Newcastle United can one day close the revenue gap on the established order - but the Magpies will have to ensure they spend 'smartly'.
That is according to football finance expert Kieran Maguire after Newcastle previously announced club-record revenues of £320.3m for last year, which was more than double the figure (£140.2m) the black-and-whites posted in the final full season of the Ashley era in 2021. In fact, CEO Darren Eales said the club's 32% compound annual growth rate is 'more than any club have done before'.
However, there is a reason why former owner Amanda Staveley once warned Newcastle 'could not afford to sign a dud player'. Newcastle, after all, still have a lot of work to do to catch champions Manchester City, who announced a turnover of £715m for 2023-24, and that is going to take time.
"Nobody would have said 20 years ago that Manchester City would become the highest grossing club in the Premier League," Maguire told ChronicleLive. "It can be done. It will be done on an incremental basis.
"Manchester City had the benefit of their takeover being prior to the introduction of squad cost rules so that assisted them as well. Newcastle can be competitive, but what they have got to ensure they do is spend the money smartly.
"Manchester United have spent £250m in 24/25. You're not seeing a quarter of a billion pounds of improvement on the pitch and that's because they sacked the coach, they recruited a director of football, they sacked a director of football. They have got no strategy - they're just throwing money around.
"That's where Newcastle have to be savvy because you can't afford to make the mistakes that Chelsea and Manchester City made under their new owners and then just say, 'We will pay him £100,000-a-week and send him out on loan'."
Newcastle have had an impressive hit rate in the transfer market, of course, and Eddie Howe hopes this summer will be 'totally different' after PSR constraints limited the club's spend in the previous three windows. Newcastle are in a far healthier situation compared to a year ago and sealing qualification for the Champions League would be a 'game-changer' for the club.
There remain other avenues for Newcastle to turbocharge revenues in the long run as the Magpies weigh up whether to transform St James' Park or build a new stadium not too far away. Newcastle are also watching on 'carefully' after Manchester City challenged the validity of the updated APT rules.
Simon Leaf, a partner at Mishcon de Reya, previously told ChronicleLive that another Manchester City win could lead to a 'more relaxed set of rules that may allow Newcastle's owners to spend more or a set of rules that, if applied retrospectively, mean that their rivals with larger shareholder loans must now spend less in order to comply'.
