Can Newcastle fight on four fronts without depth of status quo?

The final part of our Q&A with BBC Sport's Newcastle United reporter Ciaran Kelly looks at how far off the Magpies are from competing at the top as well as the revenue gap.

Dan asked: Do you think next season will be a lot more consistent than this season without the pressure of European football potentially? It's clear the squad isn't strong enough to be fighting on four fronts and burnout has kicked in. Eddie Howe is a top manager but can only do so much with the squad he has.

Mark, on a similar theme, asked: Newcastle have a number of great players but not the strength in the squad to compete in Champions League and the Premier League. Arsenal,Manchester City,Liverpool etc can rest players and bring on internationals to replace them. With PSR, how far off are we?

Ciaran answered: This made me immediately think back to Newcastle's FA Cup tie against Manchester City last month.

Pep Guardiola made 10 changes, named Gianluigi Donnarumma, Marc Guehi, Ruben Dias, Rodri, Bernando Silva, Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo and Phil Foden on a stacked bench, and gave Erling Haaland the night off.

City went 1-0 down yet still ended up winning the game comfortably at St James' Park - just as they did in the Carabao Cup semi-finals.

It felt a reminder of the almighty challenge Newcastle face while competing on multiple fronts and battling clubs with far greater wage bills and deeper squads.

For context, Manchester City generated more in commercial income (£340.2m) than Newcastle did in overall revenue (£335.3m) last season.

Newcastle can compete with any side on their day – it is worth remembering they defeated City in the league back in November – but the test is to do so consistently in the league over the course of the season while also progressing in Europe and going far in the cups.

That has proved difficult for Newcastle both this season and, indeed, in their previous campaign in the Champions League in 2023.

But Newcastle can ill-afford to yo-yo in and out of Europe to truly progress, in my view.

Otherwise, how do they truly learn and adapt as, say, Aston Villa have for the most part - even if this has admittedly been a challenging few months for Unai Emery's side.

Ozzy asked: Newcastle's annual revenue has increased significantly each year under the new ownership. Estimates suggest that the next annual revenue figure will top £400m. How accurate are these estimates?

Ciaran answered: That is certainly the projection.

It is worth noting the most recent set of financial results were for the year ending June 2025 so this £335.3m figure did not include the club's lucrative march to the last 16 of the Champions League or the £125m sale of Alexander Isak.

The Champions League is a game-changer.

Newcastle's commercial income rose by 44% last season yet overall revenue only increased by £15m in the absence any European football.

It may be tempting to suggest it would be better for Newcastle to again drop out of Uefa competitions altogether next season in order to front load spending and enable the club to splash out up to 85% of of their football-related revenue and net profit/loss from player sales under the Premier League's new squad cost rules.

However, that would then prove damaging if Newcastle were to return to Europe in the following season as the previous campaign would still be taken into account in Uefa's three-year monitoring period.

It would make it difficult for Newcastle to comply as Uefa limits clubs' spending on wages, transfers and agents' fees to 70% of revenue.

The Champions League is by far the most rewarding competition but, even if Newcastle are to miss out this season, the hierarchy feel the Europa League would still be pretty beneficial and even the Conference League would be better than no European football whatsoever.

That's why finishing this season strongly still feels important - on and off the field.