Accounts released and words from the CEO have set hares running in the last week. Not to mention a bona fide club legend signalling his time at United is up!
Another week without Newcastle United kicking a ball didn’t mean the club wasn’t in the news as we saw the release of the latest accounts. Oh and the small matter of Hopkinson’s comments upon the future of Eddie Howe and the plan for the summer. And a new sponsorship deal … and Kieran Trippier announcing he was for the off at the end of the season.
The accounts revealed United had made a profit, though that would not have been possible it seems without selling SJP and its lease to a subsidiary company and would likely have failed the PSR test without doing so. Naturally, the Premier League under its insidious fair market value scamola valued SJP less than the amount which is contained in the accounts. On the same day Everton sold its women’s team to itself just to prove we’re not the only ones moving assets around spreadsheets to comply with a set of rules designed to preserve the cartel’s financial hegemony. A day later Chelsea published accounts revealing losses described as the biggest in Premier League history. Profit and Sustainability? Is this a joke? I keep harping on about it but Man Utd is almost in a billion quid’s worth of debt. Where is the profit and where is the sustainability?
And there’s the 115 charges yet to have been adjudicated upon and which concern Manchester City. Does anyone believe this Premier League of ours is anything other than a rigged game?
Not that anyone appears to be criticising the club for this financial shenanigans … indeed the fact St James’ Park is now owned by a different entity to the club seems to please some supporters who advocate a more aggressive stance towards the PL. I get where they are coming from, sympathise in many ways, but this fiscal manouvere makes me nervous because I’m a cynical old bastard that fears the worst and trusts no-one - let alone, perhaps especially, the sovereign wealth funds of foreign countries.
Talk me through it … Newcastle United and St James’ Park are now owned by seperate entities? This is good? How exactly? (Apart from the switching of money around and keeping us out of the jaws of PSR breaches obviously).
Anyway, the accounts show a growth in commercial income which is the whole point of Newcastle United at this point in time. Though we have not grown enough to have anything like the amount of financial strength as those clubs we are trying to close the gap on. Neither does that look like happening any time soon and that makes a mockery of Hopkinson’s claim to be competing for the biggest honours in football by 2030 and Yasir-Al-Rumayyan’s declared ambition to be “number one” and that last season’s League Cup win would be the first of many.
More positively we can expect next year’s accounts to take a leap forward too. None of this is like watching Hibbit’s ball through to Supermac for the second goal at Hillsbrough v Burnley in the FAC Semi-Final in 1974 on repeat - but then again balance-sheets were never really my thing.
The week also saw the announcement of a new sponsorship deal which means the training gear will have a sleeve sponsor and Darsley Park will now be calledThe Knoxin recognition for whatever it is the new sponsor is punting to an unsuspecting world.
The money involved is welcome and will mean £18m over three years. Not inconsequential obviously but I did think perhaps a bit short of the description of “transformative” as per the club blurb.
Then we also had CEO David Hopkinson talking about Eddie Howe’s position and yer man set a few hares running with reference to the Head Coach … and the upcoming summer which without Champions League football in the bag might be what is termed euphemistically as challenging.
So here’s my take on it all after a few days digesting numbers and words.
We need to prepare ourselves for the departures of several of our top players … I think that will definitely include Sandro Tonali, probably Tino Livramento and one other from Antony Gordon and Bruno Guimares. We know Kieran Trippier is for the off and there might be fond farewells to Fabian Schar too. Less dramatically Emile Krafth and Will Osula might be hitting the exits as well.
[True Faith - Independent NUFC Fanzine
NUFC Accounts 2025-26 - The Good and the Bad
Like most things to do with NUFC right now, the latest annual accounts are something of a Rorschach test. An indecipherable inkblot onto which you project your subconscious fantasies and fears. Whether you see them as positive or negative rather depends on whether your drinking vessel is half-empty or half-full…
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6 days ago · 24 likes · 4 comments · True Faith](https://tf1892.substack.com/p/nufc-accounts-2025-26-the-good-and?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web)
For Tonali and Livramento I suspect they will have the opportunity to double their wages and join clubs playing Champions League football. Gordon and Guimares might not be as in demand as Sandro and Tino but if big money offers come in for them in terms of fees and wages then they might be down the road as well.
If my reading of what could happen this summer is anything like correct then the obvious question is where does this leave Eddie Howe? To use an expression coined by Kevin Keegan back in 1992, this isn’t what it said in the brochure presented to him almost five years ago by Amanda Staveley. Howe might reasonably feel the club has gone backwards from the time it was signing Guimares, Botman, Tonali, Isak, Gordon before hitting the roadblock marked PSR and spending four of the last five transfer windows sat on its hands … cursing its luck at the loss of Eliot Anderson to avoid a catastrophic points deduction.
There is a section of our support which wouldn’t be heartbroken if Howe left United but if he leaves because he is being asked to manage a club transitioning to a form of Brighton with bells and whistles, then that might not be quite the result they hoped for.
Last summer demonstrated painfully that Newcastle United … even with Champions League football and a trophy in the bag … could not compete with Man Utd (Mbuemo, Cunha), Chelsea (Delap) or Man City (Trafford) to attract new talent. Nor could it hang onto players coveted by elite clubs (Isak to Liverpool). We will unquestionably be in a weaker position this summer with the added difficulty of what to do with Woltermade, Wissa and Elanga who have all been various shades of disappointment this season.
There is a strong argument this squad needs to be reshaped this summer and has run its course. That will cost money, which let’s be honest we don’t appear to have a lot of without selling. Hopkinson has told us that.
We know United has struggled to sign players from other PL clubs and has had most success with largely unproven imports from the continent. Ross Wilson has operated with a certain level of player at Forest and had success there - ironically I’d suggest his biggest coup was taking Anderson to the City Ground from SJP.
Many recoiled when former Sporting Director Paul Mitchell told the media (rather artlessly) that our recruitment policy was unsustainable - but those transfer windows that came and went without a single signing due to PSR - confirm he was right. David Hopkinson describing Isak’s departure for Liverpool as “a good sale” is the view of a man who spends a lot of time looking at spreadsheets rather than teamsheets but is indicative of the direction of travel. Hopkinson isn’t a football man … he’s a money man. He more or less runs the show.
We hear a lot of talk about being “good sellers”. That could suggest a number of different things but one of them is accepting bids for our best players from those clubs we have fancied ourselves as competing with. I’m largely convinced that’s where we’ll be this summer and Eddie Howe has to decide if he is on message with the plan that appears to be emerging. If he doesn’t fancy the new strategy of buying and selling while the club puts the very hard miles in playing financial catch-up with the cartel in a rigged football economy, then we might be in the market for a new Head Coach.
Last week Alex Hurst couldn’t find anyone else to talk shite about Newcastle United for the TF podcast so yours truly stepped into the breach. I did two pods in a week which ended up on You Tube in a reduced form. I do occassionally have a look at the comments on the stuff I write and speak on about the club and most people are kind and measured - even if they disagree with me - which is entirely their right and privilege. Some are downright rude and abusive - particularly under anonymous names and usually in the You Tube comments. Its mildly depressing rather than upsetting that supporters can’t communicate with others with something approaching civility but on one point I’ll take issue and that’s Eddie Howe.
Right then … things have gone wrong this season … tactics, substitutions and even motivation can all be questioned. Eddie Howe can be questioned and everyone at Newcastle United should be under pressure when we’ve lost home and away at a newly promoted club, particularly that one 14 miles down the road. And I’m not one for waving away being pumped 7-2 at the Nou Camp either. I had the same murder in my eyes as I left the Gallowgate after the derby defeat as every one of you reading this. Any forgiveness for everyone at United (and that includes Hopkinson and Wilson to Howe and every single player) won’t be earned by putting in a half decent 45 minutes anywhere. Forgiveness will have to be earned through results and lots of them.
I made the point in both of those podcasts that if Howe were to leave United he’d be back in a top job in the PL within 6 months. Okay, it might be 12 months. I make that point not because I’m an Eddie Howe fan-boy or that I feel any loyalty towards him personally (though I respect him - and that doesn’t mean I’m blind to errors either).
Some were incredulous that I could hold that view of Howe’s job prospects after United. I ask them respectfully to look at the facts … Man Utd is currently managed by Michael Carrick who failed to get Boro promoted in his only previous managerial job. Carrick was preceded at Old Trafford by Ruben Amorim, Erik Ten Hag and Ole Gunnar Solksjaer. Eddie Howe is a better manager than any of those and has achieved more in the Premier League than them too. Then there’s Tottenham … now managed by Roberto De Zerbi but preceded by Igor Tudor, Thomas Frank, Ange Postecoglu - all managers wholly inferior to Howe.
Then there’s Chelsea … now notionally coached by Liam Rosenoir and preceded by Enzo Maresca appointed on the strength of getting Leicester promoted. Howe is better than both of them.
And Arteta at Arsenal and Slot at Liverpool.
Arteta has been at Arsenal since 2019 and so far won only one FA Cup despite an eye-watering budget. He may or may not get Arsenal over the line and win the PL this season but come on … that budget ... better than Howe? Its not a level playing field is it?
Slot at Liverpool? Speak to many Liverpool supporters and not only the ranting variety of social media and his time appears to be up at Anfield after only two seasons. The away end at the Etihad doing the off as the Reds went the same way in the FAC as us perhaps wasn’t the greatest advert for YNWA Slot might have hoped for.
The consensus that the team that won the PL title last season was Klopp’s not his. Was his record at Feyenoord between 2021 to 2024 really that great? Better than Howe’s time at Bournemouth or Newcastle United’s given available resources?
I have read people snorting at the idea of Howe being a possible Liverpool manager should he leave United. Is that really such an outlandish proposition? Prior to Klopp Liverpool had been managed by Brendan Rodgers, Roy Hodgson, Kenny Dalglish (in his managerial dotage) - all inferior to Howe.
Are there better coaches than Howe within the PL who would come to Newcastle United and operate within the club environment we can see emerging … one with less than a brilliant budget, PSR constraints, no decisions on the big ticket items of a training ground and stadium. Are there any on the continent happy to come to SJP within these circumstances?
Right now, I believe Howe is our best prospect for progress but if the club pivots in such a way for the Head Coach to believe he has gone as far as he can with us then his next job might not be a downward step from Newcastle United. Howe will have options because he has done a great job here, he has overachieved.
All of this and my thoughts with them can go up in a puff of smoke if we go to Palace and the players don’t win the game and then follow it up by not beating Bournemouth at SJP as a minimum. We have to win football matches and nothing else will do now. Results are all that counts now.
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It didn’t come altogether as a surprise that Kieran Trippier is leaving Newcastle United at the end of the season. Tripps will start his exit at Palace on Sunday and I’m sure if he gets on the pitch he’ll receive the ovation from the away end he deserves. For my sins I’ve been going to see Newcastle United play for more than fifty years now. I can say categorically Kieran Trippier is the best full-back we have had in my half a century clicking through the turnstiles. He is also one of the best leaders and captains we have ever had. That he came to United from Athletico Madrid on a reduced salary and rejecting the opportunity of a relegation clause with the team threatened by the drop says everything about the belief he had in Newcastle United.
There have been many great moments for Tripps and Newcastle United but I’m grateful for the class he has brought to United on the pitch. His contribution in getting us over the line to win that League Cup at Wembley last year cannot be understated.
Thank you Kieran.
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Onto Palace … just win …
Keep On, Keepin’ On …
Michael Martin, @TFMick1892.bsky.social