Newcastle United, Saudi Money and a Squad in Reverse: What Is Happening at St James’ Park?

Matthias Jaissle was appointed the new head coach of Newcastle United after Eddie Howe resigned, roughly three weeks before the start of the Premier League season. Jaissle previously managed RB Salzburg and, most recently, Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia, a club that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) held a majority stake in until April.

His appointment tells you something about where the club’s ownership is looking for answers right now.

Howe’s five years at St James’ Park produced a fourth-place Premier League finish in 2022-23, a return to the Champions League for the first time in two decades, and the Carabao Cup in March 2025, which ended a 70-year wait for a major trophy. That last part matters more than people outside the north-east.

The English football manager took the club from 19th and heading toward the Championship to a side with a genuine top-six identity. What he could not do, and what eventually wore him down, was build within a financial structure that kept pulling the ground from under him.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF, which completed its takeover of Newcastle in October 2021, is valued at over £600 billion, making the Magpies theoretically the wealthiest club in world football.

In practice, the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) restricted how much of that wealth could flow into the club without triggering sanctions. The PSR allowed a maximum loss of £105 million over any rolling three-year period. Newcastle, who had spent heavily since the takeover, hit that ceiling and had to start selling to stay compliant.

In the summer of 2024, Elliot Anderson went to Nottingham Forest for £35 million and Yankuba Minteh went to Brighton, both sales made not because the club wanted to move them on but because the books required it. Per Yahoo! Sports, Howe described the Anderson sale as one they regretted even while they were doing it.

Anderson later moved to Manchester City for a reported £116 million.

The Departures

The summer of 2024 was uncomfortable. What followed has been more damaging. Alexander Isak, who scored 23 Premier League goals in 2024-25 and was the best striker in Newcastle’s history since Alan Shearer, forced a move to Liverpool for £125 million last September after making clear he wanted out. Sandro Tonali, who had come back from a ten-month gambling ban to become one of the most complete midfielders in the country, left for Tottenham for £100 million this summer. Anthony Gordon, the top contributor across all competitions last season with 17 goal involvements and the energy source of the Magpies’ press, joined Barcelona for £69.3 million.

And now Bruno Guimaraes. He lifted the Carabao Cup as captain. He was Newcastle’s leading scorer in the league last season with nine goals from central midfield, and had been one of the best players in the Premier League across three consecutive seasons. After Brazil were knocked out of the World Cup by Norway, he told the club he wants to join Arsenal. Recent reports say the Gunners have reached an agreement in principle for around 90 million euros.

Newcastle insist he is not for sale. Their position is the same one they held over Isak twelve months ago, and the same one Howe once said publicly he would never want to be in again.

The players coming in the other direction are young and largely unproven. Aladji Bamba arrived from Monaco. At the time of writing, the other incomings are all under 20. Newcastle’s commercial revenues, which fund the kind of transfer activity that does not depend on selling first, sit at roughly half of what Arsenal, Chelsea, and the two Manchester clubs generate annually. While that gap stays wide, the Magpies will keep finding themselves in summers like this one.

PSR has now been replaced by the Squad Cost Ratio framework from July, which ties spending directly to a club’s revenue rather than using a fixed loss threshold. Whether that gives Newcastle more room depends on how fast they grow their income streams, which the club’s own chief executive acknowledged earlier this year were not expanding at a fast enough pace to compete with the clubs above them.

The PIF is also still subject to Associated Party Transaction rules, which require sponsorship deals connected to Saudi state entities to pass an independent fair market value test.

The richest owners in football remain some of the most financially restricted in terms of what they can directly put in.

Only seven months ago, chief executive David Hopkinson said he could put Newcastle in the conversation about the best clubs in the world by 2030. A 12th-place finish, a resigned manager, and a captain pushing for the exit does not cancel that ambition, but it does put a large amount of work between the club and where they said they were going.