What’s changed since Newcastle takeover?

Eddie Howe’s voice sounded sluggish.

The Newcastle United head coach said last week, “I can remember walking around the training ground when we first arrived.” “It was…”

After his appointment nearly four years ago, Howe was not just suddenly becoming irritable, but rather reflecting on the work that needed to be done to rejuvenate the club’s worn-out Benton base.

A Saudi-led consortium had recently purchased Newcastle in a £305 million deal, which the human rights movement opposed.

The club had been dubbed the richest in the world by outsiders, but the reality on the ground was rather different as they battled relegation.

The training facility was even described as “significantly below the Premier League and perhaps even Championship standards” in a planning application filed a few months later.

The team has since been truly transformed, with the addition of hydrotherapy and plunge pools, a new canteen, a players’ lounge, and bigger dressing rooms, among other things.

It was spotted by Matt Ritchie.

He knew what could happen if Howe “got hold of them” and “had some firepower”, after previously working with the manager at Bournemouth.

The 36-year-old winger, who played for Newcastle between 2016 and 2024 and is currently a member of Reading, said, “When I first arrived, I would talk about Eddie Howe and Bournemouth.

“He can’t have been that good,” the boys would say. But I’d tell them there was no stone left unturned.

I was pleased that they had the opportunity to try it. You don’t really believe you’ve never worked like that before until you actually experience it and feel it. It’s the attention to detail, the preparation and the desire to improve – all the things that make Newcastle what they are now. “

Naturally, it hasn’t all been smooth sailing since Howe’s appointment or the takeover a few weeks ago.

During a sluggish summer, Newcastle, which is currently 15th in the Premier League, missed out on a number of targets and traded striker Alexander Isak to Liverpool for a record sum of £125 million.

The club do not have a sporting director after Paul Mitchell left in June, following less than a year in the post.

And it’s still awaited news of plans to build a brand-new, state-of-the-art training facility and the future of St. James’ Park.

However, this team won the Carabao Cup by beating Liverpool in a 70-year drought to bring back a significant domestic trophy in March.

They have qualified for the Champions League in two of the past three seasons – recording their biggest win in the competition against Union Saint-Gilloise this week – and only Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal have picked up more points in the Premier League since Howe took charge.

“The general vibe of the club has changed a lot,” added Howe. The team has obviously changed. Naturally, teams progress and change over time.

“The way we operate as a football club behind the scenes is completely different, but there have been significant improvements,” says one player. That is what the club required and still requires.

Newcastle have also grown off the field.

When the club’s most recent accounts are released later this year, revenue will increase from £140 million to upwards of £400 million, and staff numbers will increase to 550 in recent years.

The academy and the women’s team have received significant funding, and hundreds of millions have been put into the club to cover operating expenses.

But one question outsiders might be asking is why the wealth of their Saudi owners hasn’t produced greater success.

Although there have been some new signings recently, as Charlotte Robson noted, this has been a comparatively gradual increase, as supporters have noted.

On paper, many people assumed the new owners would buy the way to the top because the new owners were so wealthy, according to BBC Sport’s Newcastle fan writer.

” Yes, Newcastle have brought in some excellent internationals like Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, but the development of existing squad players and the signing of players like Dan Burn from the region to bolster that feeling around the club has been massive and really important. “

Finding a way to add headroom will be of utmost importance for Newcastle because profit and sustainability rules (PSR) restrict losses to £105 million over a rolling three-year period have influenced this approach.

For context, Manchester United may have had their worst campaign in more than 40 years last year, but the team still made record profits of £666.5 million.

Digging deeper, Manchester United brought in £333.3m worth of commercial income and £160.3m in matchday revenue.

Manchester United have not necessarily made the most of their huge income streams, of course.

However, in the Premier League, the teams that spend more money historically average the most points per game.

Prior to the 2013 introduction of the current regulations, rivals like Manchester City and Chelsea were able to blow their own money out of the water with better packages.

But Newcastle ‘ only ‘ had the eighth highest salary bill in the Premier League just a couple of seasons ago and the club came mightily close to a PSR breach in June 2024 following years of imbalanced trading.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire said, “I’m not necessarily sure these are unintended consequences of the rules.” The top clubs didn’t want another City or Chelsea to emerge, according to the more machiavellian interpretation of the Premier League. This is a way of creating a glass ceiling. “

Newcastle will have to make some adjustments, which have been made since the takeover.

In response to a rumored executive’s concern that Newcastle might negotiate lucrative sponsorship deals with Saudi Arabian businesses, an unnamed executive has already spoken to the Premier League on behalf of his club and ten others.

He requested that notice was given of a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions just five days after the buy-out in 2021.

The APT regulations have been updated and remain in place.

However, David Hopkinson, the club’s new CEO, has been looking for ways to unlock its “under-realised commercial potential.”

Close friend Tom Pistore, who worked for the Canadian at Maple Leaf Sports &amp, Entertainment, has not come as a surprise to him.

” Our group under his leadership were always trying to focus on how do we continue to evolve? “He said,” he said. It was about staying creative in business and partnership relationships, innovation, digital, and ticketing because the status quo keeps you stuck.

“As the landscape changed, David was always very forward facing with a curious interest in new concepts. When someone takes their first stab at something and then conducts a proper evaluation, we frequently discussed the terms bleeding edge and bleeding edge.

Newcastle is “among the world’s elite,” according to Hopkinson, who previously held the positions of president and chief operating officer at Madison Square Garden Sports and head of global partnerships at Real Madrid.

That remains the long-term ambition of chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) – who own a majority stake in the club – as well as fellow owner Jamie Reuben.

After a record 345 people were executed in Saudi Arabia last year, Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK’s head of campaigns, said “goals and glory distract from executions and repression.”

He continued, “This was never just about football.” “It’s about using the global prestige of the Premier League to sanitise a brutal human rights record”.

Chi Onwurah, the first Newcastle Central MP to acknowledge that she “wouldn’t choose Saudi Arabia to own the club.”

She emphasized that supporters were the “last people who had the freedom to choose.”

“When you make it all about money, which the Premier League have, those with the most money will end up winning the great clubs like Newcastle United”, she said.