Why newly-minted Newcastle should wait to cash in on their wealth

In the wake of their club’s multi-million-pound buyout by the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Newcastle fans can be forgiven for giddily eyeing any and all of Europe’s star players as potential winter window arrivals.

After suffering through years of penny-pinching under Mike Ashley, the Magpies now have the vast wealth of their new ownership group to call on (worth hundreds of billions of pounds), as they look to overhaul their severely underperforming squad as soon as possible.

Whilst a solid enough core already calls St. James’ Park home, the squad’s overall quality is still a little better than that of their promotion campaign a few years ago.

Allan Saint-Maximin, Callum Wilson and Martin Dubravka are undoubtedly Premier League quality – but while the likes of Manquillo, Ciaran Clark and Jonjo Shelvey remain – Newcastle as a whole are not.

Naturally, fans will clamour for quick fixes and glitzy signings now itself – after all, which lottery winner ever waited years to cash in their winnings?

But given the financial restrictions of the post COVID era, football’s nouveau riche (of which Newcastle are now part) will be wise to exercise restraint and spend for the long term. An example to avoid as such is Manchester City.

Now seasoned to winning most domestic trophies, there was a time when the blue half of Manchester, like their northern cousins on Tyneside, were new to the English rich boys club. Initial overexcitement leads to such dismal signings as Roque Santa Cruz, Jo, and of course Robinho for a ridiculous €42 million.

It was only really in their third summer window that money stopped being haemorrhaged, and the core of their title-winning squad was assembled. The likes of Edin Dzeko, Yaya Toure and David Silva arrived with pricetags that, while expensive, were not the exorbitant overpays of old.

Eventually, millions were pumped into revamping the academy and scouting networks, the fruits of which they have enjoyed only recently, with the likes of Phil Foden and Jadon Sancho becoming full England internationals (albeit the latter as a United player).

Newcastle must learn from this

If Newcastle take any lessons from this, they will buy wisely, and build gradually, while spending more initially on infrastructure than players. In that way, they can build organically, and sustain future accelerated growth.

Should they do so, they can set themselves up far better than City ever did, and build a sustainable dynasty faster than their Mancunian rivals managed.

All this, however, will mean that the long-suffering Newcastle fanbase will have to temper expectations on new arrivals- at least for a few more transfer windows – for the sake of long term success.

Sorry Toon Army – for the immediate future at least, you’ll have to settle for more Joelinton and Dwight Gayle rather than Mbappé and Neymar.