Mattoon

For no reason whatsoever and against the grain, I think we drag this out 0-0

So now we're sacking Howe for made up scenarios in our heads?

Et tu

It sounds like we're looking to actively move away from transfers like this after last summer as a club so I don't think there's much legs in this, only way we go for "premier league proven" is if there is a deal there to be had, we won't be held over a barrel again or be spending big bucks on middling to "good" PL players.

https://smry.ai/inews.co.uk/sport/football/saudi-arabia-newcastle-pif-club-insiders-4372265?ito=link_share_article-top How committed Saudi Arabia is to Newcastle, according to PIF and club insiders Mark Douglas·7 min read·Invalid Date Pretty soon – in a matter of “weeks” rather than months – Newcastle fans are set to get a visible sign of the Saudi Public Investment Fund’s continued commitment to the club. Confirmation of a further tranche of investment by the club’s majority owners – earmarked to purchase the site of where a new state-of-the-art training ground will be built near the city’s airport – will land in the near future on Companies House, The i Paper understands. While the impact of leaks and the pace of legal work prevent anyone from giving an absolutely cast-iron timeline, the funding has the green light. With doubts swirling about the club’s direction and Saudi commitment to investing in sport itself, confirmation of the first major infrastructure project of the PIF era cannot come a minute too soon. The training ground – which may not open its doors until close to the 2030 date that chief executive David Hopkinson has optimistically set for Newcastle to be regularly competing for the Premier League title – will be funded by a combination of PIF investment and capital raised through the club taking on debt. That last point feels important. While the hope of Newcastle fans (and fear of their rivals) was that the club would be viewed as a trophy asset by a fund with deep pockets, that was never, ever intended to be the reality. “PIF is acting like an institutional investor because it is an institutional investor,” was how one source put it. No private equity fund in the world would write a blank cheque to fund a stadium or training ground and PIF is no different. Which is why Newcastle, unlike teetering LIV Golf, does not face the prospect of being cut adrift anytime soon. Are PIF still committed to Newcastle? Newcastle’s season has not met expectations (Photo: Getty) Several sources contacted by The i Paper were unequivocal. Despite the speculation around LIV there is “no change” in the long-term plan for Newcastle. Rumours that they are readying a sale of their stake in the club – which swirled around football circles last week – have been categorically denied by sources, who suspect they are partly the work of opportunistic investors or third parties who would be keen to test the water for a possible Newcastle takeover. Last week PIF announced a new strategy which split the fund’s investment into three “pots”. The first, “Vision 2030”, is for domestic projects. The second, “financial”, is for investments in equity projects and stocks and shares. Stay comfortable during your workouts with H&M’s 5-pack sports socks featuring moisture-wicking DryMove™ technology for all-day freshness. H&m · Sponsored Learn More→ Newcastle sits in the third pot: “strategic”. PIF sources have always said that while the investment is relatively small by the fund’s standards it is important because it is so public-facing. One source went further, referring to it as a PIF “crown jewel” because it gives them a presence in the globally respected Premier League. Is Newcastle viewed as a good investment by Saudi Arabia? Quite apart from the steep improvement on the pitch – with the exception of this season – it is also viewed by PIF as a successful investment off the field. Including the sale price of £305m, PIF have invested around £800m in Newcastle so far. According to the fund’s own internal metric the valuation of the club has significantly outstripped that investment. One source familiar with football acquisitions believes Newcastle are now worth more than £1bn based on the price paid for similar clubs. Contrast that with LIV Golf, which is projected to require further hefty injections of cash to compete with the established golf tours, and you can see why sources describe the two investments as “chalk and cheese”. Newcastle is still growing. The club have this week advertised for a slew of academy recruitment jobs across the Balkans, Italy and Spain. Key new off-the-field roles, in strategy, data and recruitment, are to be confirmed soon. For many fans, though, there is a sense of drift about Newcastle. PIF have no intention of challenging the financial rules that have hamstrung the club’s ambitions, which has caused disquiet. On the ground Eddie Howe’s position has been called into question after a mediocre season began to tailspin while at least one big sale – quite possibly Anthony Gordon, with Bayern Munich interested – is necessary. There is frustration that the issue of St James’ Park expansion is not resolved a year on from a decision being supposedly imminent, although The i Paper has been told that the intention is a call will have been made by the end of the year. A high-level visit by senior PIF figures next week, then, feels symbolically important. How do PIF view this season – and Eddie Howe’s future? Howe is under pressure but is well liked by Al Rumayyan (Photo: Reuters) Next week’s annual “off-site” meeting at Matfen Hall in Northumberland is important and comes with the club seemingly at a crossroads. The team are 14th and set to miss out on their pre-season target of European qualification, which will have a significant impact on their summer business. Frustration is building on the terraces. With Yasir Al-Rumayyan expected to jet into the North East to attend it is being viewed as a chance for the chairman to “grill” Howe on this season’s failings. The reality will be different. The i Paper understands that Al-Rumayyan enjoys a warm relationship with Howe and has regularly enthused about his track record at Newcastle. It’s been stressed that no one gets a “free pass” at St James’ Park and there is clearly frustration at the way the Premier League campaign has unfolded but as it stands the plan is to continue with Howe next season. He has been part of all the club’s preparations for the coming campaign and recruitment planning – which has stepped up this week – has been tailored to bringing in players who would operate well in his system and favoured style. But PIF are, in the words of one source who has worked with them previously, “obsessed with the numbers”. They will want to be across all the data and information and will expect things to change. Insiders suggest lessons of last summer’s fiasco of a transfer window have been learned and work has gone into ensuring there is improvement. The era of signings like Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa seems over. The smart money remains on Howe being in charge – but of a very different looking outfit come August.

Agree with you also, but I see that as an extension of why we are where we are now, too much water under the bridge this season, confidence knocked, players agitating for moves, questions about the "project" and of course Howe himself fighting fires and trying to stick elastoplasts over bullet holes, too scared to change anything meaningful and that's on him, a victim of circumstance but now stuck in his own head. I do think that is circumstantial and not permanent though but I also understand why other people think that it is and maybe he's done his time here.

There seems to be a narrative forming from those vehemently Howe out that he is now to blame for everything and selective evidence used for arguments, again, I will reiterate that I don't think Howe is blameless in this mess, ultimately the buck stops with him and he is the fall guy. Having said that I do feel that he has been massively let down 1. He was let down by Mitchel both in his timing of abandoning his post and his scorched earth approach to players and inter-team relationships 2. He was let down by Isak and his actions and must have felt undermined by some of the players reactions to him leaving 3. He was let down by the Saudi's who just let him cook...with no recipe 4. He's been let down by the players, some more than others, for various reasons. Ultimately a manager earns his keep by finding a way to win, no matter the circumstances, but the cards have been heavily stacked this season and: 5. Now he's being let down by a growing contingent of supporters. I won't try and sway anyone's opinion, everyone is entitled to feel how they feel about the situation, that's just how I see it and why I think he deserves another shot, I don't think he has turned into a crap manager over night.

Never mind, hes gone

LinkedIn Liam looking likely to get the boot tonight

I am still behind Eddie to turn this round, there is a lot to unravel about this season, we all know how it started, I won't rehash that, the knock on effects are glaringly obvious and as the season has gone on and nothing has improved a nervousness and overcompensation has settled in, Eddie is too scared to change anything as he's desperate for points. Putting Gordon up front instead of trying to bleed in Woltemade and work out how to play with him in the side and subsequently trying to play Wissa into some kind of form are all risks he hasn't been willing to take. There's a lot of hyperbole in here though, yes ultimately the buck stops with the manager, but to put the blame solely at his door is unfair in my opinion. The players have either lost belief in themselves or the project, some are now too old to be effective, some have one foot out the door already and there's others who just look jaded or downright uninterested, with just a couple still fighting for the badge. It's going to be a long, hard slog to the end of the season and unlikely we pick up many more points at all. But I absolutely back Howe to come out swinging and get us back to winning ways once this tumultuous season is behind us.

They are in full on bottle mode right now, any other season I'd say we stood a decent chance of actually beating them, but surely they have too much for our bunch of flakes, even with their bottle gone. another 2-1.

So basically we need to score at least 2 in our first 30 minutes to stand a chance

I think it has become patently obvious he has checked out, he's still an effective player and probably one of the best on the pitch currently (low bar), and definitely our best attacking outlet, but long gone are the days he would run the entire length and width of the pitch to win the ball back, harry and press to his full capability, you can see that level of commitment has waned since the Liverpool interest.

I have a bit of skepticism of those quotes as anyone would given the amount of time he has had to recover and build his match fitness back up. Having said that I've always thought we wouldn't get the best out of Wissa until next season, let's not forget that he has never had a serious injury before and only ever missed 14 games in his entire career before he came here, to then suffer one that kept him out for 114 days and 27 games is a huge mountain to climb up for a 29 year old that has never experienced that before. Yes, he might look like he's disinterested, he might be at fault for not being as match fit as he could be, but this is the same manager that ostracised players such as Ryan Fraser so I have to trust him on this one.

Again, we now have a DOF and CEO and Howe has already suggested he is happy not calling all the shots, sure he wants to run the rule over any incomings which he ultimately has to work with but he is not some kind of control freak everyone makes him out to be. Howe or no Howe I don't think the transfer window will look much different.

What about judging him on the Cup runs along side the 6/7th place finish? I think that would be a relatively good season, regardless of the form we're seeing now, however it would take one of his light bulb moments we've been waiting for all season that doesn't look like it's coming this year.

Joao Pedro Liam Delap Hugo Ekitike Benjamin Sesko Hell we even threw the kitchen sink at Isak to make him stay, he had probably 36hrs to get someone through the door at that point and let's not pretend no one thought Wissa was anything but a sure fire bet for goals albeit an expensive acquisition in a desperate situation.

I hope he has a sterling campaign for England and inflates his price so we can cash in, there's a few others that can follow him too after this season, say what you like about Eddie's tactics but he's been let down massively by a few in this team.

What was the other option though after missing out on so many players? Sign no one, again? He had to take risks and they didn't pay off, the Wissa one being probably the lowest risk that turned out to be the worst result. I'm not saying he's blameless but its been a rough 12 months which ever way you lace it.

It's all crumbling to pieces in his hands, I still want him to succeed here and turn this round, one result won't change that for me but it has become a worrying pattern and he looks completely forlorn at the moment. It's at the point now where you can't even point a finger at the issue, it's completely systemic, top to bottom an utter mess. All I know is that this doesn't get fixed before season end and I worry that either Eddie or his bosses call time on his tenure here.

Game owa, let the week long same old tired arguments commence

Wolt on

A draw would be good at this point