Newcastle United face a massive summer ahead as Eddie Howe will be desperate to add some more quality to his first team squad in the hope that they can replicate their top four finish in the 2022/23 season.
Reaching the Champions League group stages for the first time in 20 years may have been an incredible achievement, but it won't mean much if the club fail to reach the promised land again in the next couple of seasons.
The Toon Army are a hard bunch to satiate at the best of times, but with financial backing from the Saudi PIF, Newcastle will be looking not only to become a regular fixture in the Champions League, but to finally win a major trophy following nearly 60 years of anguish.
Despite this injection of funds from the owners, Howe may have to sell a player or two this summer in order to comply with financial fair play regulations.
It wouldn’t be the first time the Magpies have been forced to sell one of their players, especially if a team who is playing in Europe’s premier club competition comes calling.
The likes of Andy Carroll (£35m), Moussa Sissoko (£30m) and Georginio Wijnaldum (£25m) have raked in a major profit for the club, yet it was the sale of Jonathan Woodgate to Real Madrid nearly 20 years ago which continues to look like one of the best sales in the club’s history.
Jonathan Woodgate’s Newcastle statistics
The centre-back made his name at Leeds United around the turn of the century as the club emerged out of their post-Howard Wilkinson shadow to become regulars in European competition while challenging for the Premier League title.
All in all, Woodgate made 139 appearances for the Elland Road side, but couldn’t lead them to any silverware, despite a star-studded team which included the likes of Mark Viduka, Rio Ferdinand, and Oliver Dacourt.
Midway through the 2002/03 season, Newcastle signed the Englishman for a fee reported to be around £9m from Leeds as Bobby Robson looked to bolster his defence.
Club
Games
Goals
Leeds United
139
5
Middlesbrough
112
2
Tottenham Hotspur
65
3
Newcastle United
37
0
Stoke City
21
0
Real Madrid
14
1
"He is perfect for us,” hailed Robson after the signing was announced. “There is no such thing as the complete jigsaw in football, but for now he could be regarded as the last piece for us.”
High praise for a player who was clearly only going to get better. Unfortunately, his stint at Newcastle didn’t quite go to plan.
While he played 37 games for the club during his first 18 months, injury problems began to take their toll towards the end of his first full season, missing Euro 2004 with a thigh injury.
After just a year and a half in the North East, Woodgate was beginning to attract attention from Real Madrid during the summer of 2004.
How much would Jonathan Woodgate be worth in 2024 money
Given how injury prone Woodgate was becoming, making a profit on the former Leeds gem would certainly be seen as a plus for Robson as he looked to use the funds to strengthen his team.
Spending £9m on him over 20 years ago was a massive fee at the time, but solid centre-backs like Woodgate clearly didn’t come around very often.
Madrid paid a fee of £13.5m to sign him in August 2004, but just how much would this fee be worth in 2024? Thankfully, we have the answer.
The deal taking Woodgate from Newcastle to Madrid 20 years ago would now be worth a staggering £59m according to a conversion tool from the Totally Money Transfer Index, which measures transfer fees from the previous 30 years and adjusts them for inflation in today’s market.
Totally Money have taken the 100 most expensive transfers of all time across each season since 1992 in Europe's top five leagues. Armed with plenty of historical financial data they have calculated what footballers of yesteryear would be worth in the present day after taking into account the remarkable rate of inflation.
This fee even works out as more than what some of the current first-team players are worth. Indeed, centre-back Sven Botman is currently valued at around €33.5m (£28.7m) according to Football Transfers.
Woodgate’s transfer fee from 2004, judged by inflation, therefore, is double that of what Botman is worth in the current market, showing just how impressive it was to move the defender on for that sum.
Considering how poor his spell in the Spanish capital was, Robson certainly struck gold by moving on the Englishman.
What Jonathan Woodgate did after leaving Newcastle
Despite arriving in Madrid ahead of the 2004/05 season, Woodgate missed the whole season due to injury, eventually making his debut for the club in September 2005, a full 17 months after his last appearance for club or country.
Thrust into the starting XI, Woodgate endured a turbulent debut, to say the least. Not only did he score an own goal, but the defender was sent off, which summed up his spell with the La Liga juggernauts.
He was loaned back to his hometown team Middlesbrough in August 2006, before sealing a permanent deal a year later.
He went on to win his only major honour for Tottenham Hotspur – who he joined midway through the 2007/08 season – as the club defeated Chelsea in the League Cup final.
Spells at Stoke City and then back at Boro saw the defender end his career having made a total of 388 professional appearances for six teams.
Considering how injury-prone Woodgate was, however, there is no doubt he failed to show any real consistency once he left Newcastle to join Madrid in 2004.
Capped only eight times for England, if the defender had remained fit and at the peak of his powers, he could have been a regular in the national team.
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Robson hit the jackpot by raking in a decent profit on a player who failed to demonstrate his true potential in Spain. His sale proves just how highly regarded he was, considering how much the former centre-back is now worth when compared to members of the current Newcastle side.
Botman has the potential to be a key member of Howe’s team next season as they push towards another top-four finish in the Premier League, yet he is still valued at half of Woodgate’s transfer fee from 20 years ago.