Newcastle United

Newcastle United: Craig Hope insists PIF must be careful of lavish spending

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Image for Newcastle United: Craig Hope insists PIF must be careful of lavish spending

Craig Hope has sent a warning to Newcastle United about rash and lavish spending they must avoid while speaking on the Off the Ball podcast.

The Magpies have already splashed out over £120m this summer, which is on top of the £90-plus million PIF handed Eddie Howe in January, so they may be thinking about Financial Fair Play regulations for the final few hours.

Newcastle’s biggest signing under the ownership of PIF has been Alexander Isak, who scored on his debut last night, and Hope has claimed that PIF must be careful not to sign many flops for big money as it will impact them further down the line, and backed Newcastle to keep playing it smart in the transfer market.

He said: “It’s still really a Mike Ashley club in terms of commercial revenue, even tickets, player sales – there’s no one there with any real value who they can sell apart from maybe Allan Saint-Maximin.

“They’ve got to be really careful. They’ve got to knock their recruitment out of the park, and so far, they’ve done it.

Will Newcastle make anymore signings?

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“The example I go back to is – for the same £80m that Manchester United paid for Harry Maguire, Newcastle have put together a brand-new back five, with two England internationals, Nick Pope and Kieran Trippier; Sven Botman and Dan Burn; and Matt Targett left-back – for £80m, that’s impressive. They’ve done well so far and they’ve got to continue to do that.”

TIF Thoughts on Newcastle’s spending under PIF…

It is very sensible for Newcastle and the club’s owners to not go wild this summer and throw stupid money at big-name signings because it would only hamper them further down the line, much like it has done with Everton.

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Some Newcastle fans may be frustrated that further reinforcement has not arrived to improve the squad’s depth, however, in the long term, they will more than likely thank their owners for this sensible approach to transfer business.

If Newcastle fans think back to 12 months ago when they were struggling to land Hamza Choudhury on loan, it’s night and day compared to this transfer window, which they should be very thankful for.

But as Hope says, we agree that the success they’ve had in the market this summer cannot be a one-off.

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