There is one major issue, one big problem, when it comes to the long-term plan for the Newcastle United owners.
The clue is there in plain sight.
Long-term.
As football fans, the idea of something that will eventually lead to success many years down the line is something that doesn’t get the blood pumping, the heartrate spiralling.
Especially when these days many football supporters, including many Newcastle United fans, now see one disappointing transfer window, a lone worse than expected league position, even a single match lost, as disaster.
When the takeover happened in October 2021 and the new Newcastle United owners ousted Mike Ashley, the media couldn’t get enough of it.
It was going to be Sportswashing at its very best/worst, the new majority Newcastle United owners using their wealth to try and buy up all the best players in the world and bring instant success, so they could use this as something to portray Saudi Arabia in a very positive way, to detract from human rights issues.
What made fewer headlines was some of the more credible journalists saying that their information was that this Newcastle United takeover was something very different to the lazy majority media view. That the Saudi Arabia PIF and Reuben family had simply seen an absolute bargain present itself. A open goal investment opportunity that shouldn’t and couldn’t be missed. An investment that long-term could bring them huge profits.
Mike Ashley had pretended for years that he was trying to sell Newcastle United to appease the fanbase who had revolted after his treatment of Kevin Keegan. However, eventually enough of the NUFC fanbase said enough was enough as it became transparent that there had never been any intention by Ashley to sell. Once Mike Ashley was forced to give away 10,000+ free season tickets to fill the empty seats left vacant by boycotting fans, the writing was on the wall. He panicked and hilariously ended up selling the club on the cheap, something he swiftly realised. Mike Ashley tried to get out of his sale agreement with the Saudi Arabia PIF and Reuben family as the wait for Premier League approval for the takeover dragged on, thankfully though the deal was watertight and the impending new Newcastle United owners weren’t letting him wriggle out of it. Mike Ashley left furious when the new owners picked up an absolute bargain at a knockdown price. This was supremely ironic, considering Ashley’s business model is to take take advantage of failing distressed businesses and buying them on the cheap.
Instead of a third Mike Ashley relegation in 13 Premier League seasons, instead the new Newcastle United owners and Eddie Howe came in and turned it all around.
However, they didn’t do it by buying Klyian Mbappe, Lionel Messi et al.
The small minority of clued up journalists had called it correctly in October 2021.
This wasn’t a money no object spend whatever it takes vanity project that had landed at St James’ Park.
Of course money had to be instantly spent mid-season to avert immediate disaster that relegation would have served up. Rather than Mbappe and Messi though, it was the likes of Burn, Targett, Wood and the England veteran Trippier who arrived.
Bruno Guimaraes also came in during the January 2022 window but he was a long-term signing rather than a relegation fighting one. At the time he only had one cap for Brazil and the fight against relegation was already all but won before Bruno started his first Premier League match due to an injury crisis, an away game at Southampton. Indeed, it would be April 2022 before the signing from Lyon would start a match at St James’ Park.
After a decade and a half of disastrous lack of investment at Newcastle United under Mike Ashley, on and off the pitch, extra money of course had to be put into the club by the new Newcastle United owners. However, it wasn’t a case of a Sportswashing vanity project and no limits on spending. Chunks of cash have gradually been injected to help the club grow, on and off the pitch. To recover from that decade and a half when the rest of the major Premier League clubs looked to build all powerful empires whilst Mike Ashley rowed in the other direction. Ashley leaving behind the husk of a Premier League football club with no foundations in place for a successful future.
Ashley of course often claimed that a five year plan was in place but as with everything else, this was just trying to con the fans and media into believing something positive could happen longer-term at St James’ Park. Sadly this went largely unchallenged by most of the media as the then NUFC owner stripped out all the benefits of Newcastle United for himself and his retail business empire.
These new/current Newcastle United owners are no different to any other owners of Premier League clubs, in that they are in it for themselves. They purchased NUFC so that they can benefit in a number of ways from that club ownership.
It is just business for them. What is different to the Mike Ashley ‘model’ though, is that these Newcastle United owners see the huge potential benefits, especially cash, coming via long-term success for the club on and off the pitch.
The Premier League is the most dominant and successful in the world, especially when it comes to generating money, Newcastle United are one of the biggest clubs in that Premier League and these owners bought the club for a song. A football club that if looked after correctly and given the right levels of investment, can be one of the very biggest clubs and one of the very most valuable.
Not getting any younger
When you are a football fan of a certain age, believing in the long-term can be a little more difficult.
It wasn’t just buying the best and most expensive players in the world that didn’t happen, hopes for Newcastle United fans of seeing a huge new stadium and state of the art new training ground haven’t materialised, yet.
The more clued up journalists at time of takeover talked of the Newcastle United owners have ten year plan and longer.
I bet nobody was more surprised than the Saudi Arabia PIF and Reuben family when Eddie Howe performed absolute miracles and in their first three full seasons of ownership delivered Premier League finishes of 4th, 7th and 5th, two cup finals, two Champions League qualifications and a trophy.
That was absolutely brilliant, especially the silverware bit. Newcastle United fans hadn’t seen instant new huge infrastructure projects in the shape of a stadium and training ground, nor spending beyond our wildest dreams on the squad. However, that instant (within three full seasons) delivering of a trophy was such an unexpected huge joy to all Newcastle United fans, young and (especially the…) old. Most of whom had never previously experienced winning anything in their active NUFC supporting lifetimes.
The 10+ year plan
The Newcastle United recently did officially announce the new training ground. As for when it will be completed and in use, that should now hopefully be with the first 10 years after the October 2021 takeover.
The club have also indicated that news will follow on the stadium plans, whether it is a brand new stadium or a much-enlarged St James’ Park. Exactly when that news will come is an unknown but if everything went as well as possible in terms of a stadium plan announced, planning applications successful without any huge obstacles and delays, then maybe it could be possible that within ten years of that 2021 takeover our ‘new’ stadium could be operational. Or at least not too long after 2031.
I suppose the reality is that when other Premier League clubs had built up such huge advantages over so many years, there was never going to be a quick fix to close the gap. That is even before you take into account the financial spending rules that both the Premier League and UEFA have in place these days.
The sales of Gordon, Tonali and Bruno this summer (and Isak the summer before) were actually simply very public proof that the Newcastle United owners and the club had found themselves well ahead of schedule. Exceptional signings made by Eddie Howe and the NUFC owners who had been at the club for three or more years and in that time had seen their transfer valuations soar AND players who now could command market level wages that were twice (or more) what Newcastle United could afford to pay them. Nor could NUFC, certainly not with the spending rules, afford to fill the rest of the team with players commanding the same transfer fee levels.
Even with long-term plans you sometimes need to take an apparent step back, in order to continue to move forward to reach your future goal(s). In reality as well, this summer’s buying of players aged 24 and under with their best years in front of them and who could increase in value, was simply a continuation of what had gone before. Apart from the instant fighting relegation window of January 2022 and the emergency buying of Yoane Wissa when Alexander Isak forced is way out. Following the January 2022 window, the only other outfield player (other than Wissa) who has been bought by NUFC (under these owners) at an age of older than 24 was Harvey Barnes, 25 when United bought him.
This summer’s recruitment was also simply an acknowledgement of how tough the transfer market is when competing against the other Premier League clubs now. You have to pay more money now for even younger players, if you are to try and get hold of the potential top stars of the future. Having said that, Eddie Howe brought in Lewis Hall at the age of only 18, Tino Livramento when aged 20, Anthony Gordon only 21. So the signings of Steur (18), Diabate (18), Bamba (20), Toure (20), Jaouen (20), Fernandez-Pardo (21) aren’t a massive departure from many of the signings of past windows.
Photo by The Mag
Brighton paid a new club record of just under £50m this summer gone for a 19-year-old central defender, that is the levels we are at these days when competing for young talent.
Underlying encouraging signs
Away from the things that make headlines (results under Matthias Jaissle, what happens in transfer windows, new stadium and training ground), there are clear indications of building blocks getting put in place across the club.
Under Mike Ashley the academy was a total mess, any success stories despite the actions of the then owner and not because of them. The NUFC Under 18s pretty much every season finishing in the bottom few teams of their league.
These are the league finishes for the Newcastle Under 18s from the most recent previous five seasons:
2021/22 – Newcastle United Under 18s finished 14th of 14 with 17 points.
2022/23 – Newcastle United Under 18s finished 12th of 13 with 24 points
2023/24 – Newcastle United Under 18s finished 8th of 13 with 32 points.
2024/25 – Newcastle United Under 18s finished 5th of 13 with 35 points
2025/26 – Newcastle United Under 18s finished 3rd of 14 with 49 points
Last season only Manchester City and Manchester United finished above our Under 18s, this season the NUFC youth team have won five of their six league games and only Man City are above them in the table.
It has always been a stated intention from the Newcastle United owners that the women’s team is part of their long-term plan. All the top clubs in the Premier League see their women’s teams as an integral part of their long-term overall strength and success.
It would have been easy to throw enough money at the Newcastle United women’s team to catapult them into the Super League but even on this front the NUFC owners have shown restraint and clear indications that they have a far longer-term plan in place.
They have progressed the women’s team up from the fourth tier to second tier but then clearly appeared to put the brakes on to a large extent when it came to financing the final step up to the top tier. As though they didn’t want to catapult them into the Super League too soon, that they wanted it to happen when it fitted in with a bigger overall strategy. That button appears to have been pressed this past summer with pretty much a whole new team of players recruited, with many of them clearly better quality than the second tier. The Newcastle United owners now serious about getting the women’s team into the Super League and four league wins, 11 goals scored and only one conceded, they are very much on course for the title and promotion even at this early stage (four games into a 22 match league season). Also. pre-season the Newcastle United owners announced that now a majority of their (women’s team) league matches would be played at St James’ Park.
As Newcastle United fans we all worried that we might never see the back of Mike Ashley. That his reign could potentially outlive us.
Thankfully that proved not to be the case but as supporters we eagerly await what is to come in the future, the building blocks to be put in place that will allow Newcastle United to properly compete long-term, whatever financial rules are put in place.
The Newcastle United owners are now clearly trying far more to maximise sponsorship opportunities, although as things stand they appear to be very much not looking to embrace Associated Party Transactions as the key part in that strategy. The new state of the art training ground process has now been set in motion and here’s hoping the stadium plans will soon be unveiled as well.
We all enjoyed the shorter-term gratification from Wembley appearances, Champions League qualifications and that trophy, now I think there is justified anticipation of long-term ongoing success in the not too distant future, hopefully.