Newcastle United hold talks with UEFA as summer transfer budget fears intensify Newcastle United must keep spending dreams realistic as the club brace themselves for UEFA fine Comments Lee Ryder Chief Newcastle United Writer 07:00, 21 Apr 2026 View Image St James' Park (Image: Getty Images) Newcastle United transfer chiefs are facing up to the fact that their budget could be dented severely this summer. The Toon board are braced for a UEFA fine after potentially breaching club licensing and financial sustainability regulations. That could reduce spending power further if the Magpies are hit by a multi-million fine, with Newcastle in talks with UEFA over possible sanctions. Chelsea were fined £26.7m for breaking UEFA rules on football earnings, while Aston Villa suffered a £12m penalty 10 months ago. Newcastle have already held budget meetings with Eddie Howe told his transfer kitty will differ if the club fail to qualify for Europe this season, something that is looking more likely by the week. United chiefs already know they may have to sell to buy in order to bring in marquee signings. Howe is in the market for a striker, a new goalkeeper and more defensive cover but knows that things could change dramatically depending on who is sold. Newcastle expect to sell at least two of Anthony Gordon, Sandro Tonali, Tino Livramento or Bruno Guimaraes. The only solid interest so far has been in Gordon from Bayern Munich while Livramento has been on Manchester City's wish-list for some time. Yoane Wissa could be sold at cut-price if the right deal comes along while Nick Woltemade's unsettled status and the noises from his agency suggest Newcastle may have to consider some drastic action. Get Chronicle Premium now for just £1 HERE – exclusive news and features, our NUFC and Academy notebooks, John Gibson's columns plus an ad-lite experience Howe is desperate for Tonali to stay on Tyneside and handed the Italian international the captain's armband against AFC Bournemouth to indicate how he sees him as a senior star moving forward. But while Newcastle will only sell stars on their terms, Howe may not get everything he wants this summer and will have to go along with the market conditions. Newcastle recouped £125million for Alexander Isak from Liverpool, but the new SCR rule book means it is not as simple as dipping into the spending pot and using money from historical sales. United splashed out £250m last summer, and the prospect of doing something similar without breaching the rules is unlikely at the moment. Howe, if he stays on as boss, could have to get creative with loans and out of contract signings moving forward. The man getting his head around the rules at St James' Park is finance chief Simon Capper. It was Capper who underlined that even getting into the Europa Conference League is better than nothing next season. But Newcastle sit way off the pace in the race for Europe. They are now six points behind Bournemouth after defeat on Saturday with the Cherries holding what could be the last European spot. When asked directly if Newcastle could afford to sell Woltemade and Wissa at cut-price, Capper offered a little more on the complex rules ahead. Capper said: "Look, I’m not going to talk about an individual player because we’re not talking about individual players. "What I would say is that each player has two components: making a profit on disposal and the squad cost that a player has. If a player costs you a lot of money and you remove that – even if you don’t make a profit – you have got £20m in squad cost to spend. This is the point of trading. You can’t just stack salaries forever. "Again, not addressing any individual player, if you have 50 players, and they’re all costing you £20m a year, that’s £1bn in squad cost. That’s never going to work, so you have to have a one in, one out almost to try and balance that squad cost to the number you can afford. "The profit on disposal is a really important part of trading, but you also can’t have too many players’ costs just sitting there – whoever it is. Article continues below "The cost is their salary plus their contract being amortised over their life so using an example of a notional player. If you had a player who cost you £10m, they’re costing you £2m-a-year amortisation. If you sell them for break even, you’ve saved £2m next year.”
Curated by Taleb Kabbara · Source: www.chroniclelive.co.uk