Sky Sports make unbelievable transfer claim as the new manager’s budget is revealed

According to Sky Sports’ Keith Downie, he’s been told by the club that ‘all the money’ from Ayoze Perez’s £30m sale will be added to the ‘£60m budget’ Newcastle’s new manager is set to receive.

Haven’t we heard that before!

With this in mind, Sky are now claiming that Steve Bruce (if appointed) could be handed £90m to spend over the next month – a statement that sounds so wrong in more ways than one!

Downie does err on the side of caution in his latest comments below, but it’s quite laughable that reporters are continuing to believe the information they’re being fed by the club. Have they not learnt by now?

Here’s what he’s had to say on the transfer front during his piece for Sky covering all things NUFC:

“All potential signings are on hold until the new manager is appointed, but what I have been told by the club is that all the money from the Ayoze Perez sale will go towards his budget. I’ve been told that they already had a pot of £60m, so that adds up to £90m.

“That’s before you consider other potential sales, as well. Isaac Hayden still wants to leave and there’s real talk of interest from Manchester United in Sean Longstaff.

“So the pot could add up to well over £100m, but whether or not it all goes to the new manager, and whether or not they have left enough time to spend it before the transfer deadline passes, remains to be seen. We have been here before, where money is promised and then not spent.

“The message from Newcastle, though, is that they could still have a busy transfer window once the new manager is appointed. The scouting team and Steve Nixon, the head of recruitment, have been working away in the background and my feeling is there are probably a couple of deals already lined up from when Rafa was still in charge.“

It seems people totally forget that infamous ‘every penny generated’ quote from Mike Ashley, coupled with the fact he is a proven liar.

Not only does our ‘budget’ tend to cover transfer fees, agent fees and wage costs, we’ve seen for ourselves in that last few transfer windows that all the money from sales does NOT get reinvested.

Here’s a few examples:

• Andy Carroll – Sold for £35m. His replacement? Shefki Kuqi on a free.
• Aleksandar Mitrovic – Sold for £22m. His replacement? Salomon Rondon on loan (we refused to pay his £16.5m release clause).
• Mikel Merino – Sold for £12m – His replacement? Ki Sung-yeung on a free.
• Florian Thauvin – Sold for £10m – His replacement? Christian Atsu – £5m.
• Georginio Wijnaldum – Sold for £25m – His replacement? Isaac Hayden – £2m

Yes some of those were during the summer after relegation, meaning we took a big hit financially and were never likely to reinvest, but last summer’s approach speaks volumes.

Mitrovic and Merino brought in well over £30m, yet we signed one player on loan and one free agent to replace them.

Another big issue is the fact we pay transfers up front but receive money from outgoings in instalments. Everything’s set up in Ashley’s favour, allowing us to spend as little as possible and steadily receive as much as possible.

Ashley is unpredictable – he gave McClaren £80m to spend in one season – but if Steve Bruce arrives and gets £90m to spend between now and August 8th I’ll streak down Northumberland Street wearing nothing but a Mike Ashley mask.

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