Newcastle United are taking important steps to avoid any further trouble from UEFA and the transfer of Matias Fernandez-Pardo underlined exactly that
Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle and (jnset) Mathias Fernandez-Pardo and Nick Woltemade
Newcastle United head coach Matthias Jaissle and (jnset) Mathias Fernandez-Pardo and Nick Woltemade
Newcastle United finance chief Simon Capper has admitted that the club would not have been able to sign Matias Fernandez-Pardo had they not loaned out Nick Woltemade to Juventus.
Capper is deemed a key figure behind the team and was hailed a "superstar" by CEO David Hopkinson after guiding Newcastle through the complicated UEFA SCR framework that resulted in United running into trouble with Europe's governing body. Despite selling Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh to Nottingham Forest and Brighton, and avoiding a 10-point deduction in the Premier League, it did not clear the path and help swerve the UEFA penalty picked up in July.
Woltemade wanted to stay at Newcastle, just 12 months after his £69m arrival from Stuttgart, but his exit was essentially sealed the moment an enquiry went in for Fernandez-Pardo to Lille.
It's why Newcastle are now looking to avoid stockpiling players, with Capper making it clear to journalists at a briefing this month. The former Leicester City executive said on the £51m Fernandez-Pardo signing, and subsequent Woltemade exit: "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 headroom just in case. I'm not going to say what the headroom is, but it's not that."
Newcastle can spend in January, but as things stand aren't planning a major splurge in January unless they are hit by injuries. Capper reflected: "Every top-level football club in Europe is managing their budget on every transfer.
"So every time we are buying or selling a player, we look at the impact of that, and one of the conversations we have on every player is, 'Well, what does that do for us? Does that make us better or worse?"
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