The Magpies are set to unveil another key boardroom figure as they bid to chase down the Premier League's top five
Newcastle United chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
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Newcastle United are close to making a key appointment at St James' Park as Magpies look to rejoin the Premier League's top five.
After a season in which Newcastle have slipped down the pecking order, currently sitting in 14th place, nobody needs reminding at St James' that the campaign has not been up to scratch. Although a firm focus on the remainder of the 2025/26 has been agreed upon within the four walls of the club's Benton base this week.
Newcastle have a long-term strategy that will be designed to close the gap on the likes of Man City, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Man United. This has led to CEO David Hopkinson searching for a Chief Strategy Officer, who will be announced soon, with the club currently in the process of confirming the new appointment.
The CSO will work alongside Hopkinson with Chronicle Live, learning that they will have a transversal role, starting with the business side of the operation.
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They will focus on elevating the club's digital and data ecosystem to best in class and driving the discipline through the organisation, making enterprise decisions based on data, insights, global best practices and constant innovation.
All of it will fit into the framework of driving Newcastle to become one of the top Premier League and European clubs by 2030, something which has been spoken about by Hopkinson and club staff in the last six months.
Despite questions over PIF's commitment and Yasir Al-Rumayyan's lack of appearances at St James' this season, the move has been green-lighted by the 85% stake holders in United. Newcastle are part of PIF's strategic portfolio, with the latest press release from the Saudi-backed owners reading: "The Strategic Portfolio will actively manage key strategic assets to maximise financial returns and the economic impact of PIF’s companies, while supporting their efforts to attract capital and become global champions.
"Through the Strategic Portfolio, PIF will also continue to invest in opportunities arising from long-term global trends."
Hopkinson, when pressed on the fight to be at the top by 2030, said at a round table with journalists over the international break: "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 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 competitive for those top prizes."
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