Earlier today, The Athletic released the first of three articles to be published this week to mark the one-year anniversary of Newcastle United’s takeover.
In the first piece, Chris Waugh and George Caulkin reveal a fascinating list of what’s to come after speaking to ‘multiple figures’ at ‘every level’ of the club, featuring everything from recruitment plans, Saudi training camps and our mission to break the attendance record for a domestic women’s game.
They also state that there is a mood of ‘excitement and energy’ behind the scenes at St James’ Park, with the club doubling down on their plans to be competing ‘at the highest level’ in five to 10 years time.
Without further ado, here’s the brilliant list of future plans and ongoing commitments The Athletic have been made aware of after discussions with a host of key figures at the club:
- There is a belief it will take three summer windows to fully rebuild the squad
- The ownership’s five-to-10-year timeline for competing at the highest level remains unchanged
- There is unequivocal support for the “incredible” Eddie Howe and recognition internally that this is a season of transition for the first team
- Building commercial revenues is the next big challenge, but Newcastle are effectively starting from scratch. Their commercial department has been a staff of four — the biggest clubs in the Premier League employ 250 people
- Newcastle are in discussions with documentary-makers
- They have narrowed down their search for a new training ground to four sites, which must now include accommodation for players
- At Howe’s insistence, they have invested heavily on their existing training facility, including spending £1m on building and maintaining a new hydrotherapy unit
- Pre-takeover, the annual academy budget was little more than half of the average Category 1 Premier League club budget but has now been significantly boosted
- They are close to announcing the next women’s game to be played at St James’, with the club “desperate” to beat the domestic league record 47,000 attendance
- They are returning to Saudi during the World Cup for a winter training camp
- There are wider infrastructure plans for the city and the club will press the Government to bring their “levelling-up” agenda to Newcastle
- Supporters will be consulted before any contentious commercial decisions, with the club mulling over a stadium partner rather than full-blown naming rights.
So, another women’s game at St James’ Park set to be announced soon, plans stepping up for a new training ground, a huge boost to our academy budget, a second training camp in Saudi Arabia on the horizon and talks talking place with documentary-makers, plus much, much more.
Some hugely exciting stuff, highlighting what a bright short, medium and long-term future we have ahead of ourselves on Tyneside, both on and off the pitch.
You can read the brilliant in-depth piece in full here.
