Ordy wonders what the owners' plan is and where we go next.
The moment that I felt uncomfortable about our Wembley victory was when our owner, or the representative of the Public Investment Fund, was encouraged to take the cup towards the supporters with one finger raised. It was interesting that he was there, though we were playing against the one team that seems to guarantee his attendance – Liverpool. Let us also not forget that Staveley originally tried to engineer a deal for Liverpool first.
As time has worn on since the takeover, for a variety of reasons I have been torn over our new owners. Now before anyone starts – no, I don’t want Ashley back; yes, I do accept we need significant investment to compete; no, I know we can’t choose our owners; yes, the rules are set against us. Anything else? Ok, then allow me to develop this a little bit.
Saudi investment brought with it moral considerations. Whether you like it or not, it does. You might say I just care about the football, that’s fine, but how much of a concern is that to PIF? Do they really want to prioritise investment in a small city in the north-east of England? Remember when we were bought and there was talk of investment in the city and region …. It’s been five years, where is it?
In terms of progress for our football club, the first three transfer windows brought nothing but positives. So, on reflection, did summer 2023, though at the time it did not seem it. Sandro, Tino, the greatest left back to ever live, all arrived that summer. So the next step seemed to be a plan on the stadium and a plan on the training ground. Thus far we’ve sold the concrete to ourselves, as the land isn’t owned by us, with a lease back to the club and we’ve apparently bought some land (still don’t think the club have confirmed this) for the training ground.
Just this week, after four and a half years, we have finally got a training ground sponsor. Is that Hopkinson getting the wheels moving? Possibly but at six million a year it isn’t going to cover (sadly) the roughly ninety million per season we are losing each season. A UEFA fine seems inevitable for breaching their spending rules as they do not allow any APT deals, such as with the stadium, to count in their financial accounts.
Are stadium naming rights next? If so, who and is it another APT deal that we have to review?
Where is this project heading? What is the aim of PIF? I keep hearing that in five years time we will be competing for everything, but the drawbridge has been pulled up and unless we can find a way of closing a revenue gap of around two hundred million per season, then we won’t be able to regularly challenge the biggest sides.
Last season at this stage it felt like the start of something. Seventy years of waiting over, the Carabao cup in the locker, Champions League football potentially. Yet we still lost our best player to a direct rival without having sourced a replacement. We keep cycling through appointments, either due to the powerbase of certain key players or due to a lack of structure or approval from Riyadh.
LIV Golf is losing top golfers (it will probably lose Jon Rahm at some point) and there is now a PIF boxing league structure. Where is all this headed? What will it do? Who knows.
Ultimately the more PIF structures I look at, the more you see that the ones they have complete control over that aren’t just oil, the more you see dysfunctional setups. What does this mean for Newcastle United? The light touch approach taken has coincided with significant power being in the hands of a few key people. Those are all Newcastle based, but none seem to have the power to make any actual decisions.
Ultimately it feels like we’ve got mega rich owners, who can’t spend the money on players in the way they wanted, won’t break the rules (possibly for PR reasons) and have, as this season has gone on and the club have struggled, kept away because this isn’t their expectations. Getting hammered at Camp Nou with more eye balls on us than at any other time in our history won’t have helped, neither will currently being below our local rivals, who have deservedly beaten us twice whilst wondering whether mid-table is where we will be next season.
I’ve seen some discourse saying eighth would be bad for us because of UEFA squad restrictions, but the amount of players we might lose this summer, the revenue bump might help us. At one point I reckoned we might be needing twelve players to fill squad places by the end of the summer. As it happens I now think this is the summer that will determine the project. Either Hoppy and PIF will determine a plan to make us compete for top six each season, or it may be that the best day of our footballing lives will stay that way for some time.
In 1992 a manager walked (temporarily) allegedly because it wasn’t like it looked in the brochure. So far there has not been a coherent strategy to the club but they have got lucky. Now it is time to ensure that their intentions and expectations are made clear.
Stephen Ord @smord84