Newcastle United: Dan Ashworth says spending £200m a year on players 'unsustainable'
- Published
Newcastle signed Sweden striker Alexander Isak in August in a deal understood to be worth about £60m
Newcastle United sporting director Dan Ashworth admits the club must be open to selling players in order to comply with spending restrictions.
The Magpies have spent more than £200m on players since the Saudi Arabia-backed £305m takeover last year.
But ex-Football Association technical director Ashworth - who began his Newcastle role in May - says such an outlay on signings is "unsustainable".
"You can't keep doing that every year," said Ashworth.
"You just can't, so consequently we have to look at some emerging talent, enhancing our academy and getting the players through from a different route."
Ashworth oversaw a busy summer in the transfer market with the Magpies breaking their transfer record to sign striker Alexander Isak in addition to recruiting Sven Botman, Matt Targett and Nick Pope.
In January, they also signed Brazil midfielder Bruno Guimaraes, who has seen him linked with Real Madrid after showing impressive form.
While Ashworth says Guimaraes is a "top player and a really important part of this journey", the 51-year-old highlighted forward Sadio Mane's move from Liverpool to Bayern Munich as an example of clubs having to sell their top players in order to reinvest.
"I can't lie to you and say we'll never have to sell a player, we'd always be able to hold on to our top talent," he added.
"That doesn't happen anywhere. Liverpool sold Mane - you have to sometimes make a pragmatic decision to go, 'OK, we'll do that because that's a way of reinvesting in the club'.
"But as a rule of thumb, I would like to think we'll be able to hold on to our top talent in order to drive our ambitions of driving up the league and competing for cups."
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