Newcastle United are likely to be looking to sign a player before the transfer window ends on Monday (3 February).
That is the opinion of former Manchester City finance consultant Stefan Borson, who exclusively told Football Insider that he does not feel the Tyneside club’s profit and sustainability (PSR) position is the reason they missed out on signing Abdukodir Khusanov, Vitor Reis, and Juma Bah.
Newcastle are believed to have pursued moves for the three defenders, all of whom joined Manchester City in January.
Eddie Howe’s team is failed to agree on any new additions in the current window because they are reported to be approaching the PSR limit again, with top-flight clubs only allowed to incur a £105 million deficit over a rolling three-year period.
The north-east giants sold Miguel Almiron to Atlanta United for £8 million this week, six years after buying him from the MLS club for £20 million.
Newcastle’s signing slump is not primarily due to PSR difficulties.
Borson suggested Newcastle’s signing drought was unlikely to be purely down to their PSR predicament.
He told Football Insider: “The PSR position absolutely does not limit Juma Bah.
“He is 18 years old and paid €6 million (£5 million), so I believe you can disregard that. Could they spend £30 million on a player like Khusanov? I don’t see why not.
“If you buy a player today, your PSR loss for this season is the transfer fee divided by five. If it’s £30million, it’s £6million, and then five sixths of that for the season because there is only five months left of the financial year, so it’s not significant.
“The wages are also not that significant. I don’t really buy that that’s the key driver for why they have not been able to buy anybody.
“I would expect them still to be in the market on Monday for somebody.
“They’ve sold Almiron. It’s not a big problem, and I believe his book value is very modest. They paid approximately £8 million for him, so I believe they will have some leeway from that.
“But we know they’re still tight on PSR. That’s not surprising. We know they went to the wire last year.
“But I don’t believe it is the primary motive for some of these smaller transactions. They can make smaller transactions because they will not move the dial.
“They are definitely tight, but I wouldn’t put the failure to buy players of that scale down to PSR.”
