While those on the inside of Matfen Hall’s oak-panelled Morning Room looked into a window of Newcastle United’s future – new stadiums, training grounds, commercial deals – a couple of fellas on the outside cleaned the glass.
Given the sensitivity of what was being presented on screens in the ground-floor conference suite, it felt like an oversight by the management of this five-star country hotel.
Consider, too, the presence of Yasir Al Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, who last week kept company with Donald Trump and Elon Musk. He was sitting close to Eddie Howe this time.
Maybe it was, then, that the window cleaners and the gardener, who casually tended to immaculate lawns, had earpieces and pistols.
Because here, 18 miles from the spiritual home of the football club, the current custodians were making decisions that will shape its soul for tomorrow’s generation. This was top brass, top level, top secret.
I wandered by the pair with their buckets and squeegees and the guy combing the grass – maybe they weren’t special agents after all – and into the gothic entrance of the countryside mansion, with its stained-glass windows, wooden staircase and grand piano. It felt as if the music stopped when a couple of the Newcastle hierarchy noted my attendance.
Matfen Hall, where the huge summit took place with a number of key figures
The award-winning luxury hotel and space in Northumberland opened in current form in 1832
The neo-Gothic manor has a restaurant, spa and golf course in its grounds and is Grade II listed
The summit had just broken for lunch. Howe was saying his goodbyes before dashing across the pebbled car park and into his Range Rover, off to continue preparations for Wednesday’s trip to Liverpool.
‘I was very pleased that the ambition and drive to be successful is still very much there from everyone connected to the club,’ he later said.
Meanwhile, in the chic 1832 cocktail bar – velvet Chesterfields and a sweeping vista of the Northumberland countryside – an overseas executive type who would be taking Howe’s seat for the afternoon session drank coffee and waited in front of his laptop. A club partner, most probably, who need not be privy to the football and finances of part one.
Sporting director Paul Mitchell, on brand in black jumper and white shirt, soon greeted the gentleman.
‘Were you at the game yesterday?’ he asked.
‘No,’ came the reply.
‘Oh, you missed a good ‘un,’ said Mitchell.
He was talking about the 4-3 win over Nottingham Forest, a result that no doubt contributed to the gaiety of the laughter and niceties that echoed around the stone-walled Great Hall in which board members, PIF chiefs and lawyers were gathering.
Newcastle chairman Yasir Al Rumayyan was in attendance at St James’ Park on Sunday
It all felt a little first day at school, or Slough meets Swindon for fans of The Office. Darren Eales, the chief executive, and Peter Silverstone, the chief commercial officer, were among the genial hosts.
‘Good flight?’
‘Nice room?’
‘Have you had lunch?’
With that, the doors to the Emerald Restaurant were open, where a buffet of the finest meats and fish awaited. Simon Capper, the club’s chief financial officer, was one of the first up to refuel.
Little wonder, he is the man charged with calculating Profit and Sustainability margins and delivering to the room the unavoidable truth: We need to generate more money! He looked like he needed a cocktail next door, never mind the chicken.
All the chiefs were here, but none more important on this historic day than Brad Miller, the chief operating officer who is leading the stadium and training-ground projects.
This was his chance to present to Al Rumayyan and the chairman’s PIF colleagues what those on the ground believe is the best way forward. Our sources have long since said that a new stadium on nearby Leazes Park will be their proposal, with a 70,000 capacity and state-of-the-art design.
A decision is expected imminently on whether to upgrade St James’ Park or build a new stadium
Eddie Howe declared how happy he was with the ambition from the top
The alternative is a renovated St James’ Park holding just over 60,000. World-renowned architects KSS are among those to have provided drawings for both, as we revealed last month.
We also understand that a planning consultant has now been enlisted to progress the newbuild option, while the freemen of the city have been wined and dined at home games. They and the city council are key to unlocking the use of the Grade II-listed Leazes Park.
And so, beneath the chandeliers and painted ceilings, the sight of one man felt significant. Roger Thornton, head of property at Motcomb Estates, owned by the Reuben brothers, the club’s minority shareholders.
He was appointed to the board last year and, say sources, has contacts inside the council that are unrivalled in the construction industry. Wheels must be greased before the engine of the digger is engaged.
But for all of the groundwork that Miller, Eales, Silverstone, Thornton and others have done in recent months, two questions remain – what do the Saudis want and will they pay for it?
The days of the PIF open chequebook are over, not that you could tell by the waft of the buffet, the blacked-out Mercedes vans buzzing around the estate and the Gulfstream jet waiting at a private airfield 12 miles away.
It was always the preference of the Saudi ownership to stay at St James’, at least during initial exploration. But as Al Rumayyan kicked a ball about on the pitch after Sunday’s win, he looked lost amid a million thoughts, perhaps wondering how best to invest a billion pounds.
Howe was far more focused when asked on Tuesday what needs to be done for Newcastle to compete at the very top. Don’t forget, it is Al Rumayyan’s stated ambition to be ‘No 1 in the world’.
Al Rumayyan spent last week at President Donald Trump’s speech in Miami, alongside the likes of Elon Musk, the world’s richest man
Al Rumayyan and Trump at the LIV Golf tournament at Trump National Golf Club
‘We certainly need – if we are looking to catch the teams above us – to drastically improve everything we are delivering, still,’ said Howe, who is without a first-team signing in two years because of PSR limitations. ‘That goes right across the board at every department of the club. We have so much to do to get to the top.
‘It’s not going to happen just by thinking it. It’s not going to happen by willing it. We have to actually deliver it. That takes money, that takes investment, that takes smart and strategic thinking, which I know is going on at the club. Then, we need to implement it.’
It was a sober and statesman-like evaluation of where the club is at. For all of the suits inside Matfen Hall’s de facto boardroom, the one wearing the tracksuit is as smart as any of them.
He was long gone by the time the others retired to the 1832 bar, where the spirits sit on shelves beneath a series of ornate, church-like arches. Supporters can only pray that the future of their club is in good hands. But until those once-in-a-lifetime decisions are communicated, they, like the window cleaners, are watching and wondering from the outside.
