Newcastle United would have had to stump up £2million if they wanted to land Steve McClaren.
The Chronicle reports that the Magpies would needed to have offloaded the aforementioned amount as a compensation fee for the Derby County manager.
Newcastle were being heavily linked with McClaren and that speculation increased when the Rams missed the Premier League play-offs on the final day of the Championship season.
Some reports suggested that Newcastle were keen to bring him in for the final few games of the season in a bid to avoid the drop but the Toon opted to stick with John Carver.