Are Newcastle at ‘break even’ already?

Mike Ashley

Mike Ashley
Time to back the manager?
The accounts have been out and about for a good few hours now and although they only featured our stint in The Championship they do at least give us a little insight into the current years financials.

It’s been rumoured that Newcastle are breaking even this season, even without the money from the sale of Andy Carroll being taken into consideration. Having made a rough guesstimate using the figures from our latest set of accounts I would have to pretty much agree with the rumour and say that we are indeed breaking even.

Mike Ashley’s penny pinching has been much maligned by scores of the Toon Army, but it’s been done with good reason ultimately. You can question his footbal knowledge, but his business acumen is second to none and his tough penny pinching methods appear to have worked.

Where next though? What happens now? Surely a football club that is sustainable is a prime target for a takeover? Will Ashley be happy to remain on Tyneside now that the financial house is getting order? What are his intentions? Derek Llambias has lifted the lid on the ambition of the club. He said:

“Our vision for the club is to finish 10th or above every year – year after year. That is our target, we want to be challenging for Europe every single year.”

“Mike Ashley’s money has kept this club buoyant. Quite honestly, Newcastle United would not be here without him. It’s as simple as that. He has never taken a penny out of the football club but he knows what he has to put in every year and is keen to grow it.”

“He knows where we want to be and where we should be in four or five years. But we are a very tight unit here and a much better unit than we have been previously. At the end of the day Mike is a football fan – a Newcastle fan – and he loves coming here.”

“We are starting to get the stability we need into the football club, both financially and within the squad. That stability is one of our most important goals. That would give us the security that the club and the playing side needs. We need to get that stability back here, including on the managerial side.”

So the intention is to be challenging for Europe every year then? And Ashley wants to grow the club to boot. To me it sounds like he’ll be around for a bit.

Getting back to the money side of things again though, our bank balance should be starting to look a lot healthier when the next set of accounts are released. We’ll be breaking even at the very least and could even turn a modest profit, which would be a staggering turnaround.

Naturally expenditure will rise as we get the better players back to St James Park, but that won’t be an issue as long as they are earning their corn as the extra wage will be offset by the extra money associated with being higher up the league.

It’s all good news to be honest but the turnaround shouldn’t end with the accounts. That is Ashley’s comfort zone, and now he has to step out of that and sanction the purchase of players who will help to improve our on pitch fortunes.

By allowing all of the money from the sale of Andy Carroll to be invested it could set us up very nicely for the future, but only if we survive. If we don’t then all this positivity over the books will matter not and the Andy Carroll money will just cover any losses incurred next season back in The Championship.

Which brings us back to the importance of the Wolves game at the weekend….

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

87 thoughts on “Are Newcastle at ‘break even’ already?

  1. He was manipulated, but he signed when he didn’t have to do anything. The club was also manipulated (by the same agent) and didn’t have to sign either. Both made a mistake, IMO – but don’t for a moment think AC couldn’t have stayed here and played every week as if nothing had happened.

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  2. Can’t remember where I read it, but there was a quote from Lambs-**** this morning that said something along the lines of “Ashley will bankroll transfers [outside of the Carroll money] if the manager can convince him they’d improve the squad.”

    If true, the whole ‘£35m being for fees, wages, infrastructure and packed lunches’ thing might not be quite so gloomy a prediction.

    If true….

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  3. I think if I’d watched the match I’d have been pleased for him. Liverpool is different – I’d love for him to find he can only score for one club. Won’t happen of course – he’s just too good.

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  4. blip – I don’t think it’s ever been every different. Look at the Tiote and Benny transfers. They met the criteria, so out came the cheque book. He knows he’s likely to see a gain, so why not?

    You could argue that not allowing us to sign experienced players of, say, 29, will hold us back – surely we’ll need someone like that at some point? But overall I think it’s a sound strategy that every club will have to follow sooner or later. It’s also one of the few consistent messages we’ve had out of that boardroom…

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  5. Whumpie – Watch your gob man. It’s like a full time job manning the swear box when you’re on these days 😆

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  6. So it’s the clubs vision to use profits and money from player sales to fund incoming transfers. Nice in theory but considering not many clubs make a decent profit unless their in the CL it’s unlikely we can expect to see any decent spending in the next few years.

    We’re also told we’re going for Europe every year. Is this really viable if we’re going to be selling our better players every season, to fund the purchase of other players.

    The hopes of this club achieving anything in the next few years depends on the club finding cheap, young gems in the transfer market. Well that’s easy isn’t it? After all, every club is doing it!

    Lala land….

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  7. if the accounts are read properly it says

    ashley will take £12.3m back in august 2010
    ashley will take £16.5m back not before august 2011 (but before august 2012)
    ashley will take back £13.25m from player sales.

    …………………well at least we owe him less

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