2009/10 to 2017/18

Newcastle United spent seven of the nine seasons from 2009/10 to 2017/18 in the Premier League and two in the Championship. Their best finish was 5th, in 2011/12. They didn’t win a major trophy. Over those nine summers they paid £184.7m in transfer fees and took in £101.2m, a net spend of £83.5m.

Newcastle United started and finished this period the same way: winning the Championship, with 102 points in 2009/10 and 94 in 2016/17. In between came the full Newcastle experience. Fifth in 2011/12 looked like the start of something. Then 16th, tenth, 15th and, in 2015/16, relegation in 18th.

The summer of 2015 was the expensive one. Georginio Wijnaldum, Aleksandar Mitrović and Florian Thauvin cost around £40m between them. A year later, relegated, the club sold Wijnaldum to Liverpool, Moussa Sissoko to Tottenham and Andros Townsend to Crystal Palace, then bounced straight back.

That fifth-place side of 2011/12 is where a 115.football Newcastle save gets interesting. With £900m and hindsight it gets reinforced instead of picked apart, and St James' Park gets to hear the Champions League anthem again.