By Dr Dan Plumley

5th Feb, 2023 | 12:16pm

Finance expert on Newcastle United taking £323m ‘gamble’ as transfer plan explained

Newcastle United will stay away from copying Chelsea’s transfer strategy of spreading out the cost of new players over large long-term contracts.

That is the opinion of finance expert Dr Dan Plumley, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the risks attached to amortisation.

Chelsea broke Premier League records by spending £323million on new signings over the January window.

However, the Blues won’t be punished for breaking Financial Fair Play as they decided to amortise the costs of their signings over long-term contracts.

Uefa have stepped in and added new regulations for the summer stating costs can only be spread over a maximum length of five years.

Despite allowing Chelsea to momentarily avoid FFP sanctions, Plumley doesn’t believe Newcastle will follow suit and copy their strategy.

“I’m not so sure Newcastle will risk it,” Plumley told Football Insider’s Sean Fisher.

“The major issue with Chelsea’s strategy is that it’s a big gamble – if you get a really bad injury or player form dips then you have problems with a very long-term contract.

“Every club can do this, so Chelsea haven’t found a huge loophole they’ve just done something outside of the norm.

“But other clubs have chosen not to do that and I think there’s a reason for that.

“I think Newcastle will avoid that road completely. We’ve seen them spend money and invest more strategically for the long term.

“Overall their transfer strategy has been very different to the approach at Chelsea.

“Every club can do what Chelsea are doing but they see the risks involved and are keen to dodge it.“

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