Mike Ashley has been forced to plough £50 million of his own fortune into Newcastle United to keep the club running.
The News of the World says the club's perilous financial position meant that Ashley had to finance both the fees AND the new salaries to land five players during the transfer window.
That saw the Sports Direct owner underwrite around £13 million in deals that landed Cheick Tiote, Sol Campbell, Hatem Ben Arfa, James Perch and Dan Gosling.
Newcastle had previously gone on record at the end of last season to declare that there would be no funds available to strengthen the squad that Chris Hughton led to the Championship title.
That was a legacy of relegation and also the fact the club was wrestling with a £30million overdraft.
However Ashley did find the required fess - around £6million - to land the quintet and also the estimated £7million in salaries out of his own pocket.
That comes on top of the previous two interest free loans he put into the club last season when their turnover was halved as a result of dropping out of the top flight.
That alone took around £50 million off turnover as a result of losing Sky money, television appearance money and a fall in commercial and gate receipts.
