The Magic Number

£35,000,000

I get the feeling there will be a lot of irate and disappointed Toon fans come end of August because we've only spent £20-25M in transfer fees.
What a lot of people forget is that £35M has to cover everything, transfer fees, wages, signing fees, agents fees, admin, the lot.

The recent statement from the club on the finances included that MA was willing to spend that money but a chunk had already been spent on Tiote's new contract. If you add to that (hopefully) contract renewals for Joey & Jose that's more money spent.

I think Pardew will have to do some good business to progress the club to the point where we're challenging for Europe. I'd expect to see a couple of Bosmans (Marveuax (sp?) & Reo-Coker possibly) would be decent signings to add strength in depth to the squad. I know Reo-Coker in particular has not been well recieved as a possible target by some fans but he is still reasonably young, English and has PL experience, no he hasn't always set the world alight but he's not a bad back up for a squad that is struggling at the moment because of injuries. It'd only take a long term injury to the likes of Joey or Tiote and we'd be grateful for his experience in the middle of the park.

I know some will cry that once again MA is screwing the clubs and the fans if we don't spend EXACTLY £35M in transfer fees but we have to be realistic, it's a lot of money for a mid-table side. I will be happy if we spend £25M in the Summer, it'll probably mean that with all the add ons etc we've actually spent in total more than the fabled £35M.

Next season will hopefully be a season of consolidation and possibly a shot at Europe but I don't think it will be wild spending. I'm just erring on the side of caution, the new Newcastle revolution is not on it's way.

 

I'm not too worried about Reo-Coker. Good back up and squad depth, and on a free won't be a bad acquisition. Larsson, Marveuax, Taiwo, any of these.
I'd be very happy if we spent 20million.

To be honest, if we only bought Gervinho and everyone else was free I'd still be very happy. Top of the list. Pleeeease.

 

This!

 

I reckon that we will spend £20 million tops.

I am happy with this because I accepted a long time ago that our days of big spending and trading at a huge loss are well and truly over.

Other clubs that usually finish from 7th to 12th do not spend much more on players and certainly don't pay the crazy high wages that we used to. matching these clubs should be our next step on the ladder. The difference is that we can do this without running up huge debts.

 

I don't expect the full £35 million to be spent.

There are very good players available on frees this summer that can either improve our first XI or improve the quality of the squad depth.

I'm not too concerned about these players having no EPL experience either (apart from the Spanish leagues due to it's slower nature) but France, Germany, Holland and even Belgium play a style that is not too far from the EPL.

One or two good acquisitions up front to lead the line, a direct competitor for Tiote and we're looking OK for next season.

I hope that Enrique and Barton sign new contracts once safety is assured but until the summer I'm not going to worry about it.

 

I just feel that some people are expecting to see the signings in the Summer and will be getting their calculators out then there will be an outcry of "Fat Mike's ripping us off again! He promised us £35M! He's pocketed the rest and is screwing the club over AGAIN!"

£35,000,000 is banded around so often in thread and discussions.

Obviously I will be interested to see how much we do spend but it will be understandable if it's a lot less than £35M in transfer fees

 

Alfie, I'd be more interested to know if Ashley is paying contracts upfront...By that I mean, is he subtracting the entirety of Tiote's new improved contract from that £35m or just a portion.

By taking it all out, it allows for bigger profit margins in the future and also increased free revenue if/when Tiote is sold.

HOWEVER on the other, it seriously reduces the amount we will have to play with and realistically would only allow for one marquee money signing and then a couple of free's on fairly low wages.

5 1/2 years on 50k a week = aprox. £14.5m
Let's say we sign Gervinho for £10m (not sure if we could like) to a 3 1/2 year contract worth 35k/w = aprox. £6.5

That's already 31m gone!

 

I don't think it's all up front, don't see how it can be, it was just what was said about the Tiote deal taking a chunk of the money already. As I say if you include money for Joey & Enrique it starts to add up.

 

i might be being picky but 3+ years of tiotes contract does not necesarily cost us anything, his origional 3 year wage + carrols recently freed up wage for 5 years= a good chunk of tiotes 6 1/2 year contract

 

+ In the summer it's likely Xisco (reported £50k a week) and Smith (again, reported £50k at least) will be off, freeing up at least £100k pw in wages.

 

Surely we would of had a summer transfer kitty before the carroll sale???

Im sure I read somewhere we would have got 10m.