Since Newcastle United got taken over, it’s become pretty clear that our owners want to modernise and change major aspects of the club.
Whether it be the club’s badge, the stadium or the naming rights to said stadium, it appears the club wants to do everything in its power to increase branding and profitability. For the most part, I’ve always been against it.
I love St James Park, and I love the current badge. I also love the working-class nature of our club and city, and don’t want our stadium to be turned into an 80,000 seater concert hall with wine tasting stations across the ground. As this agonising transfer window persists, I find myself caring less and less about maintaining these values out of sheer desperation for us to be able to compete.
We’re living in a system built to confine us, as things stand. Almost every player we have attempted to sign thus far has shunned us for a spot in a big 6 side, and it’s largely understandable.
These clubs can invest heavily year on year, and most importantly can shill out wages to their squad players that we can’t to our world class stars. Hugo Ekitike is set to earn over £13 million a year Liverpool, a wage near double that of our highest earner in the just over £8 million a year earned by our captain Bruno Guimaraes. We never stood a chance.
I understand fully why the club feels the need to make such drastic changes to our clubs culture and foundation in order to compete. However, I can’t stand the fact we will have to do it, and it’s something the Premier League really, really needs to consider when they consider the rule system that eventually replaces PSR.
Forget for now the fact that PSR protects the status quo of the big 6, as we all know it does, it also forces and encourages clubs to extort their fans to the best of their abilities. Ticket prices have increased year on year since the takeover, as have the costs of memberships, kits and merchandise.
Regular working class fans are getting further and further priced out of the sport as we, and every other club in the league, try to gain whatever edge we can in the current PSR climate. The painful irony is that our owners have more than enough funds to give out tickets and kits for free, never taking a penny from the fanbase, and still make Newcastle United the richest club in the world.
I’m not saying that’s how it should be, either. I’m overall glad we don’t have complete financial freedom, as completely buying the league and every other cup imaginable would feel soulless and empty. There still must be rules in place to prevent such things from happening. However, they need to surely adjust these rules to not incentivize unnecessary greed and extortion of the working man to help clubs that are in no financial danger whatsoever in the first place.
I watched GNev & Carra make their predictions on MNF last night & both predicting that new promoted teams stay up this season.
When questioned about it both said they weren’t convinced they just didn’t want to see another season where all three went down again and the league feel ‘locked in’.
It’s a pity they don’t feel the same about the top 4 spots though isn’t it!!.
Both again were talking up Liverpools chances of retaining the league if/when they sign Isak – neither saying he should stay at NUFC and make it more competitive.
Nev talks regularly about money filtering down the leagues to other clubs – but the team that finished 5th last season can’t spend their money in the same was the 4 above them can – so why should I care how much money Barnsley or Salford get?!!.
They have to find a fairer way of doing this because I finished watching that thinking what’s the point of another season 🤷🏼♂️.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Well, it’s tricky, isn’t it? One the one hand there have to be rules, it would be senseless otherwise, and on the other hand the current rules were introduced specifically to stop our owners buying up everything and everyone in sight – which they are doing extremely successfully. Throw in the fact that all the EPL rules will likely be consigned to the rubbish bin in a few month’s time, and it becomes tricky indeed.
In the light of all this, NUFC have made sensational progress in record time. If it wasn’t for the unpredicted and almost unprecedented actions of our stand-out star, we would be very happy bunnies because of the astonishing turn-around of the first team’s quality under current ownership. As it is, instead of enjoying our success, we’re crying at our current incompetence over transfers – a jarring contrast to our very recent triumphs in said market.
Chin up, it’ll all work out, quite possibly in the next 2 weeks (he hopes!)
davewallace(Quote)
Totally agree .., but the tropes of wine guzzling corporates versus the “ working class” is dramatic tripe .., the opposite is true bigger stadium bigger club bigger plans bigger players bigger profits and bigger investment in the region with more jobs ., Barca juve Man City Liverpool Madrid are doing just fine and their traditional support base are happy
Mike(Quote)