‘Fascinating subplots’ as ‘Newcastle’s owners are bankrolling Liverpool, Chelsea’
Newcastle’s owners’ vision for their sporting project is hindering the Magpies and could be the catalyst that sees Alexander Isak join Liverpool.
That is according to football finance expert Dan Plumley, who told Football Insider that the Saudi Arabian Private Investment Fund’s (PIF) end goal was currently unclear, and it is showing in their management of the North Eastern club.
When the Magpies were bought in 2021, they became the richest team in the world and expectations went through the roof.
Newcastle have enjoyed a period of unprecedented success, qualifying for the Champions League twice and winning their first major piece of silverware in 70 years.
But hopes of becoming title-challengers have been tempered, and this summer, the Magpies have seen the vast majority of their transfer targets choose to join their rivals over a move to St. James’ Park.
PIF strategy with Newcastle unclear
This article contains exclusive comment from Dan Plumley, a football finance expert and senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.
One of the issues with PIF’s ownership is that Newcastle are merely a small part of the bigger sporting strategy that is being employed.
And unfortunately for Eddie Howe‘s side, there have been several instances where their rivals have benefitted from that.
Chelsea signed Joao Pedro and Liam Delap after interest from Newcastle in the duo, and duly won the Club World Cup, netting a huge windfall of prize money in the process, which largely came from the PIF, thus paying for the two strikers’ moves to West London.
Liverpool are now looking to sign Alexander Isak and they have also been given a financial boost by the Magpies’ owners, as Al-Hilal, a PIF-owned club, signed Darwin Nunez.
Speaking exclusively to Football Insider, Plumley explained why the Saudi Arabian strategy was having a negative effect on Newcastle: “There’s fascinating subplots to this.
“PIF partly bankrolled the Club World Cup, which Chelsea ended up winning. There’s another layer to that as well.
“This is where it gets really interesting.
“What is the PIF ultimate endgame with this? We don’t know that, and we won’t know that unless we sit them down and get it from them in person, which is highly unlikely.
“But how does what they’re going to do with Newcastle impact what they’re trying to do with the Saudi Pro League and those clubs that they’re bankrolling there as well? And you are going to get that collateral, because of how those clubs operate.
“In selling Nunez to Al-Hilal they might have given Liverpool a bit of a helping hand to come back in for Isak.
“But there’s also the other side of that, that Liverpool would have wanted him anyway before they’d sold Nunez.”
PIF continue to hinder Newcastle
Not only are PIF bankrolling the Magpies’ rivals but they are now also threatening to sign players from under Newcastle’s nose.
Stefan Borson told Football Insider that Yoane Wissa could be about to join Al-Nassr, a PIF-owned club.
The Brentford forward emerged as a target after Hugo Ekitike, Benjamin Sesko, Pedro, and Delap all snubbed moves to the North East.
However, Newcastle now face the possibility of missing out on another striker target thanks to their owners.