Newcastle United Monopoly – One false move and disaster | OneFootball

Welcome to Newcastle United Monopoly.

I am sure that the vast majority of you will have played normal Monopoly in the past.

I have so many find memories as a kid.

Rarely did a friendly game of family Monopoly not end up in a massive argument, on occasion even coming to blows!

As well as that though, pretty much every game we played, took the same path.

Whether quickly or gradually, you ended up in a position where one or more players ended up in a very powerful position, whilst one or more ended up in a far weaker position.

The ultimate of course was if/when somebody ended up with hotels on the dark blue ones,, Mayfair and Park Lane I think they were.

What it meant was for those of is Monopoly players in a weaker position, far less money, one false move and that was it. You were knackered. Bankrupt.

Each time you went around the board, you were just one roll of the dice away from potential disaster. If you landed on a Mayfair or Park Lane with a hotel on, you were out of the game.

Which bring me to Newcastle United Monopoly in the present day.

Eddie Howe and NUFC are the equivalent of those of us playing Monopoly and having far less money than the opponents.

One false move in the transfer market and Newcastle United could be knackered, at least for some time to come.

A few false moves and it could be damage done for years, maybe forever.

This is the inequality we are up against, when playing Newcastle United Monopoly against the Premier League ‘elite’.

Compare us to say Man U and Chelsea.

Due to the way the Premier League works(?) and is structured, Newcastle United at a massive disadvantage as things stand.

With the finances that they have and their ability to keep spending massive amounts of money season after season, they can make countless mistakes in the transfer market and yet, the following season just come back and do the same again.

So many players bought at those two clubs for £40m, £50m, £60m, for even higher figures, yet hardly contribute, or indeed, even play.

With Newcastle United, you have a young raw inexperienced one for the future striker such as Will Osula bought in for an initial £10m, yet amongst parts of the NUFC fanbase there is outrage as to why he isn’t then playing, talk of money wasted and so on. Whilst say at Man U you have Antony and Mount recruited for around a combined £150m and they struggle to ever get a place in the team. Never mind live up to those transfer fees.

Whilst as an excellent article on The Mag on Friday pointed out, Maresca played a full Chelsea reserve team in Europe on Thursday, changing all eleven players who started in the Premier League against Liverpool. All eleven players in this Chelsea reserve side having been bought by the current Chelsea owners these past 28 months, at a total cost of £487m! These are just eleven of the countless signings made by Chelsea these past 28 months (plus many others bought before then) who can’t get into the Chelsea side.

Meanwhile, just those eleven Chelsea reserves cost far more than the entire Newcastle United squad!

As I say, in this Newcastle United Monopoly scenario, we are the ones who every time we go around the board, are just one false move away from disaster.

Summer 2023 the big star signing to help NUFC cope with the demands of Champions League football and trying to repeat a top four Premier League place was Sandro Tonali recruited for £50m+. Only Alexander Isak has ever cost Newcastle United more in their entire history. That kind of transfer fee is just the norm, or even low, for so many of the Chelsea and Man U signings.

Tonali getting that 10 months suspension was an absolute disaster for last season.

Imagine if Sandro Tonali ended up a total flop and wasn’t even good enough to play, ended up leaving for peanuts, or even having to be paid to go. That would be a huge disaster for Newcastle United, the money we are allowed to spend as a club means NUFC can’t just go out and buy another Sandro Tonali. The likes of Man U, Chelsea and certain others can.

I think as well that Newcastle United fans have been spoilt by how brilliant Eddie Howe has been proved to be when spending the club’s relatively limited money, not a single major expensive mistake.

The quality of Isak, Gordon, Bruno, Trippier, Pope, Burn, Livramento, Tonali, Hall, Botman, Barnes…

Just think of where Man U would be now, if over the last three years they’d had somebody like Eddie Howe choosing who to spend their vast fortunes on. Same with Chelsea.

None of us know for sure what really happened with Marc Guehi and him not signing for Newcastle United this past summer.

What I do know though is plenty of Newcastle United fans were just demanding that NUFC had to buy more players in that summer window, whoever they were.

This is just toddler tantrum time in my opinion, like a toddler demanding that they MUST have this particular toy and no, certainly no waiting until the right one comes along. Toddler gets this substandard toy for instant gratification but then swiftly realises it is rubbish. Then mam and/or dad don’t have any money to replace it with something better that is now available.

This is Newcastle United.

If Eddie Howe and the club hierarchy decided this summer that the right player(s) at the right price(s) weren’t available, then I am more than happy that the finite amount of money available to spend, has been kept for this coming January window, or even next summer.

As things stand, the ability of Newcastle United to spend money on signings is massively constrained by PSR, so we can’t afford very expensive transfer mistakes that could potentially set the team/club back years.

We have to make every bullet count, whilst faced with the relative machine guns that many of our competitors have available.