Norwich City manager Dean Smith has been branded as a hypocrite following his post match comments after the Canaries were relegated from the Premier League. Smith had previously said that Newcastle United's 2022 resurgence was primarily due to their January spending spree, that saw Dan Burn, Matt Targett, Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood and Bruno Guimaraes join the Magpies for a combined fee of £93m.
""You just look at the January window they've had," the Norwich boss said following their 3-0 defeat to Newcastle on April 23. "They spent nigh on £100m and they've improved. Eddie's [Howe] an unbelievable coach - I've said that before - but they're pretty much owned by a country so they're always going to improve."
Coupled with the addition of Joe Willock last summer for £25m, that means Newcastle have spent just under £125m since the end of last season. However, following Norwich's defeat to Aston Villa at the weekend, which saw the Canaries relegated back to the Championship, Smith has revealed that spending is key to keep a side in the Premier League - stating that he needed to spend £125m to keep Aston Villa up in the Premier League when he was manager there.
