Newcastle United are set to sell Sandro Tonali to Tottenham Hotspur in a deal worth up to £100m, continuing a dramatic dismantling of their squad that has seen Alexander Isak push for a £125m move to Liverpool and Anthony Gordon complete a £69m transfer to Barcelona — all within the space of less than a year.

Trading to survive

The shift toward becoming a selling club was not a matter of choice for Newcastle. In 2024, they were forced to sell midfielder Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest to avoid breaching profit and sustainability rules (PSR). At the time, the club held on to bigger names — but that approach has since unravelled.

This week, Newcastle confirmed they were "committed to full ongoing compliance" as part of a settlement with Uefa after breaching its financial sustainability regulations. Raising funds from the sales of Gordon and Tonali is seen as central to giving the club room to reinvest this summer.

The numbers behind the club's historical trading record are stark. In 2024, senior figures at the club revealed that Newcastle had made only £12m profit on player disposals over a three-year cycle. The Premier League's six highest-earning clubs averaged £156m over the same period, while the remaining 13 sides averaged over £60m.

A rules system working against Newcastle

The Premier League's squad-cost ratio (SCR), which came into force this week, allows clubs outside Europe to spend up to 85 percent of their football-related revenue — and potentially as high as 115 percent with a modest fine structure. Clubs competing in Uefa competitions, by contrast, are restricted to a 70 percent threshold.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire was blunt in his assessment. "Newcastle are very much on the wrong side of history," he said. "Chelsea didn't have this under Roman Abramovich. Manchester City didn't have this under Sheikh Mansour because there weren't PSR and SCR restrictions. Those clubs could afford to lose as much as they wanted as long as the owners were happy with it."

Newcastle's difficulty is compounded by the fact that they have breached two separate Uefa rules: the football earnings rule — assessed over a three-year period, similar to PSR — and the 70 percent squad-cost limit.

The doom loop threatening Premier League clubs

Uefa has raised serious concerns that the Premier League's more permissive spending rules could drive inflation across the European transfer market. Clubs in the middle of the Premier League table — such as Everton, Fulham, and Leeds United — now hold the financial firepower to compete with established continental giants like AC Milan, Borussia Dortmund, and Juventus for transfer targets.

There is also a structural trap waiting for any Premier League club that qualifies for Europe. A club operating under the Premier League's 85 percent ratio that earns a place in Europe in 2026-27 would then need to pass Uefa's 70 percent assessment for 2027-28 — even though the club may have been spending at 85 percent for part of the year. The result could be a revolving cycle of fines as different clubs rotate in and out of European competition.

Only clubs with enormous commercial revenues — such as Manchester United and Tottenham — can comfortably operate within the 70 percent ceiling regardless of their European status. Crystal Palace managed the balance last season, but Newcastle and Nottingham Forest, both without European football in 2024-25, could not. Bournemouth, Brighton, and Sunderland face similar scrutiny in the coming seasons.

Across the past two years, Uefa has issued fines totalling 158 million euros (£136m) to English clubs, of which 99 million euros (£85m) was suspended pending future compliance. Aston Villa and Chelsea account for the bulk of those penalties, with Villa found to have committed a "significant breach" in 2025 despite three consecutive seasons in European competition, including one in the Champions League.

Rebuilding under real constraints

Newcastle are understood to have made positive progress in signing Hoffenheim's 20-year-old Ivory Coast winger Bazoumana Toure. But the rebuilding task is enormous, particularly after last summer's window — when, aside from defender Malick Thiaw, the club saw limited immediate return from a net spend exceeding £100m.

The fundamental question hanging over St. James' Park is how Newcastle can close the gap on Arsenal, Liverpool, and Manchester United while operating to a 70 percent revenue limit — one that other clubs without their self-imposed restraint may not honour.