Liverpool is now operating in a brave new world of transfers. It seems Newcastle may have actually made an approach to the Reds offering up Anthony Gordon , one of its best players — and it all comes back to June 30 and Profitability and Sustainability Regulations (PSR) .
The great irony is that the Premier League looks set to do away with PSR, with a new financial regularion scheme set to be approved. But for the time being, clubs still need to comply with the existing system, and that means not making more than the permitted £105m ($133m/€124m) loss over a rolling three-year period.
Profit and loss shows up in clubs' accounts. June 30 has taken on such significance because it's the cut-off between accounting periods, meaning teams like Newcastle which might be close to the wire need to make sales by this date in order to include them in the previous year's figures.
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One big sale before June 30 can provide significant relief in the PSR equation. Unlike incoming transfers, which are "booked" in the accounts year-by-year over the length of the contract signed (up to five years, following a recent rule change ), money received for outgoing deals all gets logged at once.
There's a complication in that the remaining book value of a player has to be subtracted from the sale price. In Gordon's case, therefore, Newcastle would need to subtract whatever is left of the $57m (£45m/€53m) it paid Everton from the price of any sale to Liverpool.
Gordon only signed in January 2023, so his book value will remain relatively high, with well under half of the actual purchase price having so far been reflected in the Newcastle accounts. Even so, as one of the most saleable assets in the squad, it may be that a deal would still be enough to sufficiently move the needle. The Magpies must think so if they are actively making proposals to Liverpool.
But as today is June 29, it will not be lost on readers that this leaves very little time for a deal to be concluded, after Liverpool rejected Newcastle's suggestion of using Jarell Quansah as a makeweight. However, it may be that there is a degree of "leeway" when it comes to the June 30 deadline.
It's not for the Premier League to set, so the process is not the same as applying for dispensation to complete deals in the hours after the actual transfer deadline passes at the end of a window. However, according to The Athletic , there is a small amount of potential wiggle room.
As long as a deal is "signed off" before midnight on June 30, constituting a binding legal agreement, it will generally be fine for the formalities to be concluded in the subsequent days. For instance, Richarlison's sale to Spurs from Everton in 2022 was announced on July 1, but was included in the previous accounts without an issue.
It's for auditors to decide when a transfer has irreversibly taken place. It doesn't require the transfer of registration, which provides that degree of leeway — but it's not much.
In other words, June 30 really has become a very important date in the transfer calendar. And while Liverpool might have a few extra hours to dot the "i"s and cross the "t"s, it would need to get a real move on in order to sign Gordon while Newcastle still has the incentive to sell.
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