Premier League analysis from Mark Langdon: Newcastle must be patient

When will Newcastle win the Premier League?

Given their new-found wealth it can surely only be a case of when not if because there is a general link between wage bill and trophies and in time Newcastle will presumably have the biggest weekly expenditure in the history of football.

However, from a betting point of view it may not be best to get too sucked into this being a rapid success.

Money will always help, but it would not be a massive shock if it took a couple of managerial appointments and many transfer windows to make the kind of seismic shock to football's established order many seem to be predicting will happen overnight.

It was much easier before the Premier League became as good as it is now and even then Chelsea finished only fourth in Roman Abramovich's first season of pumping his cash into the Stamford Bridge outfit.

I was one of the many who jumped on the Blues bandwagon in 2003 and we nearly made it pay in the Champions League, only for Claudio Ranieri - and I still haven't forgiven him - to make some bizarre calls in the 3-1 defeat to ten-man Monaco in the first leg of the semi-final.

Reserve keeper Marco Ambrosio is also on the naughty list for his performance that night, and it was not until Jose Mourinho arrived in Abramovich's second summer that Chelsea started to really kick on.

Manchester City took even longer. Their new ownership started in 2008 but it took until 2011 for the Citizens to get their mitts on the title, although not before some incredibly frustrating moments such as losing a Europa League semi-final to Hamburg as well as failing to qualify for the Champions League in a virtual playoff against Tottenham.

And in Chelsea and City's days making a big breakthrough was a lot easier. Chelsea didn't have to deal with a powerful City and Newcastle have to take on both of those as well as a brilliantly managed Liverpool. Once Manchester United bring in a proper manager they too will also improve markedly on what is currently being served up at Old Trafford.

One newspaper this week said Newcastle could spend £200 million before financial fair play starts to become an issue, but that figure won't even touch the sides on what United would need to crack the big four.

That's without attracting the right players which is harder than it sounds early on.

The first wave of big names tend to fall into the mercenary category and it is more important to try to get the perfect manager who would be able to attract the better players for sporting, as well as financial, reasons.

Let's say Newcastle do spend around £200m between now and the start of next season. What level could they realistically aim for?

My guess is they could possibly get to the standard of Spurs, Leicester or Arsenal and those teams were priced up at between 50-1 and 60-1 to win the title before a ball was kicked in anger which only goes to highlight the gulf between the best and the rest.

Newcastle will eventually reach the top level as long as the owners pump the money in, but don't bet on it being a quick solution.

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