Newcastle United are losing £500,000 per week

Feb 25 2010 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Ashley had already cleared debts of £110m when he took control of the club back in June 2008, although it was claimed he did not want to be repaid that money as long as someone came up with the £100m asking price last year.

It is not yet clear whether he will take his £20m back this season, particularly as the squad will need significant investment if it is realistically going to compete back in the top flight.

The scale of United’s losses came on the day a report by Uefa, European football’s governing body, estimated that the 18 Premier League clubs in 2007-8 owed more money than all of the clubs in the rest of Europe’s top divisions put together.

The combined debts of these clubs stood at just under €4bn euros (£3.5bn), around four times the figure for the next most indebted top division, Spain’s La Liga.

Given Portsmouth’s demise – the club may still go out of business even if it goes into administration tomorrow – English football is heading for a prolonged period of belt tightening after the boom of the Noughties, and Newcastle are no exception.

Meanwhile, Newcastle United’s Academy side will play Crystal Palace in the FA Youth Cup at St James’ Park tonight (7pm) with manager Joe Joyce hoping the venue will be an inspiration to them.

He said: “Fortunately quite a number of the lads have been in this environment before and have played at St James’ but one or two of the younger members of the squad haven’t.

“It is good for them to see what they are trying to achieve.

“There will be a few nerves around the place, but we are coming off the back of a good victory away at Derby and they are very focused on what we are trying to do.

“We’ve lost one game in 16 and we have great belief. Having said that, we need to make sure we aren’t complacent. We’re the home team and onus is on us to take the game to Crystal Palace.”