The Chronicle (South Tyneside and Durham)
Toon will not bail out Blues with Hall deal
CHELSEA may have a ‘very big deficit’ to find to comply with the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules - even if Newcastle United sign Lewis Hall on a permanent basis.
That is the view of Stefan Borson, a former financial adviser to Manchester City, after Newcastle initially brought Hall in on a season-long loan.
The deal includes an obligation for Newcastle to make the move permanent in the summer based on ‘performance-related criteria’ and Eddie Howe said just last week that he was ‘sure’ Hall was ‘very close’ to triggering it.
However, if that happens, the mooted £28m deal and the sell-on clause Chelsea banked from Tino Livramento’s switch might not touch the sides – even as pure profit - after the Blues’ owners spent more than £1bn on new players to date.
“They deny that they need to sell anybody at all,” Borson told TALKSPORT. “They say they are completely in line with PSR for the current season and they
don’t need to sell anyone. I say, looking at the numbers, that they are going to have a severe problem.
“They only just managed to pass 22/23. Well if they only just managed to pass 22/23, it tells you that they were at minus £105m for that three-year rolling period so when you drop off that third year back and then you start to assess, you know you’ve got heavy loss and given that they have got no European football whatsoever, we know for certain that they have made a loss.
“I don’t see how they argue they don’t need to sell anybody but let’s say they somehow argue that the sales of Mason Mount, Hall to Newcastle, of Livramento’s £12m sell-on fee, maybe, they say that’s got them where they need to get to.
“I very much doubt it and they have a very big deficit to find. They have now left it extremely late to find the profit.”
Hall has made just four starts for Newcastle since his move from Chelsea and was hooked at halftime in three of them. The youngster has not featured since coming on as a late substitute in the 3-2 defeat against Manchester City nearly seven weeks ago.