PSR is not an incurable disease – Why Newcastle United can have Alexander Isak AND Hugo Ekitike | OneFootball

The reaction of many neutrals to news that Newcastle United are now in talks to sign Hugo Ekitike to play ALONGSIDE Alexander Isak, has been interesting to say the least.

Some journalists, many fans of rival clubs – certain ones in particular…

All saying, how can this happen???

Very much along the lines of what has gone wrong, how can it be allowed for Newcastle United to potentially have these riches on the pitch? The outrage!

One constant amongst the comments from outsiders on Hugo Ekitike getting added (potentially) to Alexander Isak, is that; “…surely this can’t happen because Newcastle United have PSR issues.”

It is laughable.

These people go on as though PSR is an incurable disease. That once you ‘catch’ PSR then it is a disease your club will always have, something that has no cure, or chance of recovery.

The way fans of certain other clubs go on, you would think that only some clubs can ‘catch’ PSR, that their club has some kind of immunity from this incurable disease.

I suppose in some ways you can say that PSR is an incurable disease that can’t/won’t go away, but if that is the case then it is a disease that all Premier League clubs have to deal with.

Some Premier League clubs do have a better chance than others of not getting as badly afflicted by PSR…BUT it is something that all clubs have to live with.

I think it is clearly a case where your average fan of a club that has been impacted by PSR issues, will have far more of an idea about how exactly PSR works, than the average fan of those clubs who haven’t been so negatively hit by PSR issues so far.

For example, your average fan of Everton, Forest, Newcastle, Villa or Leicester, will have far more idea on PSR than the average fan of Liverpool, Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal or Tottenham. About at least the basics anyway.

I know most of you will have heard this so many times before but PSR means that a Premier League club can’t lose more than £105m across any three season period. However, not all money spent counts towards the PSR losses, for example spending on your stadium and training ground (infrastructure), women’s teams, academy costs etc.

Naturally, the more money a club brings in, the more it can spend without getting close to making £105m losses over three seasons. However, all Premier League clubs have to live within PSR (even Chelsea…eventually) restrictions.

So whilst say Manchester City and Manchester United can spend far more than say Brentford and Bournemouth without getting into PSR difficulties, the rules still apply to them as well.

For any club the basic thing is that what has happened the previous two seasons with spending/losses, then dictates how much flexibility you have to spend within PSR.

Which brings us back to Newcastle United, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitke.

In 2021/22 and 2022/23, Newcastle United had to spend a fair bit of cash on players (and the club in general) so that relegation could be avoided and then progress from there, with Mike Ashley having left the club a total mess, on and off the pitch.

The club accounts showed losses of more than £70m in each of those two seasons (2021/22 and 2022/23), as I mentioned earlier, not all of these losses count towards PSR. However, it still then put a lot of pressure on 2023/24, in terms of staying within PSR.

Newcastle United did spend significantly in summer 2023 as they were heading into a Champions League season BUT as we all know, a reported £68m was generated by the sales of Anderson and Minteh on 30 June 2024, the very last day of the 2023/24 season accounting period.

When the accounts for the 2023/24 season were eventually released earlier this year, it showed Newcastle United lost £11m that season. Nothing is ever made public about what exactly the figure is for PSR purposes, once spending on the Academy, Women’s team, infrastructure is knocked off, but my guess is that for PSR purposes it is very likely that Newcastle United will be showing a profit for 2023/24.

It will be some time before we find out the accounts for the 2024/25 season but with winning a trophy, Champions League qualification via finishing fifth, Adidas deal now in play and so on, fair to say the revenues last season should be very healthy. Then after not buying a single new first team player in the January 2024 transfer window, the same in Summer 2024, the same in January 2025, Newcastle United then didn’t buy anybody this summer up to and including 30 June 2025, the final day of the 2024/25 accounts. I would be amazed if last season’s NUFC accounts don’t show a very positive outcome, especially when it comes to the losses (or profits…) that contribute to the current PSR position.

Once we got to 1 July 2025, the new and current PSR three season Newcastle United situation covers the losses/profits made during 2023/24, 2024/25 and 2025/26. The two serious loss making seasons of 2021/22 and 2022/23 now no longer count towards the current NUFC PSR position.

It doesn’t mean that Newcastle United can now spend whatever they like.

However, it does mean that there is no pressure at all on selling Alexander Isak or any other key player.

It also means that Newcastle United can afford to buy Hugo Ekitike AND play him alongside Alexander Isak (and Anthony Elanga…).

Newcastle United have had two big recovery seasons in terms of dealing with their PSR issues and then on top of that we now have a new upcoming season that will have added Champions League money going into the club coffers.

This new positive PSR position will now also mean that Newcastle United can sort a far more lucrative contract for Alexander Isak, which I fully expect to happen, the striker getting rewarded with a lot more cash AND Newcastle getting their star asset onto a contract that is longer than the current three remaining years.

As well as that, I also think that Anthony Elanga will be just the first of a number of exciting signings this summer, Hugo Ekitike to follow if a deal can be agreed (or an alternative expensive striker target if not), plus James Trafford and that new younger long-term right-sided central defender we have needed for some time to compete with Fabian Schar.

Newcastle United have now recovered from a very bad bout of PSR that lasted a couple of seasons, now fully recovered, a very healthy future now opens up.