Newcastle United have actually spent real money on a footballer

Yep, you read that correctly

Newcastle United have spent £9.5m on the signing of Yishinori Muto from Bundesliga club Mainz. Newcastle, whose record signing has been Michael Owen for thirteen years after he signed from Real Madrid in 2005, have signed a player from another club for real money. https://twitter.com/nufc/status/1025007060243636230?s=21 They still haven't broken their transfer record, of course, but nevertheless spending money is a step forward for a club with Mike Ashley in charge. That is Mike Ashley, who simply refuses to invest any money in the club he owns, seemingly unaware that investment in the squad may be better for the long-term success of the club. Rafa Benitez recently spoke of how he was in the dark regarding transfers, explaining that he "doesn't know" any news about potential incoming players. Today's news will come as a pleasant surprise to Benitez then, as he finally has another striker in his squad to compete with Dwight Gayle. Newcastle recently sold Aleksandar Mitrović to Fulham for a free of around £27m, and have spent a third of that money on their new forward, Yishinori Muto. The 26-year-old boasts a decent scoring record of 23 goals in 71 matches for Mainz over the course of three seasons. Benitez will be hoping he hits the ground running at St James' Park as he attempts to keep Newcastle up on a shoestring budget for the second consecutive season. But the most significant part of all of this is the fact that Newcastle United spent some real, actual money on a footballer.