The January transfer window will tell Newcastle United fans an awful lot about the ambition of owners PIF.
While Newcastle United spent around £250million during the summer of 2025, a lot of their spending was offset by the British record sale of Alexander Isak to Liverpool.
As such, Newcastle are expected to have money to spend in January 2026.
That should offer Eddie Howe a midseason boost, with Newcastle unable to sign players in January over the last three years due to needing to balance the books to comply with the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR).
Thankfully, PSR doesn’t appear to be an issue for Newcastle for the upcoming transfer window. With the team in crisis this season, it will be fascinating to see what PIF do when the transfer market opens again.
Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-rumayyan is seen at a golf event in Scotland.
Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images
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It would be unwise to expect the club to absolutely break the bank in the January transfer window. It’s simply not a period known for heavy spending most of the time.
A notoriously arduous window, it is rarely quite as busy as this summer.
Still, Howe needs help. The Newcastle United squad, despite its new arrivals over the course of the summer, is already looking stretched.
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Clearly, not many clubs can just buy their way out of a crisis. It would be foolish to expect Newcastle to do that.
Eddie Howe looks on from the bench during Brentford vs Newcastle United.
Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images
However, injuries at full-back and at striker have exposed major gaps.
The options Newcastle have in reserve are either ageing (Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth), too young (Leo Shahar, Alex Murphy and Sean Neave) or don’t fully convince yet (William Osula and Harrison Ashby).
That is not an ideal situation to be in for a team who are battling across a number of fronts. PIF remain ambitious at Newcastle, but the team is currently in crisis after a dreadful start to their domestic campaign.
Newcastle fans will be eagerly awaiting their response. The door to midseason additions has finally been unlocked.
Expert analysis reveals how much Newcastle United could spend in January 2026
Ahead of the January transfer window, Geordie Boot Boys spoke to football finance expert Adam Williams.
Williams highlighted the fact there is feasibly money to spend at Newcastle in the 2026 January transfer window.
“Newcastle had actually turned a corner with PSR even before the Isak sale,” said Williams.
“Their losses were significantly reduced in 2023-24 to about £11m, from £72m the previous year. We don’t have the accounts for 2024-25 yet, but we can fairly confidently say it will be a pretty chunky loss.
“But offsetting that, you have PSR-deductible spending and the Isak money. Yes, they still finished the summer with a negative net spend, but most of that will be amortised over five years, whereas the profit on the Isak sale hits the bottom line straight away.
“On top of that, you’ve got Champions League income, and Newcastle will have a good idea about whether they have made it to the knockouts by January, so they can budget accordingly.
“If they wanted to spend another £100m or more in January, I don’t think there is anything stopping them. Whether PIF will sanction that level of investment is a separate question.”
Again, it would be unrealistic to expect them to max out their budget. For the first time in years, however, Howe is genuinely able to sign players halfway through a campaign.
That is a rare luxury for the Newcastle United manager and one that should be explored to at least some degree.