The Magpies see the Europa League or Europa Conference League as more than decent consolation prizes next season
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe faces a big few months(Image: James Marsh/Shutterstock)
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Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe has been told that PIF "expect" a European place at the end of the season.
Getting into Europe next term was on the topic list during a discussion between CEO David Hopkinson and assembled journalists at St James' Park over a breakfast meeting in one of the executive suites.
The Magpies released their annual accounts this week and reported record revenue but believe that a continuous run in European competition is vital to support the club's own ecosystem. During a 70-minute briefing with CEO Hopkinson, the club supremo found himself challenged on his view that Newcastle can be challenging for a Premier League title and be in the conversation to be one of the world's best clubs by 2030.
But he insisted that can still be the case when quizzed on how Newcastle can do it despite having a paltry revenue pile compared to the likes of Man City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
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Hopkinson said: "First off, the size of the challenge you’ve underscoped because those other clubs are also going to be moving forward to.
"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 headstart 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 to capture theatr headroom.
"We’ve got to catch these guys, and by the way they are on the racecourse too. I do not accept… look we can debate how long that is going to take and I do think you and I see it differently.
"We’ve going to report some financial numbers, we can get there quickly into a group that is incredibly competing for those top prizes."
Newcastle pocketed £55m in the Champions League this season after a run to the last 16. Realistically, unless they win all seven games and other results go their way, they will be fighting for a Europa League or Europa Conference League place next season.
Financial chief Simon Capper stated: "Europa League money is still good and Europa Conference League is better than nothing."
Hopkinson added: "I expect to have a great run to the end of the season here and we'll talk about the future when it's time."
He went on: "If the season ended today, we'd be outside European competition, although that is not our ambition."
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