Howe’s Magpies have been the “victims” of the Premier League’s PSR and FFP regulations.
Despite being owned by the Saudi Arabian royal family, they have only been able to spend money proportionally to the club’s revenue.
Howe, speaking on former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan's podcast Up Front, admitted: "I felt really uncomfortable in the summer when we were forced to make sales of two really talented young players in Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, against our will really for financial reasons.
"One was an academy product we'd invested in since he joined the club as a young lad. You just think, 'why are we doing this? This doesn't feel right'.
"I understand the rules to a degree. I understand the concept but I think how it is fundamentally working at the moment is not right."
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