Whitley mag

I’d be tempted to play Wissa on the right and see if he can do something out there. I suspect he’ll not have the defensive discipline for Eddie, but another defeat here with 200 million worth of talent on the bench is practically signing your own redundancy at this stage.

We’re usually slow starters to the season, so in a scenario where we finish this season poorly as looks nailed on, what happens if we start next season shite and Howe’s been backed in the summer? We’ll be in a position where we’ve given him the benefit of doubt and then plunged into crisis by October. Appointing a new manager is a risky business but should Howe finish the season poorly, I thinks it’s equally risky sticking with him. My take remains if he finishes this season poorly as per yesterdays performance, I want a new manager and fresh start this summer.

This is the crux for me, if Wilson provides Howe with young technical players from Europe, what happens to them and does Howe want them going off what he said on Friday? I absolutely get the loyalty angle from people in here who think he should get next season, but does everything align with him remaining in terms of recruitment? I’m not sure, so many questions now and binning off one of Europe’s top striker prospects because he’s not quick and doesn’t press, sends out a worrying one dimensional outlook. Even Pep transformed his style to accommodate Haaland, I just see no evolution under Howe and think he’ll simply double down on the 4-3-3 next season with less fixtures. He’s a great ambassador and dignified bloke, but it all looks and sounds very stale under him right now.

Definitely should have been a DoF in place during the summer, but there’s reasons why there wasn’t. Did Howe have to do more in terms of getting his hands dirty in the summer, very probably but his quotes from Friday are very clear in terms of who decides who we sign. Nobody forced him to spend the money on Woltemade and Wissa it was his choice. “I think from my perspective, we’ve recruited players here since I’ve been here in the same way. So, although we’ve had different sporting directors, the processes haven’t changed. “So, when we recruit a player, what’s fundamentally important is that me and the coaching team like that player and can see a way that we can get the very best out of him in our team. Signing a player that doesn’t fit that criteria, I think, is unhealthy. “And the club have been really good in helping me sort of mould the squad as I want to. So I think I always say judge me by every signing that we’ve made since I’ve been here, not just by one or two that people want to sort of beat me with a stick with. “Across the board, I think we’ve recruited really well. Of course, there will be question marks on certain players. I understand that comes with the territory. But I’m really proud of our recruitment. “There’s a lot of work that’s gone into it. But all the players that we’ve signed, whether it’s abroad or domestic based, have been chased and endorsed by myself.”

Take the strikers out of the equation then and say we give them the benefit of doubt. Did you consider long term targets Ramsey and Elanga the right players, considering where we were lacking? That’s a 100 million on those 2 by the way and both Eddie Howe picks?

Fabregas would be my top choice, would come with an element of risk but would bring excitement and ability to attract players. Would increase our profile considerably which is important for club growing financially and internationally. After that i’d go for the Stuttgart manager and then Iraola.

What manager gets 250 million to spend at his own free will in the modern game? It just doesn’t happen and the trust placed in Howe during the summer was badly misplaced. PIF ultimately have to be held accountable for allowing it to happen, however a lot of people thought Howe had earned the right by winning our first trophy to have full control. It’s been his undoing and to have that amount of money sat on the bench today was damning. The team is stale and the sale of an Isak when it happened, was meant to trigger a full opportunity to rebuild. Howe will have his place in the clubs history enshrined, but he’s absolutely set the club back and potentially damaged us to the point it’ll be difficult to recover for the next couple of seasons financially.

I think his comments below are where the problem may arise, the club have said player trading is going to be part of the future business model, I interpret the below as Howe saying if we sold Tonali etc then ambitions need to be realigned. The club won’t be re aligning any ambitions, if he sells Tonali for 100 million and we bring in 3 players worth 50 million, that is done with a view of moving the club forward. Last summer is a prime example, we sell Isak and brought in more players, unfortunately it didn’t work, but it will have to work in the future and he needs to accept selling a purple doesn’t mean the club lower ambitions, it’s to move the club forward. On the prospect of more of their best players may being sold Howe said: "If that's the reality and I'm not saying it is - David will know more than me on that - then that is the reality. I have no issue working with the conditions that the club set and finances dictate." He added: "I've never had an issue with that all through my career so as long as that's made clear to everybody on the outside and the expectations are aligned within that because I don't think you can have expectations that warp reality, everything has to be aligned for the players to enter the pitch and play in their best place where they're relaxed and not under undue pressure."

Oh dear rinse and repeat we never learn. If Neco Williams is Tino’s replacement and you can be assured they’ll take our eye balls out, it doesn’t bode well for the summer ahead.

Such a shame Ashworth left I wonder if he has any regrets. Few rumours it was because of PCP running the show that he was frustrated, but think he could have done a great long term job had he remained.

I don’t think they want it to be a PIF related company if possible, we’re a business to them and external money coming into their portfolio is what they want. When it comes to the new stadium it might be a different matter, If it’s going to be their European hub to host boxing events etc, they might think the exposure for one of their companies is worth it. Essentially though I think they’d genuinely prefer us to attract outside sponsorship.

Can see us signing at least 3 defenders this summer with Trippier and Tino seemingly away. This SCR in Europe at 70% looks a serious problem for the club going off the financial figure released. I think next season is going to signal a real change and possible transition period if we qualify for any European football. Think a keeper is the number one priority no matter what and if it means spending 40 million on one we have to do it. Would also like to see a top right back replace Tino and think Palestra, Givairo Read and Acheampong would be great options and potentially better. The defence has become a real issue and something like the following would give us real depth and scope to grow going forward: Risser Read/Palestra Acheampong Methalie

Might be a mackem but his last paragraph isn’t far off the mark. Mitchell was probably a cunt but he called our transfer strategy as being not fit for purpose and that was before Howe was let loose last summer. The club are ultimately to blame for allowing that situation to occur, it wasn’t being ran as a modern organisation in regard to recruitment. The question is will the current manager accept having young players from Europe handed to him this summer, especially if they are replacing proven players like Tonali and Tino. If Howe stays he needs to be completely on board with this approach, or we’ll end up in the Woltemade situation where the new signings aren’t trusted and we’ll have square pegs in round holes. I still think Howe walks in the summer and my monies on him replacing Tuchel after the World Cup.

Rebuild starts in the summer and these last 7 games might shape who is in charge to oversee it. If we get 7 games where it looks like the players don’t give a fuck, then the manager has problems.

Apart from Isak which I don’t think he had much involvement with he had a pretty quiet summer then? I’d say he was a bit more qualified than Andy in dealing with incomings as well.

Good to see Wilson has taken Nickson off the sales department from last summer.

The noise is getting louder and it’s a fair point to think is it right for the CEO to ramp pressure on his own manager in public. However, i also don’t think it’s the right approach to write off the final 7 games and just say Eddie go again next season. In a situation where we don’t beat the likes of Brighton and Bournemouth at home, it’s going to be difficult for the club to hold their nerve, if the same short comings are laid to bare again and there’s no sign of any tactical adjustments. At the end of the day it’s in Eddie’s hands, if he can’t get a tune out of these players in the last 7 games it gives the club a decision to make in my opinion.

Newcastle United chief executive David Hopkinson and chief financial officer Simon Capper have presented the club's latest accounts showing a record turnover of £335.3million, an increase of £15m on 2023-24. The pair met with journalists at St James' Park and, during a bombshell briefing, it was revealed that the stadium has been sold to a subsidiary company controlled by the club's ownership. But the biggest news to emerge is that the future of Eddie Howe is uncertain, as is that of star players such as Sandro Tonali. Our chief football reporter CRAIG HOPE was in the room, and here he brings you the headlines and breaks down exactly what all of it means on a hugely significant day inside St James'… CONTEXT: Newcastle were beaten 2-1 by Sunderland last time out and, post-match, Howe and his players were booed by some supporters inside St James'. The result left the team 12th in the Premier League and, inevitably, there was an angry backlash. It has led to debate over Howe's future on Tyneside and beyond. QUESTION: Do you have an update on Eddie Howe's future? HOPKINSON: 'I don't have a stance on his future. What I can tell you is that the derby loss hurt. We take it seriously. There's nothing within us that thinks, "Well, it's just three points and on we go". It has resonated. I spent a couple of hours in a one-on-one lunch recently with Eddie and we talked through a multitude of things, including that. 'Eddie's our manager. I expect to have a great run to the end of the season here and we'll talk about the future when it's time. Right now, we're focused on this season's competition.' Q: Can you clarify your comments about the manager, as it seemed you were leaving it open, saying his future will be assessed in the summer? 'I would not frame it that way. We are not looking to make a change at the moment. We are not having those conversations. We are still in the midst of the season. Right now we are focused on the seven matches we have remaining and not distracting ourselves with speculation about what we may or may not do in the summer. Right now, all of us have only got so much bandwidth and we are focused on this season and finishing strongly.' Q: What does the summer look like? Is there capacity to make 4/5 top signings to take the club where it wants to be? HOPKINSON: 'First off, we've got seven matches to go and we don't know in which regulatory regime we are going to be operating. If the season ended today, we'd be outside European competition, although that is not our ambition. 'We have two directions of planning. Two scenarios with a multitude of strategies that follow either scenario. What I can tell you is that Ross Wilson (sporting director), Simon, Eddie and myself, everybody who is attached, is working through what our strategy is this summer in either scenario. We all agree we need to be prepared for either scenario, deeply and extensively now, as opposed to waiting to see which scenario we are in.' CRAIG HOPE'S ANALYSIS: In September, Hopkinson called Howe the club's 'Bruce Springsteen' and said it was his job to give the head coach all he needed to succeed. The fact the CEO was not as forthright this time leaves his comments open to misinterpretation. What I can tell you is that this was not, 'Howe has seven games to save his job'. All of my information remains that there is support for Howe among the hierarchy inside St James'. However, there is doubt over his long-term future. Should the club miss out on Champions League qualification, as looks likely, the ability to invest and reshape the squad will be dependent on at least one big sale, if not more. Naturally, this has led to some uncertainty over the direction of travel on and off the pitch. Howe sees this season as an end-of-cycle moment and wants to go again with a rebuild - he loves the club and the area - but discussions over how the summer looks and what scope there is to spend on transfers and wages will continue. While so much is uncertain, Howe's future is part of that - and only at the end of the season will all parties sit down to determine the best way forward. For me, Newcastle have to find a way of sticking to what Hopkinson vowed in the autumn - and that is giving Howe what he needs to succeed. He has been the overriding reason for the club's journey from 19th to the Champions League (twice) and the lifting of a first domestic trophy in 70 years (last season's Carabao Cup). CONTEXT: Newcastle sold Alexander Isak for a British record £125m to Liverpool last summer. This time around, Sandro Tonali is wanted by Manchester United and others, while Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento have also been linked with moves away. Q: There was a stigma (historically) of Newcastle being a selling club. It then went to a buying club. Is it now a trading club? HOPKINSON: 'Going forward, our strategy is to buy well and sell well. Buying well does not necessarily mean spending the most money. It means working in the market place for the players that generate the most value for this club rather than the fee paid for them. So there are a multitude of strategies we need to employ, including developing our own, looking for opportunities in the market place and making sure we are maximising our opportunity within the available price we can produce.' Q: Does this mean extracting maximum price when selling a player? HOPKINSON: 'It absolutely does.' Q: In hindsight, was Alexander Isak a good sale? HOPKINSON: 'To me, Isak was a good sale.' Q: If players like Tonali come to your door and want to leave, what do you do? HOPKINSON: 'We haven't got an overall strategy with regards players out, necessarily. We think through what players might or might not want to do this summer. But if an Isak-like scenario presents itself again, any player under contract is going to leave on our terms and we're going to maximise the opportunity that might represent for the club. Players that leave this club will need to do so on our terms.' Q: Can you make a box-office signing this summer? HOPKINSON: 'We can do that. But we might not be able to do that without selling somebody.' Q: Does Eddie Howe need to make Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa work because of spending rules, as they could only, realistically, be sold at a big loss? HOPKINSON: 'I go back to the analogy of a house - every asset, every multi-million player has a value. We will need to look for any opportunity to extract maximum value from every player, whether that's here or someplace else.' Q: There's a perception that Howe doesn't want to part with players. Is he on board with the need to trade going forward? HOPKINSON: 'Eddie is experienced, thoughtful and understands squad cost management and the need to maximise our competitive opportunity. Eddie wants the exact same things we do and we have lots of good dialogue with him. What I can tell you is he is aligned and understands this.' CRAIG HOPE'S ANALYSIS: Let's start with the second-to-last answer, in which Hopkinson had earlier spoken to us about even your own home having a number at which you would sell, regardless of sentimental attachment. That clearly translates to - every player has a price. And, in a new world of the Premier League's Squad Cost Ratio and UEFA's spending rules, this should not be a surprise. If Man United offer £100m for Tonali, for example, I think he would be sold. Gordon and Livramento and others will also be the subject of interest. This leaves a very uncertain picture for Howe and the hierarchy to consider. But the message from this briefing was clear - Newcastle have to trade to get ahead of spending rules. Also, it is my understanding that the £250m spent on players last summer means a big sale is necessary to unlock spending this summer. Hopkinson's comment about 'Isak being a good sale' is sure to raise eyebrows with supporters and beyond. But he was speaking in the context of a player wanting to go and Newcastle extracting a British record fee - it was a pragmatic view and one the club should have taken last June, instead of playing cat and mouse with Liverpool until the final day of the window. The main constraint on Newcastle going forward is UEFA's 70 per cent equivalent of the Premier League's Squad Cost Ratio, which operates at 85 per cent. If Newcastle are out of European competition next year, for example, why don't they just spend to the max of the Premier League limit? Well, because this would leave them in a position where it would be almost impossible to comply with UEFA's rules the following season. In short, if Newcastle don't make the Champions League and want to reshape the squad significantly, they will have to sell to buy. CONTEXT: The 72-year lease on St James’ Park has been sold to a subsidiary company (PZ Holdings Ltd) under the control of the club’s owners - PIF and the Reuben brothers - for £172.1m and leased back to the club for what appears to be 50 years. The transaction has generated a profit of £129m and was valued at fair market rate by the Premier League. While this has helped the club avoid a Premier League points deduction for breaching PSR (Newcastle say this was not the intention of the transaction) it will not be enough to satisfy UEFA's financial rules. They do not allow such sales to sister companies to be declared as profit, and sources have confirmed Newcastle will almost certainly be hit with a fine. Chelsea and Aston Villa have previously been fined £27m and £9m respectively by UEFA. Q: Was this an accountancy ploy to beat PSR and avoid a points deduction? CAPPER: 'The motivation was very much to reorganise our property assets and get them into the correct legal boxes to allow us to go forward with our potential development, either at St James' Park or for a new stadium, and to facilitate that with financing and other similar items. There may be more similar transactions to come in the future, depending on what we end up doing. 'But the profit calculation that had to be done is then a consequence of the detail of the accounting rules that the Premier League require us to follow in doing any transaction with a company that is associated with us. So it does create a very significant accounting profit because of that.' Q: Does this give you a transfer war-chest, then? What does it give you re: player investment? CAPPER: 'Because of the consequence of the profit calculated on the sale, it gives us a significant amount of PSR headroom. The ability to deploy that PSR headroom is very limited because we have to comply with UEFA rules and because the PSR regime is coming to an end, so that profit does not roll forward into squad cost. In a very narrow window, yes (it gives us more scope to spend on players), but we are very constrained in how we can use that.' CRAIG HOPE'S ANALYSIS: This, you will recognise, is an accountancy trick previously used by the likes of Chelsea. It has generated huge PSR headroom for the club, so why don’t they use it? The problem is that PSR is changing to SCR, while UEFA’s rules disallow such transactions, so going forward this does not really impact on transfer/wages outlay. Why have they done it, then? The club say it is common practice to set up such a company to act as a means of holding funds for infrastructural work, such as a St James’ renovation or new stadium. What they will not comment on either way is whether it helped them comply with PSR last year. However, sources say it did help with the calculation, especially as the club are still carrying a lot of debt from 2023, and this in turn helped avoid a points deduction. When the club really should have sold St James’ to themselves was in 2023/24, the season after which they were forced to sell Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh to get by PSR. So while this news may excite some fans, it does not release vast sums for summer investment. And, from a UEFA standpoint, it is not recognised as profit, meaning a significant fine is now likely. CONTEXT: Newcastle have only sold one player, Allan Saint-Maximin, to a PIF-owned Saudi club since the 2021 takeover. It has raised the question as to why they have not done it more, given the need at various times to sell players. Q: Do UEFA rules on associated-party player sales stop you doing business with Saudi clubs? CAPPER: It doesn't stop us doing business. What it means is if we make a profit, it doesn't count. We sell a player that's worth a pound for £10million and make a profit of £9.999million in the Premier League but make a profit of zero in UEFA. We just don't get a profit. Q: But other clubs benefit from doing business with Saudi? CAPPER: This is some frustration for us. Our competitors can sell a player to a Saudi club for massive profit and bank that for their various compliance calculations. CRAIG HOPE'S ANALYSIS: This is useful in explaining why Newcastle don't sell, for example, Kieran Trippier to a Saudi club for £50m. If Trippier is valued at £10m, that £40m profit counts for nothing in the calculations of financial rules. The frustration is understandable, given rivals have benefited from this. But I would argue it's then on PIF to find other ways to help Newcastle. Have they done enough to push back on spending boundaries? Not when you look at sponsorship opportunities that have not been pursued, plus the ongoing failure to update on a new training ground or stadium. CONTEXT: David Hopkinson stated last year that Newcastle want to be among the conversation as the best club in the world by 2030. Q: You've got to double revenue in four years to get close to the 2030 vision, how are you going to do it? Is that realistic? HOPKINSON: 'First off, the size of the challenge you've under-scoped, because those other clubs are also going to be moving forward too. When I think about our competitors, they are formidable and have already got a head-start on us. But all they've got is a head-start and we've got a tremendous opportunity for growth right in front of us. 'I look at the commercial opportunity and we have significant headroom to catch up. It means we've got to work harder, we've got to work smarter with high conviction and energy every single day to capture that headroom. We've got to catch these guys, and by the way they are on the racecourse too. 'We can debate how long that is going to take, but I think we can get there quickly into a group that is competing for those top prizes.' CRAIG HOPE'S ANALYSIS: I admire and applaud Hopkinson's ambition and his drive in making his vision a reality - we'd soon criticise if he were not trying to make Newcastle one of the world's best. But, looking at the current landscape on financial restrictions, the absence of a training ground or new stadium and the continuing growth of their rivals, the 2030 deadline seems unrealistic. This, in turn, could create an issue around expectation for those on the playing side. What needs to happen at Newcastle is less words and more action. Build a training ground. Announce a new stadium or St James' redevelopment. Bring in some big sponsors. Show more engagement and presence from the ownership. All of these are worth far more than statements of intent, as much as Hopkinson is well intentioned and recognises the need to change the culture inside the club. CONTEXT: Hopkinson was asked for updates on a new training ground and stadium and replied to both by saying, 'We are not in a position to announce today'. He did say the training ground was closer, though, and also stressed that work was ongoing daily on both projects. CRAIG HOPE'S ANALYSIS: I don't understand why, approaching five years into their ownership, PIF have made no tangible progress on either project, especially as infrastructural investment falls outside of PSR. The training ground, especially, would be such a huge difference-maker when it comes to attracting and retaining players. An announcement is close on a site for this development in Woolsington, near Newcastle Airport, but getting this into the public domain before the summer would certainly help with the optics around the club. Not least because all of the above within this article, and the fallout from it, does not paint a picture of a club ready and able to challenge at the very top.

Is it not just PIF clubs, surely they can’t apply it to the whole country, especially as PIF are trying to sell the Saudi clubs?

New CEO setting high standards for remainder of season. I like it and pleased to see he realises how much derby day performance was unacceptable.

Absolutely 2 most important games of the season, bar being in a cup semi/final. Losing to Barcelona didn’t register compared to the aftermath of mackems game.

That’s what the data shows, not denying we miss Bruno but he’s only missed 3 of the 7 games without Wolt up front? League games at SJP this season Woltemade starting up front: 9 games - 20 points Anyone else up front: 7 games - 6 points

The data backs it up we got more points with Wolt up front at home. Even when we had Isak up front we struggled to break the low block at home and everyone was saying we needed a different option at times. Funnily enough I think Woltemade as a 10 and Isak up front would have been a cracking combination. If we sell one of our few technical players this summer because the manager doesn’t know how to utilise him, I think it says everything and it’s not Nick who should be leaving.

Trick will be stoping the cartel poaching them before they sign pro deals.

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