Why Mike Ashley isn't bluffing about lack of new signings: Newcastle are completely skint

By Brian McNally

Published 14:17 05/06/10

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Those Geordies who hoped that Newcastle United might miraculously find some money to strengthen their promotion-winning squad with one or two quality buys are doomed to disappointment.

Suggestions that the Magpies are planning multi-million pound swoops for players such as Manchester City's Nedum Onuoha and Jermaine Jenas of Spurs have absolutely no chance of coming to fruition.

The reality is that Newcastle are well and truly skint and they will return to the Premier League with the nucleus of last season's Championship squad plus whatever they can find in football's bargain basement.

The only new arrivals at St. James' Park will be Bosman frees, loan signings or,perhaps, part-exchange deals.

And we are told that the squad will be further fleshed out by the promotion of kids from the club's Academy.

The Toon top brass are adamant that their will be no new money spent on transfers and they remain totally committed to further reducing their salary bill with a wage cap.

It seems that many fans and a considerable number of journalists believe Newcastle are bluffing. But I can assure them all that owner Mike Ashley is deadly serious about a financial plan that scares the life out of me.

One week was all it took for Newcastle United chiefs Ashley and Derek Llambias to transform the mood of a Championship-winning campaign from euphoria to exasperation.

The season ended on Sunday May 2 with victory at Queen's Park Rangers but barely had the promotion celebrations got into full swing before a rambling 1,183-word official statement on the club web site seven days later delivered a vicious kick in the teeth to the Toon Army.

But as far as the people who really matter - the fans- were concerned, the nitty-gritty of the verbose statement boiled down to just ten words:

"There is no plan for new capital outlay on players."

This bombshell for the 40,000-odd Newcastle fans who loyally stuck by the club after relegation was greeted with dismay and disbelief by supporters and the general reaction and my feeling is that messrs Ashley and Llambias had delivered the longest suicide note in Premier League history.

The timing of the announcement was also bizarre in the extreme as it certainly wasn't designed to boost either fans morale or season ticket sales.

Some financial commentators praised the Newcastle management team for trying to inject some reality into football's out-of-control finances and attempting to clear the club's debts: they owe Ashley £111million alone plus another £20million to bankers Barclays and their operating loss over the last two seasons is around £70million.

But if Newcastle go down due to the board's parsimony it will have been a foolish, short-sighted economy. A second relegation in three years could prove a death knell for the club.

Fans, aware of the Portsmouth calamity, expected that given the Toon;s cash crisis that money for clearly-needed team strengthening would be limited. Figures of between £10millon and £15million were talked about and sounded realistic and reasonable..

But I don't think anyone saw Newcastle trying to survive in the Premier League next term without spending a decent sum on recruiting three or four quality players.

Newcastle's cost-cutting strategy that worked last season and Ashley and Llambias have decided to go with it again. According to their blueprint, austerity is what Newcastle supporters can expect until season 2015-16.

I hope for the sake of those magnificent Newcastle fans it works, but it is, undoubtedly, a high-risk strategy.

One local fanzine published praised the Newcastle top brass for their candour.But quite why Newcastle wanted to go public with such a depressing revelation puzzles me.

I can see absolutely no reason or benefit from it other than to deliberately dampen expectations.

And, if that really was the intent, then it has certainly worked. Most Newcastle fans I talk to are already bracing themselves for a relegation battle.

And the expectation that some of their better players will leave this summer is starting to grow.

Sadly, history shows Newcastle's plan to attempt survival on the cheap, is a recipe for relegation.

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