The window of passes of the old continent lowered the curtain and all the lights were pointing to the nouveau riche of the Premier League. Five players and an exorbitant sum. Look!
The transfer market in Europe has come to an end. All the spotlights were pointed at Newcastle United from Premier League, and now, definitively, it can be said that the acquisition of Las Urracas at the hands of the Public Investment Fund (PIF), a Saudi entity with a fortune calculated in 360 billion euros, He started throwing his results. I know the exorbitant sum he paid for five players.
The millionaire Newcastle, the one who spent the most in the transfer market in Europe: one by one
The first footballer to arrive was Kieran Trippier, who was wanting to leave The Spanish League After two and a half years in the Atletico Madrid from Diego Pablo Simeon. Despite the fact that he managed to conquer the Spanish domestic competition, the right back had a hard time adapting to life in the Iberian country and Newcastle took advantage of it to bring him back to the Premier League, where he played for Burnley and Tottenham Hotspur, in exchange from €15 million and a two-and-a-half-year contract for which he will receive five million pounds.
“I am delighted to be joining this fantastic club. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Madrid, but when I became aware of the interest from Newcastle United, and having previously worked (at Burnley) with (manager) Eddie Howe, I knew that This is where I wanted to be”Trippier said on his new team’s website.
The following incorporation already raised more doubts. It was the one of Chris Wood, from Burnley, one of the direct rivals of Las Urracas for salvation. The centre-forward, a figure for the New Zealand national team, signed to defend the colors black and white in exchange for the payment of his exit clause, a figure that amounts to 30 million euros.
Likewise, with failed negotiations such as the one involving Jesse Lingard, Newcastle made its largest investment in the last days of the market to incorporate into its ranks Bruno Guimaraes, a jump of quality to his center of the field. It didn’t come cheap. The midfielder, who was also wanted by Arsenal, It cost 33 million euros that they had to pay Olympique de Lyon, plus 6.5 in variables, and a contract until 2026. In other words, to insure the 24-year-old Brazilian, the British entity had to pay something like 42 million euros in total.
And the last day of the market the latest additions arrived. Perhaps the least striking. Newcastle signed Matt Targett, coming from Aston Villa, on loan until the end of the season. Likewise, and ten minutes before the transfer window drops the curtain, he confirmed to Dan Burn, Brighton & Hove Albion defender. Burn, 29, signs for two and a half years in exchange for 15 million euros.
Five footballers and an exorbitant sum: how much Newcastle spent in total
In total, the new owners of Newcastle have left a few €102 million in this European winter market, which means more than double that in the summer of 2020 of the old continent and in the January 2021 market together.
However, spending fortunes on signings does not have a direct relationship when entering the field of play. Now it will be time for the Magpies, who are in decline, to a point of salvation, demonstrate in the field that business in the offices were fruitful for the institution and that they have signed enough hierarchy to save their skin in this irregular season they are going through.
Who are the billionaires who own Newcastle
In early October 2021, Newcastle closed its sale to a Saudi Arabian fund, which made it one of the richest clubs in the world and aroused the ire of its rivals.
After solving audiovisual rights problems that set the operation back almost two years ago, Public Investment Fund (PIF, for its acronym), a group commanded by Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he disbursed more than 400 million dollars to keep 80% of the club’s shares.
The share package was completed the Reuben brothers and financier Amanda Staveley, who retained the remaining 20% divided equally.
In April 2020, the same fund had tried to take over the club, but the piracy problems in the Saudi country with the operator BeIn Sports, one of the channels that own the rights to the competition. solved this problem, Mike Ashley, the then owner of Newcastle, had free rein to sell the club after fourteen years in charge.
Although there was much criticism of the operation, because Saudi Arabia was accused of committing crimes against human rights, as with the journalist Jamal Khashoggi, dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, PIF is considered a independent entity of the state, so the Premier could not stop the operation.
