OPINION
Newcastle United have been lagging behind their Premier League rivals in the last two transfer windows and yet they now look even more out of their depth when it comes to transfers after Everton’s plan to woo Aaron Ramsey was reported.
The transfer window may not be open currently but it’s safe to say that as long as Mike Ashley owns the Magpies, optimism regarding the winter transfer market for the Magpies will remain practically non-existent.
If fans of Rafa Benitez’s side wanted any more evidence how behind the rest of the Premier League their team is, even with window being shut, then the Toffees’ pursuit of Ramsey hands them that and then some.
The Sun reported on Wednesday that the Toffees were ambitiously looking to snap the Welsh international up in the summer upon his Arsenal contract expiring and are keen to throw mouthwatering amounts of money at him to get his services.
The newspaper claimed that Marco Silva’s side would hand him a whopping £150,000-a-week contract, which would be five-years in length, and even pay the player’s staggering £15million signing-on fee.
If the Magpies were to match the offer, for example, Ramsey would be earning over double what the club’s current top-earner Jonjo Shelvey earns as the midfielder gets £70,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac).
In fact even if Newcastle United matched Ramsey’s current big money deal at Arsenal, which seems him earn £110,000-a-week (Source: Spotrac) he’d instantly become their club’s top earner by some distance.
Aside from Ramsey’s wage, when you consider that Everton would be willing to pay a £15million signing-on fee that puts the Magpies’ failings in the transfer market in even more perspective.
The most the Magpies had ever paid to buy a player, let alone considering signing-on fees, was the £16million they spent to purchase Michael Owen from Real Madrid (Source: The Chronicle) so that says it all really.
Benitez’s side have steered away from investing more than £16million in acquiring a player’s services so they wouldn’t get anywhere near being willing to spend that sort of money on a signing-on fee to get a player of Ramsey nature unlike their Premier League rivals.
This means that Everton’s mouthwatering pursuit that Magpies supporters could only dream of their club replicated, highlights their side’s failings in the transfer markets and current limitations which makes life in the Premier League difficult for them.
