No other club in the Premier League has a greater gap between ambition and reality than Newcastle United.

Since the sovereign wealth fund of Saudi Arabia (PIF), behind which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stands, took over the majority in the club last October, the environment and fans in the far north-east of England have been dreaming of glorious times, winning the championship and the Champions League anyway .

And not without reason: the change of ownership, which was heavily criticized for Saudi Arabia's miserable human rights situation, has made Newcastle probably the richest football club in the world practically overnight.

But in the here and now, the club is in the penultimate place in the Premier League table and is in acute danger of relegation.

And this week there is a possibly trend-setting duel on the program: This Tuesday (8.45 p.m. on Sky) the team will compete with Everton FC, which for its part is just above the relegation zone and wants to prevent the worst with the new coach Frank Lampard .

The game is also Newcastle's first reality check since the end of the winter transfer window, in which the club strengthened with five arrivals.

Spending amounts to £85m (around €100m), but performance-based bonus payments could increase that.

For context, the 20 Premier League clubs spent a total of £295m over the winter.

With sense and understanding

Such a transfer offensive was to be expected.

After all, the owner consortium around the entrepreneur Amanda Staveley, the real estate investors Reuben Brothers and the PIF, which brings in 80 percent of the money, does not want to find its asset in the second-class championship next year.

On the other hand, what was not necessarily to be expected is that Newcastle have definitely strengthened with rhyme and reason.

Right-back Kieran Trippier joined from Atlético Madrid for £12m, centre-back Dan Burn for £13m from Brighton & Hove Albion and left-back Matt Targett on loan from Aston Villa.

Newcastle paid Burnley FC £25m for striker Chris Wood, and the most expensive transfer is defensive midfielder Bruno Guimarães, for whom Olympique Lyon are initially paid £35m.

Trippier was part of the England team that advanced to the final of last summer's European Championships.

He knows the Premier League and has honed his craft with Atlético's defensive-oriented coach Diego Simeone since 2019.

He was once Spanish champion.

Burn was a regular at Brighton, who are significantly higher in the table, but moving to his childhood club Newcastle was a labor of love for him.

Striker Wood was brought in to replace the injured Callum Wilson - and no doubt to further undermine bottom-placed Burnley.

And top signing Guimarães comes with the best recommendations from France, where in two years he has proved to be technically strong and also a potential leader.

Brazil coach Tite once compared the 24-year-old to Kevin De Bruyne.

Summer really gets going

"Newcastle's pullers have been diligent and there is no doubt they have strengthened the squad with the signings at depth," the BBC wrote in an analysis.

The big question now is whether the newcomers are good enough to keep the club in the Premier League.

Given the prices Newcastle paid, relegation would be all the more embarrassing.

Other clubs are said to have also tried to get Guimarães, so a high price was to be expected from him.

But Brighton manager Graham Potter said of Burn's departure that while he had no intention of selling the centre-back, the offer for the soon-to-be 30-year-old was simply too good to turn down.

Newcastle's money-don't-matter attitude was even more evident in the case of striker Wood, for whose move the club paid £25m under a contractual buyout clause, despite his estimated market value being around a fifth of that sum.

Wood himself was amazed that he knew about the clause in his contract: "But I don't think anyone believed that anyone would ever make use of it." The 30-year-old center forward has three goals in 23 appearances this season shot.

In other cases, money did play a role.

Newcastle would have liked to sign more players - Sven Botman from OSC Lille and Diego Carlos from Sevilla FC are said to have been an issue - but the transfers were reportedly thwarted by exorbitant demands from the selling clubs.

There is talk of a “Newcastle tax”, which some clubs have asked for two reasons when asked about it.

Firstly, Newcastle need reinforcements to hold up;

secondly, since the PIF takeover, they have had almost endless riches.

Asked if such a "tax" existed, coach Howe said: "There may be, to be perfectly honest." But he doesn't think this behavior will be repeated very often in the future.

In the summer, Newcastle's personnel build-up and the attack on the elite should really start.

But first they must prevent the descent.