A disgrace Newcastle United losing to likes of Brighton at home… Really? | OneFootball

Newcastle United lost to Brighton on Saturday.

A match where United started really well, controlled and dominated the play.

Brighton couldn’t get out of their own half.

Newcastle failing to put the ball in the net and when Isak failed to convert a golden one on one chance after Bruno put him in, the all but inevitable happened.

Any of you who have played at any level of football, will have experienced this at times.

The opposition scoring with their first attack on 35 minutes.

A great goal scored by Brighton on the break, not great defending by Newcastle United.

The next half hour Newcastle United continued to play well but couldn’t get the ball in the net, chances missed, especially some golden opportunities for Anthony Gordon. The final half an hour or so, it all getting a bit messy, as Eddie Howe used all five subs to desperately try and find a way through to goal. Brighton ending up with another couple of late chances of their own.

Like you, I was gutted of course. Frustration the word.

What I couldn’t understand though, was some of the over the top reaction, beyond the frustration of losing a first home match in nine months, especially after playing so well the first hour or so AND having the chances to win it comfortably.

I have read and heard of how it is a disgrace ‘losing to the likes of Brighton at home’, how it is ‘totally unacceptable’ and so on.

With some Newcastle United fans, you would think we’d just lost to a non-league side at St James’ Park.

The reality is something different.

Brighton have benefited from an owner who put half a billion into the club, which financed a new stadium, a new training complex, plus of course it financing their rise to the Premier League and staying there.

Without Tony Bloom putting in massive amounts of cash, where would Brighton be now?

So why should it be a disgrace or totally unacceptable for Newcastle United to lose to Brighton at SJP?

A few things to consider

That half a billion the Brighton owner put into the club to set them up.

Brighton were promoted in 2017 as runners up to Newcastle and so have had access to Premier League payouts not far off NUFC’s, since that point.

In each of the first three seasons after those promotions, Brighton had far higher net spends on signings than Newcastle United. Tony Bloom showing ambition and Mike Ashley the exact opposite. In the fourth season (2020/21) the two clubs having very similar net spends.

The following three seasons saw Newcastle United with higher net spends than Brighton as the new NUFC owners desperately tried to make up lost ground, after a decade and a half of Mike Ashley.

However, this past summer, Brighton had the highest net spend on signings in the entire Premier League! Brighton with a net spend of £152m, with £192m spent and £40m from sale of players (All figures via Transfermarkt). In contrast, Newcastle actually making a profit of around £7m this past summer on transfers, with £56m spent and £63m from sales.

Tony Bloom and Brighton have also had other major advantages over Newcastle United. As Bloom also has ownership of a club in Belgium to help support what they do at Brighton, with loans of players and so on.

Brighton have also got a lot of years advantage over Newcastle United when it comes to putting serious resources into bringing in very young players, plus developing homegrown ones, in order to produce the stars of the future and/or sell them on at a considerable profit, especially good from a PSR perspective. As I say, this is another massive area where the NUFC owners are playing catch up after the wasted Ashley years.

Brighton have also of course developed a very good recruitment system of players (and indeed managers), clever buying and of course selling for massive profit.

A recent report looked at the clubs with the most valuable collections of players in World football.

The CIES Football Observatory compiled a list of the 100 clubs worldwide, whose footballers under contract have the highest aggregate transfer value.

This is including players on loan to other clubs, so not just the players who are in your current squad.

As you can also see below, Newcastle United come 22nd in World football with their collection of players. Newcastle United having 35 players who add up to €544million (approx £455m).

However… if you go 11 places higher, you find Brighton. Yes, their group of players valued higher than the likes of Bayern Munich and Inter Milan. Brighton having a massive 48 players who add up to €807million (approx £672m).

The players owned by Brighton valued at almost 50% more than those owned by Newcastle United.

These kind of reports and figures are obviously just estimates, however, the same criteria is used for each club. So it is very difficult to argue that the Brighton players collectively, aren’t valued at a considerably higher amount than Newcastle’s.

Losing on Saturday was gutting, especially with Newcastle having the chances to win it.

Fact is as well, Brighton this season had already defeated Spurs and Man U, plus drawn at Arsenal.

Yet to hear some Newcastle United fans, NUFC lost to some random rubbish side.

I think a lot of this above, sums up just how big a job it is to turn Newcastle United around after that wasted decade and a half under Mike Ashley