This weekend the Premier League gets back into action after an international break. While a fair few teams will be counting the cost of the break due to injuries to players, for one club in particular, it is the chance to start a brand new and exciting era.
Newcastle United, who currently lie second from bottom in the table, were finally sold around ten days ago when former owner Mike Ashley sold the club for around £300 million to the Saudi Investment Fund (SIF).
The news was warmly received in Newcastle where fans have wanted Ashley out for some time and the added bonus is that the new owners have such vast financial reserves that it is not inaccurate to say that Newcastle are now the wealthiest team in world football.
Fans will get a chance to see their team play at St James’ Park on Sunday afternoon where Tottenham are the visitors and there may well be a few more Geordie fans enthused about their teams chances of landing a win, perhaps even sticking a bet on them to land their first win of the season at bet365 Sport.
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Just How Rich Are Newcastle’s Owners?
Of course, stating a team is the ‘richest’ in the world, when you have teams like Paris St Germain and Manchester City in the equation is a bold statement, so let’s take a look at just how wealthy Newcastle’s new owners are when we look at the ten richest club owners in world football.
And just to warn you, it is not even close to being a debatable topic. Amounts shown below are in dollars.
The Ten Richest Club Owners In World Football
- Zhang Jindong – Inter Milan – $7.6 billion
- Nasser Al-Khelaifi – Paris St Germain – $8 billion
- Stan Kroenke – Arsenal & Colorado Rapids – $8.7 billion
- Philip Anschutz – Los Angeles Galaxy – $10 billion
- Roman Abramovich – Chelsea – $12.4 billion
- Diemar Hopp – Hoffenheim – $13 billion
- Andrea Agnelli & Family – Juventus – $13.5 billion
- Dietrich Mateschitz – Red Bull Salzburg, New York Red Bulls & Red Bull Leipzig – $19.4 billion
- Sheikh Mansour – Manchester City, Melbourne City, New York City – $20 billion
- Saudi Investment Fund – Newcastle United – $430 billion
So to just put that into some perspective, Newcastle’s new owners have 21.5 times more wealth than Manchester City’s owner.
To put it into further perspective. If Jeff Bezos, the richest man in the world in 2021, were to buy a club with his $177 billion fortune, he would still need Elon Musk ($151 billion) and Bill Gates ($124 billion) to combine their resources to outstrip what Newcastle’s owners are worth.
What Will Happen Now At Newcastle United?
To be truthful, there is not a great deal that the current owners at Newcastle United
can do now, although there has already been talk that current manager Steve Bruce will be relieved of his duties, perhaps even before Sunday’s clash with Tottenham.
Given that the transfer window is closed, the club will perhaps be preparing for the January transfer window to open so that they can start to invest in some new players that will take Newcastle from Premier League also-rans, into genuine contenders.
For the time being, the new owners may have to settle on a change of manager bringing them a change in fortunes as they seek to climb away from the foot of the table.
Names linked with the role include Frank Lampard, Antonio Conte, Lucien Favre, Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martinez are just some of the names linked with the club in recent weeks.
If Bruce is sacked and someone inherits the job, they will face a tough task turning Newcastle’s season around. The Magpies are winless in their seven Premier League games so far, drawing three and losing four and they lie 19th in the table and in the midsts of a relegation battle.
Relegation would be a disaster for SIF, so you can expect to see a number of reinforcements make their way into the club in January.
Who Could Newcastle Sign?
With the new financial fair play rules in place, it does mean Newcastle can’t just go
out and spend huge sums of money on players to bring in the very best. The club will have to develop its marketing and sponsorship deals in order to ensure that their outgoings can be covered by their income.
However, as Manchester City and PSG have shown, there are ways and means around these restrictions and at present FIFA and UEFA don’t seem too keen to plug the loopholes.
So it will be a period of slow evolution for Newcastle over the next few years, but staying in the Premier League is a priority, so I think in January you will see a number of quality players brought in to stabilise the club and ensure they remain in the Premier League.
Kalidou Koulibaly of Napoli is a name that seems popular with the powerful centre half rated one of the best in Europe and there is a report that Burnley centre back James Tarkowski is who they want to partner Koulibaly with.
The Magpies have also been linked with a move for Raheem Sterling of Manchester City, Jesse Lingard and Donny Van de Beek of Manchester United, Philippe Coutinho of Barcelona, Mauro Icardi of Paris St Germain and even Harry Kane of Tottenham.
However, it may well be next summer that Newcastle’s presence will be felt across world football, assuming they can remain in the Premier League and, perhaps, push on towards the European places.
With the likes of Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Mo Salah and Harry Kane just some of the names purportedly potentially available, Newcastle have the resources to pay huge transfer fees to sign at least one, if not more of this type of player.
Little wonder then that the takeover has gone down so well on Tyneside!
Premier League Fixtures
First though, the focus has to be on securing Premier League safety and that journey
begins on Sunday with a home game against Tottenham in what should be an exciting atmosphere at St James’ Park.
The full list of Premier League games this weekend is shown below. Kick off time is 3pm on Saturday unless otherwise stated.
- Watford v Liverpool (12.30pm)
- Aston Villa v Wolves
- Leicester City v Man Utd
- Man City v Burnley
- Norwich City v Brighton
- Southampton v Leeds
- Brentford v Chelsea (5.30pm)
- Everton v West Ham (2pm Sun)
- Newcastle Utd v Tottenham (4.30pm Sun)
- Arsenal v Crystal Palace (8pm Mon)
It promises to be an exciting few years for Newcastle fans as their hopes and dreams to become one of Europe’s elite, could finally be realised.
However, success is never guaranteed and with big spending Man City and PSG both waiting for their first Champions League trophy still, it does prove that there’s more to making a successful football team than limitless amounts of money.
