In the St James’ Park office awaiting a new chief executive, legend has it, there are cigar burns on the carpet that are a legacy of the Freddy Shepherd era at Newcastle United.
Shepherd sold the club in 2007, to Mike Ashley. He sold Newcastle in 2021, to the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, the richest football club owners in the world. Bound by Profit and Sustainability Rules they may be, but changing the carpets does not require sign off by the Premier League.
In fact, a lot of what the owners could and should have done is of no interest to the governing bodies, whom they blame – not without justification – for slowing their progress on Tyneside.
The Premier League, however, does not stop you appointing the right sporting director. Dan Ashworth was not what the club thought, and the club was not what he thought. Paul Mitchell ruffled more feathers than a fox in a henhouse.
The Premier League does not stop you appointing a replacement for chief executive Darren Eales, who announced 10 months ago he would be leaving on health grounds.
It does not stop you sponsoring the training ground or training kit, both easy gains in a PSR world.
It’s been a summer of disappointment at Newcastle – and a lot of it is entirely their own making
The Premier League and PSR rules are no excuse for not yet having replaced the departed Paul Mitchell (left) and Darren Eales
And nor does it stop you building a new training ground, as was presented to signings as part of the club’s ambitious project. Several inside the dressing room – including wantaway Alexander Isak – have come to doubt that project, or at least the delivery of it from boardroom level.
In fact, if you walked into St James’ Park today, you would not really know the club is owned by the PIF at all. There is no Saudi presence on the ground and, right now, a leadership void at the top. It is an obscure vignette, but the media room still has desks that were made out of old cheese boards during Ashley’s reign.
Meanwhile, the announcement – or even an update – on a new stadium or redevelopment of St James’ has been delayed, with no communication from the owners as to why. Approaching the fourth anniversary of the takeover, no one from PIF has yet spoken to the independent press. I once knocked on the glass-fronted doors of PIF’s main office in Riyadh – and spent 10 minutes staring at my reflection before leaving.
It is the owners, though, who need to look in the mirror. Their club may be Champions League on the pitch, but off it this summer they are struggling to make that pay, be it with keeping their own stars or attracting others.
Top targets have come and gone – elsewhere – and their business has been beset by misfortune, from agent rows to one opposition executive with a bad back who needed to pause negotiations for a few days. PSR remains a limiting factor, but Mitchell’s exit on the eve of the window has not helped, either. It looks a mess.
You see, there has been a perception of Newcastle United – big owners, big club, big operation – but that has long since felt like something of a mirage. This was a word I first used in January of last year and, now, it is being used by others close to the club.
Eddie Howe, his staff and his players have created that illusion through their excellent work to haul the club from relegation candidates to Champions League level.
This is what I wrote then: ‘Look towards Tyneside from afar and there is a shiny new superpower fuelled by Saudi petrodollars. Rather, get close and you realise that the decaying club the owners inherited has, for now, been given a polish and some minor repairs. The major renovation work remains in its infancy.’
Chairman Yasir Al Rumayyan and the PIF group insist they are still fully committed to the club – but manager Eddie Howe (right) needs concrete backing
Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha (right) were both Newcastle targets for this summer – and both have ended up at Manchester United
There are now two clubs within the club – one is Champions League level, the other is nowhere near it
At times, it feels like there are two clubs within a club. One club, confined to the training ground, is excelling at what it does. They won the Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League last season. They have a strong identity. The other club does not, at least not yet.
If Amanda Staveley was the de facto chief executive in the beginning, it means the impending appointment will be PIF’s third. Likewise for the sporting director. It felt telling when Howe told me here in Seoul on Tuesday that installing the ‘best’ people was key.
‘It’s really important we fill those positions as quickly as possible, but also with the best people possible,’ he said. ‘Again, I would probably urge the club to make the right decision over speed, because the long term is the most important for Newcastle.’
Nottingham Forest’s sporting director Ross Wilson and ex-Real Madrid chief David Hopkinson are expected to fill those two senior positions in the near future. And when the new men do arrive, there needs to be better communication and connections. One club.
For example, in the week before the Carabao Cup final, players were surprised when none of the hierarchy came to see them at the training ground. It created a feeling of ‘us and them’. The problem is, they don’t really know who ‘them’ is anymore. If the PIF model is to implement a management structure and support from a distance, they need to implement a management structure to support!
On the third anniversary of the takeover in October, I was asked the question: ‘Do the Saudis still care about Newcastle?’ As I concluded then, ‘the anecdotal evidence has returned a resounding yes. But for silent owners especially, actions will speak louder than words’.
In the nine months since, there has been little evidence of tangible action and supporters are rightly asking questions. To paraphrase… ‘WTF is going on?’.
Sources insist that behind the scenes work is ongoing daily and Zoom calls are almost hourly. Indeed, I had coffee with a senior club source in Singapore last week.
Nottingham Forest sporting director Ross Wilson is set to take up the same role at Newcastle
Former Real Madrid supremo David Hopkinson is expected to become Newcastle chief executive, the third person to hold that post in just under four years of PIF ownership
When I suggested – playing devil’s advocate, to a degree – that PIF’s running of the club was starting to look ‘neglectful’, there came a passionate riposte. ‘P****d off’ would be another way of capturing their reaction.
But, from this, I took some reassurance, at least from the perspective of a journalist seeking answers for their audience. I was wrong, they said. PIF’s emphasis is on sound governance, and this is reflected in the time it often takes for processes to complete.
There is no waning of ambition or attention, I was told. It was a strong response and one they revisited before our cups were empty – theirs was never less than half full, at least metaphorically. There will be, I understand, communication very soon in the form of a new CEO. If so, it would be needed at a time of turbulence.
Eales used to say that his work at Newcastle was like fixing an aeroplane mid-flight. The least the owners can do now is fill the cockpit.
