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Newcastle United v Hull City– The Extreme Transfer Policies

Alan Pardew declared that Newcastle United were changing tack when it came to their transfer policy in terms of more recruitment from the domestic leagues, but when you look below, the Newcastle United v Hull City statistics make fascinating reading.

Over the course of the last three windows, Newcastle have brought in 6 permanent signings and only one of those senior players was from another British club – free transfer Jack Colback from Sunderland.

In contrast, Hull City have signed 16 senior players and all but two of them were recruited from other British clubs, with one of the two coming from Rangers via Besiktas. The only one who hasn’t experience of playing in the UK is Yannick Sagbo who ironically arrived from France.

Newcastle United

2014/15

£8.8m Remy Cabella (Montpellier)

£7.7m Siem De Jong (Ajax)

£5.6m Emmanuel Riviere (Monaco)

£5.3m Daryl Janmaat (Feyenoord)

£2.0m Ayoze Perez (Tenerife)

Free Jack Colback (Sunderland)

Total £29.4m

2013/14

Nobody

Total Nothing

Hull City

2014/15

£8.9m Jake Livermore (Tottenham)

£6.6m Robert Snodgrass (Norwich City)

£2m? Tom Ince (Blackpool) (Hull are having to pay an as yet unknown development compensation figure for Ince, so £2m is a realistic guesstimate)

£3.2m Andrew Robertson (Dundee United)

£2.8m Harry Maguire (Sheffield United)

Free Jarrod Bowen (Hereford)

Total £23.5m

2013/14

£7.5m Shane Long (West Brom)

£6.9m Nikica Jelavic (Everton)

£5.1m Tom Huddlestone (Spurs)

£2.3m Curtis Davies (Birmingham)

£2.0m Ahmed Almohamady (Sunderland)

£1.6m Yannick Sagbo (Evian)

£1.5m Allan McGregor (Besiktas)

Free George Boyd (Peterborough)

Free Steve Harper (Newcastle)

Free Maynor Figueroa

Total £26.9m

(All transfer fees rounded up to nearest £0.1m and stats taken from respected website transfermarkt.co.uk)

In fact, if you accept Gael Bigirimana was supposedly one for the future when arriving as an 18 year old from Coventry in summer 2012, the last time (previous to Colback this summer) Newcastle brought in senior players on a permanent basis from other British clubs was in the summer of 2011 when Gabriel Obertan and Demba Ba were signed.

Not only is it the number of players arriving and where they have come from that stands out, but also the overall spending in these three windows sees Hull outspending Newcastle by some £21m (£50.4m v £29.4m).

While incidentally, within those three windows Hull have recouped less than £1m in outgoing transfers while transfermarkt.co.uk has Newcastle pulling in £36m for Debuchy, Perch and Cabaye (fee for Tavernier unknown).

When you add that extra £35m difference in income then you get net spending figures for the two clubs of;

Newcastle United

Net Spending -£6.6m (£29.4m going out and £36.0m coming in)

Hull City

Net Spending +£49.4m (£50.4m going out and £1m coming in)

While Hull owner Assem Allam got (quite rightfully) stick for the name change fiasco, there is no doubting his investment in the playing staff and he is continuing that this summer.

The two clubs are being ran in totally different ways and Alan Pardew last season said how he wished Newcastle could have competed for Tom Huddlestone and Shane Long.

The Premier League table will tell us a lot about the respective qualities and strengths of the two teams/squads next season but whatever happens, I can’t see Mike Ashley reversing this trend of almost permanently looking abroad whenever he makes money available to spend.