The Magpies have insisted that they must stick to their limits but that doesn't mean the future can't be exciting
Nick Woltemade, Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali all left Newcastle in the summer
Newcastle United transfer chief Ross Wilson has revealed the club must stay fluid with their recruitment policy - but insisted that Anthony Gordon had to be sold in order to facilitate summer deals.
After PSR, the rule book that resulted in Elliot Anderson being sold against the former manager Eddie Howe's will, comes SCR the restrictions that cost Newcastle a £5m fine. SCR is basically a spending cap - for fans it's a bit like deciding how many pieces of Adidas kit you will restrict yourself too on the next drop from the club shop to ensure you don't spend beyond your means!
The rules stop Newcastle doing anything drastic and Wilson has finance chief Simon Capper close by his side to make sure the Magpies don't upset UEFA any time soon. Wilson though believes that Newcastle still have an exciting future and the "identity" of the club will allow them to hold on to stars like Lewis Miley and add marquee signings such as Matias Fernandez-Pardo, with the ex-Nottingham Forest chief insisting the exit of Nick Woltemade to Juventus on loan was a must.
As Newcastle skate around SCR rules, after receiving a UEFA fine this year for breaching the restrictions, fans fear another unpopular sale such as Geordie boy Elliot Anderson or Yankuba Minteh.
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Newcastle made eight additions in the summer and signed exciting youngsters such as Aladji Bamba, Bazoumana Toure and Sean Steur to bring the average of the squad down. Newcastle had a net spend of around £34.7m this summer after sales totalling £252.8m and purchases hitting £287.5m.
However, SCR rules are all about staying compliant and remaining within UEFA's limits, with Newcastle keen to avoid stockpiling players who ramp up the wage bill and don't play and ensuring there is headroom when it comes to spending.
The Anthony Gordon reality
The forward was sold for around £69m - which could rise to £75m with clauses - with Wilson reasoning that while the World Cup star has gone, the decision to extend Lewis Miley's contract underlines the ambition on Tyneside.
Wilson said: "Going into this transfer window, we had to do a deal like Anthony Gordon. It might have been another player, but it had to be a deal like that.
"Through all of our movements - ins, outs, new contracts - the window started with Lewis Miley, which was a big signal for us in terms of identity and what we wanted to look like. A young player with an unbelievably high ceiling in my view meant that once we'd done that, we knew what we could and couldn't do.
"Until we had certainty over that transaction [sale of Gordon], we had uncertainty. But now we're very clear that we're in a positive place."
Matthias Jaissle speaks with Nick Woltemade
Nick Woltemade (right) left on loan to Juventus
Why Nick Woltemade couldn't stay
Nick Woltemade was loaned to Juventus as Newcastle clawed back £3.5m from a loan fee to chip away at his £69m record transfer fee. But in doing so, it opened up the door for £51m to be spent on Matias Fernandez-Pardo again underlining how SCR is all about freeing up financial space.
Wilson said: "Because we try to link things together, the ultimate deal for Matias Fernandez-Pardo was only possible because we did the Woltemade deal. Now, if we didn't do the Woltemade deal, we might have done another deal, but that's what we mean by linking things together.
Capper added: "So the conversation we were having internally was, 'If you want to do that, you're going to have to give me something back otherwise we'll be in a position we're not comfortable with'.
"We managed to get that. That's how we work together as a group, as a senior management team, to deliver the best result we can out of a transfer window. We come out of this transfer window, I wouldn't say in an absolutely comfortable place, we have some risk around all of our Financial Fair Play measures.
"But it's an acceptable amount of risk at this point. We are compliant as of today. Our forecasts are all compliant, and we can afford a few little things to go wrong and remain compliant. As an organisation, that's the right place to be. We're not going with £100m head room just in case. I'm not going to say what the head room is, but it's not that."
Wilson added: "But there is head room, and that's the key point."
Newcastle United manager Matthias Jaissle
Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle (Image: Newcastle United via Getty Images)
The future under Matthias Jaissle
A new scouting structure is under way at Newcastle with head of recruitment Steve Nickson quitting at the start of the window and Matthias Jaissle talking about a "brave" new world when it comes to transfers.
Wilson said: “I've just done a few meetings today [Friday] with our leadership team at the training ground, with our different sets of scouts that work for us and the way I've described it to them, it was almost like running two transfer windows, because we also had the situation with the manager to deal with as well, which we dealt with with complete secrecy for just over or just under two weeks, as well as trying to run a transfer window for players at the same time. So it was really, really busy, but good fun as well, really enjoyable.
“I had a clear idea, identity-wise, what I wanted Newcastle United to look like, which we absolutely shared, our ownership share.
"And the key for us was getting to the end of the window, not to the start of it or halfway through it, to the end of the window and really feeling the identity, and that doesn't mean it's perfect, it doesn't mean that we are over the moon with it, but we're happy where we've got to, structurally in the squad, identity in the squad, identity in the coach, and we want to move forward bravely.
"Matthias mentioned that word yesterday as well, and that doesn't mean we're going to win every game. You can sign as many players as you want, but you've got to go on the pitch and win games.
"We're happy where we're at, but we're not patting ourselves on the back or saying any more than that but we have to move forward bravely and strongly with our new coach, with our new players and with the players that were here before.
"So we're happy where we've got to, but lots of work still to be done to get the whole club to where we want to get it to."
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