How Do We Challenge?

[Nepharite]

After the takeover, we have spent a ton of money and developed our identity and style under Eddie's management. What do we need to do to become challengers for the Premier League?

[cannybagoftudor]

Good question - the reality, I think, is we need 3 elevens of sufficient quality - we have 2 at the moment. So more revenue is required - because of PSR it will have to be gradual but a shiny new stadium and a cup this year would help.

[Jonas]

Great question.

Aside from PSR being thrown out or something fairer being brought in (ie not a pecking order of who can spend what starting with who already has spent the most).

Personally I cant see it happening in a sustained way because of those rules, which is demoralising as I dreamt of that in our darkest days, so will be interesting to see others thoughts.

[HaydnNUFC]

Get better players than the ones we've got.

 

Whilst simplistic that's what it boils down to. Talking about the current team, we need more regular output from our wide players, probably a better GK than Pope (with the ball at his feet particularly) and we need another Bruno/Tonali level midfielder imo. Unsure if Ramsey could be that and I don't think Joelinton is technically good enough to be in a side that gets you 80-95 points which is what you need to be reaching to challenge. Plus with added PSR we basically can't miss in the transfer market.

 

Lastly, we need to be much better away from home. Especially at the top sides. Out of the teams that finished between 1st and 13th last season, we beat only 1 of them away from home: Forest. We were poor away from home in 2023-24 as well but we were particularly dreadful away at the big 6 sides that season. To challenge for the league you need to go into those games believing you can win them and I don't think we do as a club. It's partly mentality too but you ultimately get there by doing what the first sentence of this post says.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2025 by HaydnNUFC

[JT24]

Stop having slow starts to the season. 

[Moose]

There's a lot to break down but to answer the question, for a team under circumstances such as ours, it's the one thing that has us competing at the moment: a good manager. A manager who gets a squad of players performing above the sum of its parts. A manager who instills a family like culture within the squad but is ruthless when he needs to be. A manager who gets given a stone and turns it into a statue. A manager who conducts himself with the utmost professionalism and class in the press. A manager who the fans and players would go to war for. Our fucking manager!

 

 

Edited October 30, 2025 by Moose

[bobbydazzla]

For PSR to be scrapped and NUFC to introduce tens of thousands of rail seats and designate them singing areas

 

 

Edited October 30, 2025 by bobbydazzla

[joeyt]

Better academy would help

[Keegans Export]

2 minutes ago, joeyt said:

Better academy would help

Absolutely vital imo, especially working within PSR.

 

Even if you can just find 3 squad players, that saves you spending £25-30m+ on the equivalent from abroad or £40m+ from the PL. 

[timeEd32]

1) Keep Eddie Howe as manager as long as possible

2) Increase revenues every season at a pace that is equal to or faster than the six clubs above us (this is harder as you get closer)

3) Continue to recruit new players with almost zero mistakes (this is very hard and still probably not praised enough; though more revenue slightly increases margin for error)

4) Create the best academy outside of Manchester and London to produce both players and profit

5) Qualify for the Champions League as consistently as possible (which benefits both #2 and #3)

6) Patience

 

...

 

7) Pay for a statue for Sir Edward

[Jilted Generator]

That rancid multi-club ownership would probably help too. 

[Guest]

We have to do the basics:

 

1) New stadium that increases matchday revenue 10 fold.

2) Add sponsors to the numerous elements we dont consider e.g. training kits, official drinks, naming rights; Be more like NFL teams

3) Have a management structure that sells high and does it in ways to minimise PSR

4) Strip back some of the internal staff to best in class only

5) Move from being a regional focussed team and make ourselves an international experience

6) Join a multi club structure

7) Stop fearing PSR so much and take the approach of other clubs

8) Most importantly - Buy better players 

[Funtime Frankie]

Just now, Jilted Generator said:

That rancid multi-club ownership would probably help too. 

Exactly this, we need to send youngsters there and for the club to have a similar play style to us.

 

How often do we say a loan has been unsuccessful but this will hopefully sort this out.

 

Also we can use the other club to buy in South American talent who would struggle with work permits 

[HawK]

100% academy and infrastructure at this point. Look at the traditional big teams in the league and how many players they have coming through if not into their first team but into other PL teams as saleable assets.

 

It's a free hit on PSR as infrastructure investment isn't used against you for the calcs afaik, not sure about UEFA though.

 

When you can grow your own, to coin a phrase, that's where you have the foundation to buy the stars to plug the gaps.

[The Fountain]

1 hour ago, Nepharite said:

After the takeover, we have spent a ton of money and developed our identity and style under Eddie's management. What do we need to do to become challengers for the Premier League?

Have we spent a ton of money?

7th biggest spenders I think.

[Deuce]

59 minutes ago, cannybagoftudor said:

we need 3 elevens of sufficient quality

Does any club have this?  

[GeordieT]

Aside from simply growing commercial revenue - unfortunately - as it’s painful, probably become better traders and in particular, sellers than we have been hitherto.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2025 by GeordieT

[Skeletor]

Be aggressive with keeping our best players - New contracts matching the top teams, only selling if the perfect replacements are available.

Level up the floor of the squad. That will still take 2-3 seasons.

Continue adding the best players we can when we can get them.

Keep qualifying for the CL

Improve our marketing, financial income and appeal internationally.

[Geordie Magpie]

We are probably about 5 years away from being able to challenge for the title 

 

This season (so far) and last season we were in Europe we struggled to balance playing in all four comps and it will take us a couple more seasons to get better at that.

 

Keep ahold of our big ticket players and slowly every summer add a couple upgrades here and there 

 

Majorly increase revenues further - still surprised we don't have a training kit sponsor or two, especially with the amount of gear Adidas shifts every couple months 

[GeordieT]

29 minutes ago, timeEd32 said:

1) Keep Eddie Howe as manager as long as possible

2) Increase revenues every season at a pace that is equal to or faster than the six clubs above us (this is harder as you get closer)

3) Continue to recruit new players with almost zero mistakes (this is very hard and still probably not praised enough; though more revenue slightly increases margin for error)

4) Create the best academy outside of Manchester and London to produce both players and profit

5) Qualify for the Champions League as consistently as possible (which benefits both #2 and #3)

6) Patience

 

...

 

7) Pay for a statue for Sir Edward

 
On (3), Swiss Ramble had an article out today actually which highlighted that over the last decade the average growth in revenue of the Big Six and the other 14 clubs is almost identical in percentage terms (both groups have almost doubled); but as a result the revenue gap has never actually been larger than it is today.

Whilst we are somewhat of an outlier in the chasing pack, barely keeping pace.

[Superior Acuña]

imo, as I've said in the euro thread, the big next step for us is consecutive CL qualifications i.e. maintaining a CL-qualifying campaign while also in the CL. I think that kicks us on from being comparable (and perceived alongside) the likes of Villa and Tottenham to joining that next group up (Arsenal, Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea). We'll be more attractive and more PSR room. If we're at that level, we could even win the league relatively soon  if we got lucky and things aligned (a few off-seasons). Looking at last season, the main thing that we need to do to push on is being able to breakdown decent midtable teams at home who come for a draw/sneaky win.

 

(Practically, more players of the Sandro etc. level. I think our first xi isn't much improved on last season but our overall depth is. Would be great to improve first xi w some top top players next summer)

 

 

Edited October 30, 2025 by Superior Acuña

[madras]

By being smarter which has worked so far.

[timeEd32]

3 minutes ago, GeordieT said:

 
On (3), Swiss Ramble had an article out today actually which highlighted that over the last decade the average growth in revenue of the Big Six and the other 14 clubs is almost identical in percentage terms (both groups have almost doubled); but as a result the revenue gap has never actually been larger than it is today.

Whilst we are somewhat of an outlier in the chasing pack, barely keeping pace.

 

Yeah, I had something similar after our last accounts came out: 

 

[NSG]

I see us as being where Arsenal were about 3 years ago. Always in and around the top 6, with ambitions to go to the top.

 

Ultimately the only way we’ll move

to a title challenge is by being in the Champions League for four or five years in a row.

[relámpago blanco]

1 hour ago, Nepharite said:

After the takeover, we have spent a ton of money and developed our identity and style under Eddie's management. What do we need to do to become challengers for the Premier League?

Spend a lot more than we have done. It takes years. Having to replace Isak and changing our system hasn't. I do also feel we need to sign a different type of winger and another midfielder. 

 

2-3 years I think before we will be challenging for the title. 

 

We are challenging in general though, we have a realistic shot at both domestic cups and a reasonable chance of getting to the latter stages of the CL. We can beat anyone on our day. It's consistency and having the squad depth to rotate. We have more squad depth now as we saw last night and I think we'll manage to perform better in 2 game weeks.