The former Newcastle boss remains the manager who broke the club’s transfer record – 13 years ago.
Graeme Souness broke Newcastle United’s transfer record when he signed Michael Owen from Real Madrid back in 2005.
The fact that, thirteen years later, he remains the manager who set their transfer record is perhaps the most damning indictment of the Mike Ashley era.
This was put to Souness on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football and the Scot was damning of the statistic.
“That tells its own story, given inflation in football,” said Souness. “It tells you that they’ve not had the kind of investment of a club of that size and turnover – they should have done better in the transfer market. The manager should have had more support from whoever the owner was.
“My home team Bournemouth have done very well on a limited budget but – I know it sounds mad – Bournemouth are outspending Newcastle United. That again tells its own story.
“It’s possible to do well in the Premier League without spending hundreds of millions but you have to invest – if you’re not investing then you’re standing still.”
Souness is right, of course. Newcastle’s spending has been atrocious over the past decade and despite being capable of spending £15m in 2005, they no longer appear close to spending anywhere near that.
Eight managers have followed Souness and yet not one of them has been able to match his spending on a player despite the enormous inflation in the Premier League.
The pressure is now on Rafa Benitez to try and deliver under some incredibly tight purse strings but it’s looking increasingly like he’s run out of steam.
It would be nice to say that he only has to make it to the next window so the club can finally support him but we know that’s highly unlikely.
Instead, like Souness says, it appears that Newcastle will just continue to stand still.
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