 115 charges and my inner sense is they are going to beat the vast majority of them. People will say it is rubbish to openly break the rules and risk a points deduction, and yes they may be right, but unless we do something over the next year or two we are just going to be going round and round in circles signing players we can’t afford and needing to sell our best talents or academy prospects because of how they are logged as “pure profit” on the books. With 3 days left in the window, we have had 8 arrivals and 8 departures leaving us with a profit of roughly 5 million pounds. Great on paper, but in reality we signed a full-back we had on loan last season, a striker from a relegated team and a goalkeeper from a team fighting relegation over the last few years. I don’t want to be negative, but it could be worth even bending the rules a little in order to bring in some more players if we have any chance of competing towards the upper end of the Premier League.

At the time of writing Marc Guehi has not been signed, and as the days creep along, it’s looking less and less likely but you never know with this club and this transfer window..

I know this is a controversial topic but given all of the constraints and almost anti-competitive rules in place - ask yourself the question; would you take a tough season of points deductions that we can attempt to fight in court in exchange for a top-tier squad that we can add to gradually each year? Imagine what could be after just one or two transfer windows where we can truly flex our financial muscle and give our “rivals” something to truly worry about going into a new season…food for thought eh?

Thanks for reading, let us know your thoughts in the comments below!!

Canice.

Canice Walsh has been a Newcastle fan for the past 20 years and is one of our esteemed Cork-based Irish Mags. If you are interested in joining the Irish Mags as a Guest Writer, drop us a message on our socials or email info@theirishmags.com.