But Hopkinson says United will only allow players to leave this summer on the club's "own terms".
It comes as Newcastle have today released their accounts for the 2024/25 season and reported record revenues, with turnover rising to £335m.
Here are the main talking points from the accounts and what it means for Newcastle moving forward:
WHAT DO THE ACCOUNTS SAY?
Newcastle's record revenue was mainly driven by a 44% increase in commercial income.
The accounting period covers the 2024/25 season, in which Newcastle ended their long wait for silverware and won the Carabao Cup and also qualified for the Champions League.
Newcastle reported a profit after tax of £34.7m. Revenue was up from £320m the previous year, thanks to commercial income soaring from £83m to £120m.
Broadcast revenue dropped by 12 per cent, inevitable considering the Magpies were in the Champions League 12 months earlier.
It's worth pointing out here that from from next season, a new system of Financial Fair Play will come into effect.
The Premier League's Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) - which is the system which forced the Magpies into their 2024 summer fire sale to avoid being sanctioned - is being replaced by Squad Cost Ratio (SCR).
In short, while PSR limited clubs to a rolling three-year loss of £105m, SCR centres on team costs on a seasonal basis. It will limit on-pitch spending to 85 per cent of football-related revenue and net profit-loss from player sales, though teams competing in Europe will have to adhere to UEFA's 70 per cent limit.
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WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN FOR TRANSFERS THIS SUMMER - AND DO NEWCASTLE HAVE TO SELL?
Newcastle made a profit on player sales of just under £20m in the accounting period - which doesn't include the exit of Alexander Isak. The £19.9m profit mainly came from the sales of Miguel Almiron and Lloyd Kelly in the January of 2025.
Despite the fact Isak's Liverpool move didn't fall in the accounting period, the striker's exit - and what it means for future windows - was discussed by Hopkinson when he spoke to the media this week.
He believes Isak's Liverpool exit was a "good sale" for Newcastle - and has stressed the importance of player trading in coming windows.
"Going forward, our strategy is to buy well and sell well," he said,
"Buying well does not necessarily mean spending the most money. It means working in the market place for the players that generate the most value for this club rather than the fee paid for them.
"So there are a multitude of strikes we need to employ including developing our own, looking for opportunities in the market place and making sure we are maximising our opportunity within the available price we can produce.”
Hopkinson was asked whether Newcastle will be able to make a 'box office' signing this summer.
He said: "We can do that. But we might not be able to do that without selling somebody."
So what does that mean if someone like Sandro Tonali - heavily linked with a summer exit - knocked on Newcastle's door and asked to leave?
Hopkinson said: "We haven’t got an overall strategy with regards players out, necessarily. We think through what players might or might not want to do this summer.
"But if an Isak-like scenario presents itself again, any player under contract is going to leave on our terms and we’re going to maximise the opportunity that might represent for the club."
Asked whether Newcastle will have to sell one of their star assets this summer, Hopkinson said: "We are not ready to answer that. We have got to see what set-up we are in, and what opportunities present themselves in the market place. What I will tell you is we intend to be as disciplined, active, thoughtful and pro-active as we possibly can, but what's the outcome going to be? I couldn't begin to tell you.”
STADIUM SALE EXPLAINED
The accounts report revealed Newcastle have effectively sold St James' Park to their immediate parent company PZ Newco Limited for £172.1m and leased it back, a transaction - all perfectly legal - that generated a profit of £129m.
Explaining this move, chief financial officer Simon Capper said: "The motivation was very much to reorganise our property assets and get them into the correct legal boxes to allow us to go forward with our potential development, either at St James’ Park or for a new stadium, and to facilitate that with financing and other similar items.
"There may be more similar transactions to come in the future, depending on what we end up doing. But the profit calculation that had to be done is then a consequence of the detail of the accounting rules that the Premier League require us to follow in doing any transaction with a company that is associated with us. So it does create a very significant accounting profit because of that."
Asked what that will mean for Newcastle's ability to invest in players, Capper said: "Because of the consequence of the profit calculated on the sale, it gives us a significant amount of PSR headroom. The ability to deploy that PSR headroom is very limited because we have to comply with UEFA rules and because the PSR regime is coming to an end, so that profit does not role forward into squad cost. In a very narrow window, yes (it gives us more scope to spend on players), but we are very constrained in how we can use that."
On the subject of the stadium, Hopkinson said Newcastle are not yet ready to confirm their plans for St James' Park and the club's new training ground.
BIGGEST CLUB IN THE WORLD CLAIM REVISITED
Newcastle's turnover is still dwarfed by the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United.
The Magpies are clearly heading in the right direction but are still some way short of the clubs they're trying to catch. Manchester City reported revenue of £694m last year, Liverpool £703m, Arsenal £691m and Manchester United £667m.
With that in mind, does Hopkinson still believe his claim that Newcastle can be the biggest club in the world by 2030 is realistic?
He said: “When I think about our competitors, they are formidable and they have already got a head start on us. But all they’ve got is as head start on us and we’ve got a tremendous opportunity for growth right in front of us.
"We’ve used the phrase headroom in terms of a player budget, but what I also look at is the commercial opportunity, we have significant headroom to catch up.
"It means we’ve got work harder, we’ve got to work smarter with high conviction and energy every single day.
"We’ve got to catch these guys, and by the way they are on the racecourse too.
"We can get there quickly into a group that is incredibly competing for those top prizes."