Patience over historic Newcastle United sale could have landed Northampton Town major payday: View | OneFootball

Rival clubs receive huge financial windfall compared to Cobblers' minimal sum.

Key Takeaways

Former Northampton Town academy product, Ivan Toney, has completed a £40million move to Saudi Arabia, but Cobblers won't receive as significant of a financial boost compared to rivals.

10 years ago, a teenage Toney scored an incredible overhead kick away at Dagenham & Redbridge to pull Northampton out of the League Two drop-zone and eventually to Football League safety.

In 2015, Newcastle United captured the League Two academy product for £500k under the advice of former Cobblers boss Graham Carr.

Toney went on to make just two Premier League appearances for the Toon. After six loan spells, Newcastle sold the striker to long-term admirers and Town's rivals, Peterborough United, recovering £350k with 30% of future sales.

The deal was a stroke of genius from both clubs as Toney scored 49 times in 94 games for Posh, who received more than £10 million from Brentford for his services.

Toney went from strength with the London outfit, setting a new Championship scoring record when the Bees won promotion to the Premier League.

Posh chairman, Darragh MacAnthony, previously went into detail on his clubs dealing with Toney exposing where Northampton slipped up on his 'Hard Truth' podcast.

He said: "We have received £10 million so far from Brentford and we will receive X amount – I’m not allowed to say the number – of any future profit and Newcastle will receive 30% of what we get from us. We earn money every time Ivan moves and so do Newcastle. That’s how these deals are structured and I’m all for it. It’s like a chain reaction and it’s the best thing.

"Northampton would probably have made seven figures from Ivan with a sell-on negotiated with Newcastle.”

Following the 28-year-old's move to Al Ahli, Posh are in line for another massive payday, something they are making a habit of, obtaining a cut of the £40 million received by Brentford, of which 30% filters down to Newcastle and then Northampton if they included a sell-on clause all those years ago.

Northampton have a clause of some sort, according to James Heneghan, but the fee they're due is minimal considering the £40m transfer fee paid by the Saudi Arabian club, despite being at the bottom of the aforementioned 'chain'.

Exeter City, like Posh, have also utilised the 'sell-on clause' to great effect. The Grecians are already due another windfall as a result of former academy product Jay Stansfield's recent move to Birmingham City after Fulham signed the striker from their academy with the Devon club inserting a hefty sell-on clause.

This follows their previous success with Toney's England teammate Ollie Watkins, who they sold to Brentford in 2017, inserting a 15% sell-on clause.

Mismanagement left lasting effects

Despite Toney's journey since leaving Cobblers being an unlikely one, the club was ultimately extremely let down by the short-sightedness of the owner at the time, David Cardoza.

Peterborough and Exeter have proven the incredible benefits of carefully negotiating and future-proofing deals for academy products and purchases, which Cobblers failed to do effectively in this case.

The rush to sell Toney without effective negotiation wasn't even the biggest failing of Cardoza, who ran the club within days of liquidation not long after Toney's rushed sale. Former Oxford United chairman Kelvin Thomas purchased the club for £1 in late November 2015, essentially saving its existence.

With patience and diligence, Northampton would have reaped the rewards for their role in developing a future England international, finances which would be a huge boost to their current League One hopes. Northampton hit the jackpot with Toney but they failed to cash out effectively.

Under the stewardship of current chairman Kelvin Thomas, the general running of the club on and off the pitch has improved drastically, characterised by the East Stand, a problem created by Cardoza, nearing completion.

While hindsight is a wonderful thing, should a situation similar to this one occur again, the majority of Cobblers fans would back the director unit to act appropriately and seize such opportunities, unlike before.