Reports have appeared in The Guardian and elsewhere that Charlton has been put up for sale. Richard Cawley is an authoritative local journalist who runs a South London Sport substack site. He reached out to the club yesterday evening to ask for comment on The Guardian’s article. Early indications from the club have been that nothing has changed since the story about them seeking investment, except that it is now a different company doing it. Charlton have since managed to consolidate their place in the Championship, avoiding an instant return to League One, with their women’s side promoted to the WSL, returning to the top flight for the first time since 2007, although staying there is likely to be costly. It would be counter-intuitive for owners Global Football Partners not to progress the club when looking for investment, that the focus remains on driving it forward, that their spend this summer is in line with long-term planning and will see an increase in wages spent on players...
Listening to Radio 5 I heard a Newcastle fan seeing the departure of Eddie Howe as a positive move. My thought was ‘be careful what you wish for.’ Howe may well have run out of steam, but as Alan Shearer pointed out, the timing was odd. More fundamentally, the strategy of the owners may be changing. The departure of Eddie Howe is the clearest sign yet that the Newcastle United of the near future is not the one many hoped for five years ago. Newcastle’s strategy has shifted. Even as PIF remain in situ, the goal of quickly becoming a sustained, dominant force in the Premier League is fading with each day of this transfer window. Newcastle’s net spend across 2021-22 to 2023-24 was £408m, the fifth-highest in England and ahead of Liverpool and Manchester City. On a gross basis, they were the sixth-highest spenders on players. The wage bill jumped from 12th-highest in the division to eighth. A fallow year followed before spending ramped up again last s...