Newcastle are still counting the costs of relegation - but at least Rafa stopped them doing a Villa

Amid the frustrations of Newcastle United’s vexing summer window, the serious financial gamble the club took following relegation last summer can be easily cast aside as immaterial.

Yet the Magpies continued to operate on a Premier League budget, even though they were no longer beneficiaries of the top flight’s lucrative TV deal.

Promotion simply had to happen and, with Rafa Benitez reconfirmed as their manager, it was a calculated risk from managing director Lee Charnley - and one that paid off handsomely.

But the same cannot be said of Aston Villa.

Hiring Roberto di Matteo, a Champions League-winning manager but someone who did not have a history of rebuilding clubs, was a strange move.

By the time Steve Bruce was parachuted in to perform an attempted rescue mission, Villa had already been cut hopelessly adrift in the fight for the play-off positions, never mind the automatic-promotion spots.

Over the course of the campaign, Villa paid out more than £70million in transfer fees, yet recouped just £40m.

Benitez may have spent an eye-watering £55m on incomings, but he ended the summer with a £30m net profit after bringing in £85m worth of player sales.

Newcastle’s outlay delivered the Championship title and an immediate Premier League return; all Villa’s return brought was another season in the second-tier wilderness and further pitfalls down the line, too.

Xia confirmed at the end of last season that Villa would be forced to spend conservatively over the next couple of seasons due to concerns over Financial Fair Play.

As a result, Bruce’s budget has been in the single-million figures.

John Terry may have arrived on big wages as a marquee signing, but an outlay of just £2.5m on transfer fees paints a picture of the financial restraints Villa are operating under.

When you compare Bruce’s summer business to Garry Monk’s at Middlesbrough - the Teessiders have used their top-flight cash from last term to lavish £42m on new players, with two or three more expected to follow - it highlights the hazardous position Villa find themselves in.

Terry stated earlier this week that Villa have to be targeting the Championship title this term, but the second tier is a division which gets ever-more competitive season upon season.