Eddie Howe says restrictive financial rules only sharpen his desire to ‘upset the status quo’, reminding Newcastle’s rivals that football is played on grass and not a spreadsheet.
Sunday’s meeting of Newcastle and Aston Villa underlines the difficulty that overachieving teams have in staying at the top, given the boundaries of Profit and Sustainability rules.
Both clubs are unable to invest to the degree of the traditional ‘Big Six’, despite qualifying for the Champions League in recent seasons and having owners with the means to inject significant capital.
Howe noted the Deloitte Football Money League, published this week, that has Newcastle in 17th place. Their annual revenue is £380million less than Liverpool, who were the highest Premier League club in fifth position.
But even allowing for that disparity, the Newcastle boss believes sound management can still beat financial assumptions.
‘I’m never a believer that finances should and can dictate the league table, although people much cleverer than me will say that the wage bill follows the league position,’ said Howe.
Eddie Howe insists he is not thinking about restrictive financial rules which allow other clubs to spend more money than Newcastle – saying it makes him want to ‘upset the status quo’
‘But I can’t think that way. We have got to think differently and find ways to win games to upset the status quo and finish as high as we can. That will always be my belief and that was my belief from day one in management. Football is played on the pitch – not with the money.’
Newcastle finished fifth last season but have the Premier League’s eight-highest wage bill.
Howe added: ‘I was interested to see the money leagues this week. They made interesting reading for us, because it shows we’ve got a long way to go in terms of revenue. I know people are bored of us talking about it, but it’s factual. Building our revenues will be so important and I know there’s a lot of work behind the scenes to do that.
‘But I have always had the belief that, whatever situation you have, you have to try and outperform your resources. You have to try and overachieve. You have to stretch every ounce of energy and effort from the squad that you have. We believe we can still achieve great things, regardless of what financial restrictions there are on us. We will try to achieve the highest possible that we can. I’m reluctant to say whatever that will be, but we’ll go for the maximum.’
Howe took Bournemouth from League Two to the Premier League in his first job in management and says that has given him a solid grounding for operating in a PSR world.
‘Absolutely, that has very much conditioned my thought process,’ he said. ‘In my first season as a manager it was all about trying to stay in the league and not drop into the Conference. That summer we felt we could sign some players to try and stabilise ourselves in the division. But we were then under a transfer embargo. With the same group of players we got promoted that next season.
‘That taught me that it isn’t necessarily outside factors, incoming transfers and money spent, that will condition your success – although the higher you go it plays a bigger role – but it’s about getting the best out of every player you have under your control. That conditioned me from that day to this day forward.’
