EXCLUSIVE
talkSPORT pundit Simon Jordan has hit back at claims he has been hypocritical over Chelsea and Newcastle and their financial situations.
Jordan has previously spoken about Newcastle and their business links with Saudi Arabia, questioning the nature of transfer dealings between the two.
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With the Magpies looking to meet FFP rules, the club were lambasted by many for using the Saudi Pro League, who are financed by Newcastle's PIF owners, to help secure their financial status.
However, Chelsea have also had FFP problems and it recently came to light that the club sold two of their own hotels to a company owned by the Blues' Clearlake Capital group to help meet regulations.
And some Newcastle fans believe Jordan did not give Chelsea the same treatment as he did their club, something that the talkSPORT pundit has rubbished.
Jim White read out some texts from Magpies fans live on air to Jordan, including: "Simon talks about assets... Newcastle selling a player to a Saudi team owned by the same people would also be an asset (like the hotels). Come on Simon, that is total hypocrisy."
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Another wrote: "Why is what Chelsea are doing totally fine but Newcastle selling players to Saudi Arabia is an outrage? You've given Chelsea a pass but Newcastle come in for some stick."
Jordan defended himself and said: "I don't think that is quite hat I've said.
"I've criticised the Saudis in context as potentially useful idiots for the Premier League in terms of clubs being able to sell what they don't want to them in the pursuit of getting themselves out of problems and that included
"Context is everything. It is much easier to establish a fair market price of a piece of property than it is a fair market price of a player.
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"Often the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
"If you decide a player is worth £50million because it suits your commercial ends, you really don't have to stack that up very much.
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"If you do with a piece of property, you're going to underpin it a little more substantially. The argument is similar but different.
"Context is everything, I think if you frame the conversation that we were having about the Saudis and how the Saudis are going to rip English football apart and this, that and the other, I think my response at the time was based upon, 'Hmm, I am not sure I am particularly enamoured with this idea'."
There is a suggestion that both Newcastle and Chelsea might have to sell players in the summer to adhere with Premier League financial rules.
Conor Gallagher has been heavily linked with an exit at Stamford Bridge, as well as Armando Broja, Trevoh Chalobah and Marc Cucurella.
And with the Blues keen to continue their spending, which has surpassed £1billion under Clearlake Capital's rule, it will force them to offload fringe players as soon as possible.
Newcastle find themselves in a similar position with Alexander Isak being linked with an exit, though Eddie Howe has insisted this will not happen.
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When asked whether the Sweden international could leave, Howe said: “We are trying to build a team, we are trying to grow everything, really, upwards and to do that as quickly as possible and as efficiently as you can, you need to keep your best players, otherwise you enter a different period where you go into transition and you have to start again.
“Your top players, the elite ones, are so difficult to recruit, they’re so difficult to find, so when we get them, we’ve got to try to keep them.”