Whitley mag

He actually talks about Barella and admits club sold him a dummy.

Bit from Edwards on new stadium towards end of podcast, thinks feasibility study has been done for a while, preferred option is expanding St James, but states other option is Castle Leazes/Leazes Park, basically thinks their procrastinating on it and just need to get on with it, as if new stadium objections will take years to resolve if that’s what they go with. Interestingly while talking about expanding St James he mentions the Leazes and Milburn also, which would suggest some kind of wrap like the Bernabau.

Whilst being a Newcastle supporter programmes us all this way, I don’t see how the club could sell that option against a backdrop of growing the club and increasing revenue streams, quite simply doing nothing is not an option unless they’re looking to the flip the club which is highly unlikely in my opinion.

The bloke who sold the land has allowed cctv on his property to film the land he sold hmmmm

Interesting, also begs the question what the relationship is like now with Reuben and the rest of board, I’m presuming he was gutted to see PCP leave as they seem to have been close for years.

From 8 mins nothing new but think Hope comes across alright to be honest, I don’t think there’s much doubt in my mind Amanda was pushed out well before time and nothing to do with diluting shareholding. I do think Eales and Silverstone probably stuck the knife in, but ultimately PIF decided there time was up and we have to trust they’ve seen enough to think the club will run better without them. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfEYZeWdVAU

The club is signed up and bound by PL rules unfortunately.

Hopefully the Lillywhites get another pummelling today.

Think it’s hard to challenge where signed up members of the PL so we can’t take it to a CAT and if we put forward a motion we’ll just get out voted.

Great to see Yasir here no wonder that cunt quickly removed the fencing from outside the East Stand.

Howay The Fucking Lads just been watching this latest rumble bang up for these cockneys now.

Newcastle's 33-year-old defender Kieran Trippier, who retired from England duty last week, has agreed a deal with Turkish side Eyupspor. (Sportsdigitale - in Turkish)

Aye crazy money for a player who apart from blistering pace looks a bit limited technically to me.

It was 35 million plus Miggy to Forrest, still think that’s mental for Elanga if true.

Definitely no option, it’s to be hoped this summer is a watershed and hopefully PIF are also asking the right questions to stop this shambles happening again.

Agree he just needs to get on with it don’t want to hear PSR hampered us this window, changes to structure caused problems etc. Just get on with it and prove you can do the fucking job starting with some news on the stadium, training ground and sponsorships. I think there’s multiple things at play in the confused transfer strategy, but he’s in charge now bang heads and fucking sort it.

I mean what I will say is that my confidence isn’t sky high with this bloke currently, from a CEO point of view I can understand why he’d want to be able to get on with things without interference though. There can be no doubt that Amanda was a force of nature and got things done, however she’s probably most culpable for the PSR situation, but she sorted it before she left so fair play. Eales really needs actions to speak louder than words now, the fanbase is cynical of gobshites who don’t deliver, we need to see something tangible going forward from him.

Here’s the article so nobody needs to click - REVEALED: The truth behind Newcastle's turbulent transfer window 02:00, 31 Aug 2024, updated 08:42, 31 Aug 2024 By Craig Hope This is all starting to feel a bit Mike Ashley. Now there is a statement you never thought you’d make when, 12 months ago, Newcastle Unitedwere about to play in the Champions League for the first time in 20 years and were signing £52million Italy internationals. It was, in reality, something of an illusion, the notion of a Saudi-backed super club ready to become No 1 in the world, the intention as declared by chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan. The truth was that Eddie Howe’s brilliant management, their equally remarkable recruitment and force-of-nature personalities such as Amanda Staveley and husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi had taken them on a magic carpet ride, fuelled by optimism and renewed ambition. Not to mention the relief of no more Ashley. In just 18 months, the team went from 19th to fourth and barely a misstep was made. Yet, in terms of infrastructure —training ground, stadium, sponsorship and commercial revenues — it remained a work in progress. As chief executive Darren Eales said: ‘It’s like building a plane whilst in the air.’ Well, this summer, that plane — and the carpet — have come crashing back down to earth. For the first time, we can reveal the truth behind a boardroom fallout that has shaped what Howe describes as the most difficult summer of his managerial career, in which only £10m was spent on one back-up player, new sporting director Paul Mitchell was unable to deliver the manager’s top target, Marc Guehi, and stars such as Anthony Gordon were nearly sold to satisfy a £70m deficit in meeting the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules. It is Howe who will be left to pick up the pieces amid the turbulence. Newcastle endured a difficult summer transfer window where they didn't achieve their aims They failed to sign their major target Marc Guehi, despite a lengthy pursuit of the defender There was also a boardroom fallout that led to Amanda Staveley and husband Mehrdad Ghodoussi selling their six per cent share and leaving the club (pictured earlier this year) But the plane had started to come apart towards the end of last season, when tension at boardroom level would lead to Staveley and Ghodoussi leaving the club in July. However, as multiple sources have now confirmed, the co-owners were forced out. We have learnt that, when Jacobo Solis — a senior figure from the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the majority owners — asked questions over the day-to-day running of the club, Eales communicated that he could not do things as he would like because Staveley and Ghodoussi were too involved. It caused a split at the very top of the club, and Staveley and Ghodoussi felt they had no option but to sell their six per cent share and go. This, it is said, left them heartbroken. For fans, Howe and players, it meant the loss of the reassuring presence of a pair who had been the face of Newcastle re-United. Staveley could be a maverick, but as one source said: ‘Everything around her was a million miles an hour, but she always wanted the best for the club. She got s*** done.’ Read More Without them — and with Eales and his new appointment Mitchell now taking the lead on recruitment — s*** hasn’t got done this summer. In fact, it’s been a bit of a s***show. This brings us back to Ashley. In 2008, he brought in Dennis Wise as a de facto director of football when Kevin Keegan was manager. Keegan quit within eight months and later won a constructive dismissal case, citing the interference of Wise and the removal of his control over transfers. That is not to compare anyone at the club to Wise and Keegan, Mitchell arrives with a good reputation, but more so to highlight the dangers when the ‘working dynamic’ — Howe’s words — suddenly changes. He said that during an extraordinary half-hour with written journalists at a pre-season training camp in Germany in July, when he effectively placed a probationary period on his working relationship with Eales, Mitchell and new performance director James Bunce. It was at a time when he was being linked with the England job, a vacancy he is yet to categorically distance himself from. ‘I absolutely want to stay but it has to be right for me and the club,’ he said. ‘There’s no point in me saying I’m happy staying at Newcastle if the dynamic isn’t right. As a new team coming together, we have to set our boundaries.’ Howe was told to concentrate on coaching the squad. Before this window, he worked closely with Staveley and Ghodoussi. They were his allies and formed a transfer team, aided (but not necessarily led) by sporting director Dan Ashworth. It has all started to feel a bit Mike Ashley this summer, a statement that would have been barely believable 12 months ago as Newcastle began their return to the Champions League Chief executive Darren Eales has come under heavy criticism for his work over the window Alongside new sporting director Paul Mitchell, the pair have taken a lead on recruitment Their record was close to perfect — Kieran Trippier, Bruno Guimaraes, Nick Pope, Alexander Isak, Gordon, each brought in at what have proven to be bargain prices. Howe had round-the-clock updates, even jumping off water slides during a family holiday in California to take calls from the owners. This summer, he has been left somewhat in the dark. Mitchell, we are told, said that he could deliver Guehi when it was decided that the Crystal Palace centre back was the target all parties agreed would improve the team. And so began a month-long saga in which Palace chairman Steve Parish, some suspect, never really intended to sell Guehi. Mitchell believed he had a good relationship with Parish, but every failed offer found its way into the public domain, much to Newcastle’s annoyance. Read More Inside the wild west of the fight to comply with the Premier League's PSR rules Those inside St James’ Park also disputed what constituted an offer. A text message? A chat? Either way, the figures being discussed went from £45m to close to £70m in a one-horse race. It was not a good look. Sources say Parish was enjoying it all the while. He was, it is claimed, extremely miffed by Newcastle’s approach for his sporting director Dougie Freedman in April. It is said that he felt Eales and Newcastle had gone behind his back. Freedman opted to stay — the salary on offer was said to be too low — and Mitchell was instead appointed in July. As recently as Tuesday, there was confidence that a deal for Guehi would happen. Some close to Palace raised eyebrows and a smile when Alan Shearer publicly called on Eales and Mitchell to deliver a big signing, and within hours an offer of £65m plus £5m in add-ons had landed. But when Parish told Newcastle that, after a knee injury suffered by defender Chadi Riad, the asking price was £70m plus £5m, Mitchell was furious. It is said he has been driven mad by the constant moving of the goalposts on the deal. Parish strung them along, perhaps always intent on retribution over Freedman. There is, then, sympathy for Newcastle and Mitchell, who had worked hard in the belief it could happen. Advertisement But one source said: ‘There is a way to play Steve Parish. You wonder if Amanda and Mehrdad would have got the deal done. ‘There was a feeling earlier in the summer that £50m should have been enough for Guehi. They were excellent negotiators. Look at the deal for Gordon last year — she stuck to her guns and got it done at £40m. Maybe that has been missed.’ Guehi, who was Howe's No 1 target this summer, was chased throughout the transfer window Newcastle figures became increasingly miffed as they failed to get a deal done with Palace chairman Steve Parish for the England defender, who some claim enjoyed the whole saga Mitchell has suggested other names to Howe in recent weeks — including Chelsea’s Axel Disasi and Nice defender Jean-Clair Todibo — but the head coach did not want to sign the wrong type of player or character for the sake of it. Todibo went to West Ham on loan and was hooked after just 45 minutes of his full debut this week. Multiple sources have told us that Howe was right to guard against signing him. It is suggested that Mitchell has been frustrated by Guehi being the only viable option at centre back, but we understand there was a longer list of targets who Howe had liked coming into the summer, but they moved on. Two players have arrived — Lloyd Kelly on a free transfer (a deal that was brokered towards the end of last season) and striker William Osula, a 21-year-old understudy from Sheffield United. With talk of increasing tension internally, it left Howe to answer some difficult questions yesterday morning, when he conceded to the press that no new faces were likely to arrive. ‘We haven’t had the window that we wanted to have, there is no denying that,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to sit here and say it’s been a brilliant transfer window for us. I think everyone would look at me and think, “I’m not sure he’s telling the truth there”. Read More ‘We’re in a really difficult situation with PSR and available funds, attracting the right players and players who we think can make a difference. It’s such a delicate spot for us, we’ve got to try and get it right and if we don’t, then doing nothing — as frustrating as that is — is probably the best option. There’s a feeling we have a good squad, but there’s a feeling there’s a few areas we need to strengthen.’ One of those areas was right wing, a position in need of improvement since the Saudi takeover nearly three years ago. There was a deadline-day approach for Nottingham Forest’s Anthony Elanga, but it was all too late for a deal to happen. Again, it evoked memory of calamitous deadline days under Ashley. It has left Howe and supporters frustrated. Newcastle have managed to keep Gordon, Isak and Guimaraes this summer, but fail to make the Champions League come May and there is a danger the trio will be off. To that end, the need to strengthen the team this season was even greater. And what of that chaotic weekend at the end of June when Newcastle frantically battled to avoid breaching PSR rules and a 10-point deduction? Howe had warned the club that the hole in the accounts needed to be resolved in good time, without star players being unsettled. But that is what happened with Gordon. Mail Sport broke the story of the winger being offered to Liverpool. He was with England in Germany at the time, and a medical in Leipzig was even mooted, so real was the possibility of a deal accelerating. It did not happen because Staveley brokered the £33m sale of Yankuba Minteh to Brighton and Elliot Anderson — much to the player and Howe’s disappointment — was sold to Forest for £35m. However, the latter was only possible because Newcastle agreed to take Greek goalkeeper Odysseas Vlachodimos for an eight-figure fee that we are told would ‘make your eyes water’. The Magpies have since tried to send him out on loan. William Osula's £10m move from Sheffield United meant he was the only outfield player Newcastle spent money on this summer, yet the Danish striker is merely a back-up Many have claimed the window would've gone a lot better if Staveley was still around the club Howe has been left frustrated but it is him who has to pick up the pieces amid the turbulence Advertisement But with PSR satisfied, they had money to spend this summer. As one source said: ‘Yes, PSR limits what the club can do, but there was still big scope to spend with the funds available, plus extra headroom generated by sales. But they haven’t sold and haven’t bought. That’s nothing to do with PSR — that’s negotiating skills.’ Supporter angst will turn on Eales and Mitchell, not least because of Shearer’s warning to them. Eales did not help himself when, on a stage in the St James’ fan zone this month, he started a terrace chant with a crowd who would rather he was closing deals. Dancing Darren, as he was dubbed, has got PIF to dance to his tune with the removal of Staveley and Ghodoussi, but his first transfer window in charge has ended on the flattest of notes. To compound a bad day, the club were forced to distance themselves from Conservative MP Robert Jenrick using access to St James’ to promote his leadership candidacy. He was with former chairman Sir John Hall who, Newcastle said, had told them he wanted to film a biographical piece on his own life. There was also the bizarre issue of a private landowner erecting fencing directly outside some East Stand turnstiles, raising concerns over fan safety ahead of tomorrow’s visit of Tottenham. This isn’t the club’s fault, of course, but it is an extra headache for them, especially as brows will already be banging after the most disorderly summer in recent memory. And we thought the bedlam of Ashley was a thing of the past. Match Day

It’s to be hoped Mitchell can influence some change going forward, but if Edwards article is true sounds like he’s just as culpable in the drawn out chase of Guehi.

Apart from Olise think the links have been seriously underwhelming, certainly nothing to get anyone excited about.

The Edwards article hints that he wasn’t disappointed to see Amanda go.

Still young but end product severely lacking and seems geared towards counter attacking. This approach shows the real shortage of quality right sided forwards available in this window, happy to keep our powder dry and aim higher on this occasion.

Happy to revisit after next couple of windows but think there’s been a shift, real lack of overseas links this summer, fingers burnt by Tonali perhaps, but agree Mitchell’s track record suggests he knows the European market so will be interesting to see.

The fact is the ratio of PL purchases to overseas purchases has altered since first 2 windows, might be reasons but it’s a fact all the same.