Remember what happened the last time Newcastle spent over £ 80million

Armed with Saudi money, Newcastle United could spend around £ 50million in January and more in summer. But what happened the last time they spent so much?

Their upcoming winter window allowance equates to roughly 1x Joelinton and 1x Yoshinori Muto in Mike Ashley’s economy.

To some, this number will seem small. Partly because Newcastle are now the richest club in the world; in part because Football Manager 2022 set the budget at £ 200million more fun (and probably necessary?).

However, throwing money at a problem doesn’t always work.

During his tenure at Newcastle, Mike Ashley had a reputation as one of the Premier League’s most frugal owners. And most seasons, that reputation was justified.

During the 2015-16 season, however, he turned the tide. Newcastle had the second-highest net spending in the league that year, behind Manchester City, and they threw a lot of money at stars like Georginio Wijnaldum.

Oddly enough, the beneficiary of all that money was Steve McClaren, who had recently worked on a low budget in Derby.

It’s no surprise that all of these expenses have made Newcastle’s season worthwhile. Wijnaldum scored four goals in one game, while new signings Aleksandar Mitrovic and Jonjo Shelvey brought their own discipline to the club.

But did it work? Or did spending a ton of money make Newcastle worse?

Hang the horse

On the last day of the 2014-15 season, in which Newcastle avoided relegation by just four points, Mike Ashley made two striking comments.

The premiere was relatively good news for Newcastle fans. Admitting the blame for the club’s poor season, Ashley has declared her intention to start spending the money.

“We have the club on a very solid financial footing so we are able to spend and hit above our weight,” he said. “We might have the cart, but now we have to ride the horse, and we’ll do it. “

Ashley’s next comment was less welcome.

“Now [my intention] is definitely to win something, ”he boasted. “And by the way, I won’t sell [the club] until I do.

In the end, Ashley only kept one of her promises.

On July 11, 2015, the sportswear mogul spent £ 14.5million – more than he had ever spent on a player before – on PSV midfielder Wijnaldum. And by the end of the month, he had wired an additional £ 21.5million to Anderlecht for Mitrovic and Chancel Mbemba.

The spending spree hovered around £ 50million at the end of August. Florian Thauvin was a £ 12million acquisition from Marseille, while Northampton Town youngster Ivan Toney cost £ 500,000.

In addition, the owner has not decimated his existing team. The only dismal exits have been Davide Santon, who joined Inter for £ 3million, and club legend Jonas Gutierrez, who was – contrary to his own wishes and under bizarre circumstances – released for a free transfer .

McClaren had a sparkling (ish) team to work with. But could he win a trophy and indirectly ensure Ashley’s departure?

Culture of excellence

Could he bullets.

To be fair to McClaren, he tried to instill a “culture of excellence” at the club. This involved the implementation of a strictly formal dress code on match day – Chancel Mbemba and Florian Thauvin curiously wore tuxedos – and the ban on swearing.

Newcastle haven’t won any of their opening eight league games, in which they were knocked out of the League Cup by Sheffield on Wednesday.

Draws with Manchester United and Chelsea showed some determination, but a 6-1 loss to Manchester City kept morale low.

The biggest summer investment dividend came on October 18. After an international break, Newcastle beat Norwich 6-2 at St James’ Park, with Wijnaldum scoring four times and Mitrovic also appearing on the scoresheet.

But the excitement only lasted a week before McClaren’s side lost the Tyne-Wear derby 3-0 to Sunderland.

Newcastle’s summer spending made Ashley reluctant to pull the trigger on McClaren – a move that would cost even more money.

And whenever the results got particularly bad, the manager delivered a result or two: wins over Liverpool and Spurs in December took them out of the relegation zone, then a festive period was followed by a draw 3- 3 against Man United and a 2-1 victory against West Ham.

But Ashley’s reaction to the poor results has been to buy more players rather than change managers.

Jonjo Shelvey and Andros Townsend arrived in January for around £ 12million each. And the club sent the entire 5 million pounds to Bordeaux for the mysterious man Henri Saivet. In five and a half years, Saivet will only play eight times for Newcastle.

Clean up the mess

In the end, Ashley relented. He sacked McClaren on March 11, 2016, replacing him – somewhat improbably – with Rafael Benitez, recently from Real Madrid.

But by then it was too late.

Even with Benitez at the helm and over £ 80million of new talent on the squad, Newcastle couldn’t save themselves.

12 points from the last six games of the season brought them excruciatingly close, but they finished 18th, two points below Sunderland. Benitez was rocked to chants of ‘we want you to stay’ after a 5-1 win on the final matchday against Tottenham.

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QUIZ: Can you name Newcastle’s XI after their 5-1 win over Spurs in 2016?

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The club’s terrible forward line didn’t help matters. Signing on loan Seydou Doumbia had no impact, one-hero Papiss Cissé had mentally checked, while £ 6million man Emmanuel Rivière – bought from Monaco the previous season – turned out to be the one of the worst strikers in the club.

To be fair to Ashley and her team, most of the 2015-16 signings went well.

Only Florian Thauvin was a real disaster, but the midfielder has since shown he has the talent to play for Newcastle. He just preferred to play on the French Riviera, like most of us.

Wijnaldum was excellent, Mitrovic scored more goals (eight) than he received red cards (two), and Mbemba, 21, clearly had more ability than Steven Taylor.

But mismanagement and weak ties within the team made all these expenses futile. Moreover, some of the more fanciful signings – Saivet, primarily – put a financial burden on the club for seasons to come.

Nowadays, Newcastle could buy Henri Saivet 10 times while avoiding financial peril. But the club should beware: spending big won’t always save you.

By Benedict O’Neill


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