Everything has changed at Newcastle

Everything has changed at Newcastle United since the takeover in October 2021 — a transformation of ambition and outlook, with serious people in substantive roles and, beyond that, a profound sense of unity.

Their form over the past year would put Newcastle sixth in the Premier League table — and that includes the difficult first three months post-takeover — up from 16th for the previous 12 months and 13th between promotion and Ashley’s departure.

Their win ratio over 39 league games is 38.5 per cent and loss ratio 30.8 per cent; in the previous 12 months they were 24.3 per cent and 48.8 per cent respectively; from promotion until the takeover, they were 28.9 per cent and 44.6 per cent. The average 1.5 points per match they have collected is 0.4 more than their average over previous seasons.

Since the Mike Ashley era became a sour, grey memory, Newcastle have appointed a new board, a new coaching staff, a sporting director, a chief executive, avoided relegation from an unprecedented position and brought the women’s team within the main body of the club.

Funded by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), their controversial 80 per cent owners, they have spent £210million ($238m) on eight new players, smashed their transfer record and invested everywhere. This week, Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of PIF and Newcastle’s chairman, declared that he aims to turn the club from a $354.8m (£305m) acquisition into a $3.5billion (£3.1bn) asset.

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.  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.

Howe was drawn to Newcastle by its fanbase and status, but was shocked to find that much of the infrastructure was not even of Bournemouth’s calibre. He pushed for the training ground upgrade, including bringing in recreation space for players and a more conducive working layout, while recognising the need to build a state-of-the-art facility as quickly as possible.