[Football] Newcastle Utd made record loss during 2016/2017 season

[Papa Lazarou]

Newcastle admit they took a "financial gamble" to win promotion back to the Premier League, with their wage bill in the 2016-17 season the highest in Football League history.

New figures show they paid wages of £112.2m, almost double the Championship's other promoted clubs, Brighton and Huddersfield, combined.

Wow, just wow.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/44171269

 

[atomised]

Makes a mockery of the line the press has taken of Rafa not spending much to keep them in the premier league

 

[Gwylan]

It does make the Toon fans' claim that Ashley doesn't invest in the club look rather hollow. (I still think he's an appalling chairman but you can't say he didn't back his manager)

 

[Gritt23]

And yet Rafa was bleating on in January about not being allowed to strengthen further. How does the FSW get talked about as a great manager? The guy is very average, at best these days.

 

[Nixonator]

It does make the Toon fans' claim that Ashley doesn't invest in the club look rather hollow. (I still think he's an appalling chairman but you can't say he didn't back his manager)

I posted on one of their forums once, some kind of reference to Archer and Stanley. Got told I had no cause for complaint since they had Ashley

 

[n1 gull]

This actually makes me more pissed off we didn't actually win the league

 

[m20gull]

Words are currently failing me.

 

[Weststander]

Cue a Rafa hating thread. An unlikely enemy of NSC since we threw away the title.

Their accounts/strategy follow the path which West Ham and QPR trod, to bounce straight back up by keeping almost all their best players and buying/borrowing additional quality players.

Ashley astutely went down that route, making Newcastle very sellable now.

Lerner at Villa and Short at Sunderland, did the polar opposite, refusing to pump in a penny more. The ultimate result being sales at huge (£100m’s) personal losses. That’s not going to happen with Ashley.

 

[Normal Rob]

erm. So NUFC had by far the largest wage bill in the championship. Sorry, but wasn't that both widely talked about, and blimming obvious?

 

[clippedgull]

Wow, just wow.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/44171269

BBC accuracy linking a football story via a rugby-union link

 

[Westdene Seagull]

Not much of a surprise. What's more surprising is that the URL shows the story under Rugby Union

EDIT - should learn to type quicker !

 

[BBassic]

I don't get the idea that Rafa is an average manager. He did manage to keep Newcastle up, spending around £40m-45m in the process. About the same as we spent I think?

 

[KZNSeagull]

I don't get the idea that Rafa is an average manager. He did manage to keep Newcastle up, spending around £40m-45m in the process. About the same as we spent I think?

All to do with wages. Soccernomics will tell you that he underperforms. For Newcastle to scrape the title on the last day whilst having a wage bill more than twice ours would seem to back that theory up.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

I don't get the idea that Rafa is an average manager. He did manage to keep Newcastle up, spending around £40m-45m in the process. About the same as we spent I think?

All to do with wages. Soccernomics will tell you that he underperforms. For Newcastle to scrape the title on the last day whilst having a wage bill more than twice ours would seem to back that theory up.

Exactly - his spend this season is only part of the picture - NUFC started the season with a much more experienced and expensive squad than ours and Huddersfield's.

Is it too harsh to call them cheats?

 

[dazzer6666]

Wow, just wow.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/44171269

Incredible. Wow.

 

[KZNSeagull]

Exactly - his spend this season is only part of the picture - NUFC started the season with a much more experienced and expensive squad than ours and Huddersfield's.

Is it too harsh to call them cheats?

No.

 

[Weststander]

All to do with wages. Soccernomics will tell you that he underperforms. For Newcastle to scrape the title on the last day whilst having a wage bill more than twice ours would seem to back that theory up.

Totally agree. It’s been proven that wage spend bears the closest correlation to final league position, although obviously in a single season there are many variances (Leicester 2015/16).

My take on 2016/17 is that both Newcastle and Brighton were clearly the best teams, that we outperformed them based on wage spend, that the title was in our bands after the Wigan match, but we blew it at home to Bristol City (the key easier game).

 

[Pantani]

Exactly - his spend this season is only part of the picture - NUFC started the season with a much more experienced and expensive squad than ours and Huddersfield's.

Is it too harsh to call them cheats?

Well they should be getting a FFP fine. I know they loosened the rules but I am pretty sure a £90m loss is above the limit.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Well they should be getting a FFP fine. I know they loosened the rules but I am pretty sure a £90m loss is above the limit.

They'll only get the fine if they go back to the EFL

 

[Driver8]

They'll only get the fine if they go back to the EFL

Only a matter of time. They will of course ignore it like QPR did and nothing will come of it.