Maguire, though, predicts much smaller losses in the next set of accounts, which will be revealed in January. Along with writing off money spent on the academy and infrastructure Newcastle are “not in a bad position”.
Indeed Maguire believes that taking into account amortisation – the process of spreading a transfer fee across contract length, which is how fees go on the books in the era of PSR – Newcastle can probably spend another £100m in the rest of this transfer window and remain compliant without the need for another fire sale.
In layman’s terms that would be Guehi for £70m on a five-year contract and another player valued at £30m (if they are signed on a five-year deal). The figure goes up depending on whether they sell players, which explains why they are open to offers for the likes of Kieran Trippier and Miguel Almiron.
“Newcastle did enough to get by for 2023-24 in PSR terms but won’t want to find themselves in a similar position,” Maguire tells i.
“The club do have significant upsides to factor in. The Adidas deal is on stream, they also got the benefits of being in the Champions League last season.
“They are trying to manage expectations of an impatient fanbase who want the big players coming in but once you go down that route you end up overpaying.
“If they sign Guehi at £70m on a five-year contract it’s on the books for PSR purposes as £14m a year after amortisation.
“They made a profit of £24m on Yankuba Minteh, Elliot Anderson’s fee was pure profit so they have cleared the decks there and if someone like Kieran Trippier goes they’ll be fine from a PSR point of view but they just don’t want to be seen to be paying a premium.
“They want to send out a signal to the market that yes, they’ve got something to pay but it’s not limitless and they’re going up in increments in terms of what they’re prepared to pay for Guehi and that’s the right thing to do.”
