October 2021. Newcastle United have started another season badly, the fans hate their owner (Mike Ashley) and the former football legend and now manager Steve Bruce. The Magpies are in a relegation battle already and then, all of a sudden – a miracle. The Public Investment Fund (PIF) of Saudi Arabia buys the 85% of the stakes and takes over the club from the North East of England. Since PIF is the fifth largest investment fund (owned by a sovereign state) with a wealth worth over one trillion dollars, the club is instantly called ‘the richest club in the world’. But the Magpies are still in relegation battle even in November, when coach Eddie Howe is brought on. Four and half years later, Newcastle survived relegation, reached two domestic cup finals, ended a 70-year wait for a domestic trophy with a Carabao Cup in 2025, while qualifying for the Champions League twice in four seasons.Newcastle have seen their squad get torn up by rival clubs over the last few of transfer windows 😳Club captain Bruno Guimarães becomes the latest to leave, as the Magpies continue to rebuild 🧱 pic.twitter.com/8TIckcYT2a— OneFootball (@OneFootball) August 5, 2026 But now, just a month before the new season starts, everything has crumbled. Newcastle are not anywhere near the Premier League title battle (which was the ultimate goal in near future), they finished 12th and won’t play in Europe this season, and they have lost four key players and a manager in just one year! Last season, Alexander Isak was sold to Liverpool in a British record deal as he wanted to go to a bigger club and win trophies and even went on strike to force a move. Newcastle showed weakness by allowing the player to leave so late (after saying he won’ be sold) and they gave a bad example to other players. So, this June, when the Magpies finished as 12th, Anthony Gordon was quickly sold to Barcelona, and Sandro Tonalli soon followed (to Tottenham) in a 100 million. And then another shock came – captain and their best player Bruno Guimaraes told the club we wanted to go to Arsenal (yes, you guessed it, to win trophies) and the Magpies again respected his decision. Finally, after deciding to stay, coach Eddie Howe had a change of heart and left the club a week ago. To put things into an even worse perspective, only three players from the team which crushed PSG 4-1 in 2023 are still in the club! What went wrong?Total rebuild: Newcastle promote a new coachThere are a few reasons for it and the first and most important one is the Profitability and Sustainability Rules, or the famous PSR. When the takeover happened, Newcastle fans were in a state of delirium and dreamed big, but the rest of the Premier League didn’t like that. Biggest clubs saw the danger and wanted to keep the status quo, so they added some restricting paragraphs into the rule (which was established way back in 2013) in the wake of turnover, severely liming Newcastle, and soon Aston Villa too. PSR allows 105 million pounds maximum loss limit over a three-year rolling period and the so-called ‘big six’ accumulated enough revenue possibilities before 2021 to remain ahead of Newcastle (and Aston Villa). To put it simple, before Newcastle takeover in 2021, everybody could put as much money as they want, and now they can’t. But until 2021, teams like Manchester City already invested billions and made a world class team which doesn’t need to spend that much anymore. If we compare Newcastle with them, the Magpies would now need billions to come to that level, but with the allowed loss of only 105 million in the period of three years, they won’t be able to do it in the next couple of years (Aston Villa too).FALSE 10: Nine years without "the most beautiful smile in football"Let’s also give one example. Tottenham is the most similar club to Newcastle and the one the Magpies always aimed to surpass (and they did last season in terms of league position). But in terms of money, the Spurs are light years ahead of Newcastle. Their new, state of the art stadium is earning them 565.3 million pounds per season! The multi-purpose venue operates year-round, generating substantial ancillary income through NFL games, concerts, and conferences, apart from match day revenue. Newcastle’s stadium generates only 170 million. During the first three seasons, Newcastle spent big and that soon got them into trouble with PSR rules. They had to sell their biggest future star, one Elliot Andersen to Nottingham Forest, and he went on to become an England international and just signed for Manchester City for 135 million euros. But still, they managed to get into the Champions League twice and won the Carabao Cup. But again, they overspent, breached Uefa’s Squad Cost Ratio rules and reached a financial settlement with them this year. They are on football’s equivalent of a repayment plan for the next three years and have to balance the books.It's been a very interesting summer at Newcastle:📝 𝐄𝐰𝐞𝐧 𝐉𝐚𝐨𝐮𝐞𝐧 (𝟐𝟎, 𝐆𝐊) – Signed from Stade Reims for €21.5M.📝 𝐀𝐥𝐚𝐝𝐣𝐢 𝐁𝐚𝐦𝐛𝐚 (𝟐𝟎, 𝐃𝐌) – Signed from AS Monaco for €35.5M.📝 𝐁𝐚𝐳𝐨𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐚 𝐓𝐨𝐮𝐫é (𝟐𝟎, 𝐋𝐖) – Signed from Hoffenheim for… pic.twitter.com/4dOgKzXBn9— Pro Future Stars (@ProFutureStars1) August 3, 2026 The Saudi owners realized that PSR rule has destroyed their ambitions and they will need years (if not decades) to catch up with the biggest clubs. There are constant rumors that they will sell the club in the future, which have always been denied (unofficially). And their star players have seen that the trophy battles won’t come anytime soon and once they saw that the club cannot offer them bigger wages, decided to leave. The exodus started with Isak, and finished with Guimaraes and Howe. What is worse, incoming players also saw United’s vulnerability, and chose to sign for other clubs, which created even more dissatisfaction among the fans and the players. Future stars like Johan Manzambi, Víctor Munoz and James Trafford ended up somewhere else. Eddie Howe saw all this, and when Guimaraes came to ask a transfer to Arsenal, the popular coach realized he couldn’t continue after all. He was suppose to start a rebuild but had no more energy and didn’t like the fact that main transfer targets refused Newcastle, while star players left. He gave up as he felt getting out on his own terms seemed like a better option than to be sacked in a few months and with an angry fan base.Earthquake in Newcastle: Howe is out as Magpies' manager“The richest club in the world’ term exists only on paper and is used mainly as a laughing joke by opposition teams. Newcastle cannot spend as much as they need to catch up with other clubs and must build a brand new stadium in order to create bigger revenue, but all this will take years (at least). Newcastle executives finally realized that and changed the tactics. So, what can we expect from the ‘richest club in the world’ in the next few years? The club’s CEO David Hopkinson already called it ‘Newcastle 2.0’. While in short term it means that a big rebuild has been done, in mid-terms it means that the Magpies decided to be a richer version of Bournemouth/Brighton. They will buy young players who are projected to be stars in the future and blend them into the team. If they decide to leave in a couple of seasons (just like Gordon, Tonali and Guimaraes), they will sell them for a hefty profit and the club will invest those money into buying better players.Premier League shake-up: Nine new managers and Arteta's longest tenureThere will be no more drama like with Isak, as Hopkinson clearly stated that a year ago: "If an Isak-like scenario presents itself again, any player under contract is going to leave on our terms and we're going to maximise the opportunity”. This year, he stuck to his word and when three key footballers decided to leave, the club sold them for a lot of money, but it means that a rebuild was necessary. Or as Hopkinson put it: “We were living beyond our means. And, at some point, you’ve got to pay the credit card bill”. The Magpies also risked with a new coach. Matthias Jaissle is only 37-years old and never coached in big leagues. He is ambitions, he won two consecutive Asians Champions League with Al-Ahli Jeddah and he players similar football like Eddie Howe, which means the players won’t have to learn or change much. But Premier League is the strongest in the world and he could struggle. Other proven names like Arne Slot, Xabi or Antonio Conte weren’t contacted at all.##NAJAVA_MECA_9883764##This kind of rebuild is suited for a younger, more energetic coach who knows how to deal with young players and has the fresh energy to do it. His four-year contact and the fact that Newcastle paid compensation of around 10 million euros to Al-Ahli to get him, sent the message to senior players too – Jaissle is the man we believe in, and he won’t be sacked easily, so you better up your game, or else. New manager also means that the fan base cannot expect results straight away and nobody will complain if the Magpies finish without Europe next season as well. So, PIF’s strategy now will have to be to take one step back in order to get two steps forward and the upcoming season will be a step back in terms of finance and ambition. But that doesn’t mean the results will be bad too. Watch the Magpies closely.
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