Newcastle United supporters have been seeking answers about the general direction of their club following three successive windows without strengthening the first XI — and now a member of the hierarchy has spoken.
Darren Eales, the outgoing chief executive (CEO), held a video call with the media to coincide with the release of the club’s accounts for 2023-24.
For the first time in the post-takeover era, Newcastle made a pre-tax profit (£1.2million, $1.5m), though that was primarily fuelled by the combined £65m sales of Yankuba Minteh and Elliot Anderson, as the club rushed to satisfy the Premier League’s profit and sustainability rules (PSR) last June. But a 28 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue, driven by a 90 per cent uptick in commercial income, represents what Eales describes as “unprecedented growth in football”.
Beyond the accounts, among the key topics Eales discussed were:
- How it would be “crazy” for Newcastle to consider selling their best players
- The club’s intention to offer Alexander Isak a new contract in the summer
- His view that Newcastle are “in a good place” heading into the next transfer window and are “excited” about the business they can conduct
- Why Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), Newcastle’s majority owners, are “absolutely” committed for the long term
- His expectation that “huge investment” will be forthcoming from PIF either for a new-build stadium or a renovation of St James’ Park, and a decision will come “in the near future”
- The ownership “know” they have to build a new training ground “to get where we want to get to”
- Eales is “doing well” health-wise and continues to serve his notice, with the search for a new CEO ongoing
- Newcastle are “delighted” Eddie Howe is their head coach and “hope” he is going to stay “for a very long time”
This is what Eales said — and The Athletic’s analysis of what he meant — about the key issues facing Newcastle…
Isak and selling their best players
There was a marked change in tone from last January, when Newcastle’s previous financial results were announced and Eales answered “yes” when asked if every player had a price under the PSR system. Internally, senior figures fretted that, as things stood, they were facing a breach and a possible 10-point deduction.
Fourteen months on, and with their resources further bolstered by the recent departures of Miguel Almiron and Lloyd Kelly, Eales was far more bullish about Newcastle’s leading players. Most notably, this means Isak, who has already scored 22 goals in all competitions this season and has developed into a coveted, world-class centre-forward.
A new contract will be discussed soon with the Sweden international. “To be clear, he’s got multi-years left,” Eales said. “We’ll have the discussions in terms of a new deal, just like we did with Joelinton, Bruno (Guimaraes) and Anthony Gordon. That’s something we’ll approach in the summer.”
Newcastle now believe they are in a position of strength with Isak, 25, who still has three full seasons remaining on the six-year contract he signed when he left Real Sociedad in 2022 for a fee of £60m.
“Because we were able to move a couple of players in January that weren’t really impacting on minutes on the pitch (it means) we’ve got that wish and desire to keep our key players,” Eales said. “They’re all under long-term contracts. We have no intention at all of those players being moved on. We’re not under the gun or anything like that.”
He added: “As you know, we’ve got an ownership that is ambitious and wants the best for the club. So from that perspective, it would be crazy for us to consider it.”
Isak has consistently been linked with other clubs, including Arsenal, Liverpool, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain. “We have that ambition to be a top club, so there is a sense of annoyance because we’re almost seen as that next category down, so it’s free game to talk about our players.”
What if those players express a desire to leave? “The reality is all of our players are under long-term deals,” he repeated. “They’re committed to the club. We’re not looking to move any player on.”
PSR and whether Newcastle can spend this summer
“Just about compliant” felt like an understated way of outlining Newcastle’s financial position come the end of the 2023-24 season.
Newcastle’s “frontloaded” post-takeover spending still limited the business they could conduct from that moment onwards. For three successive windows, the starting XI has not been strengthened.
“You have to pay the piper (eventually),” Eales said, when explaining Newcastle’s drop-off in business. If Newcastle were permitted to invest more, then they would have done just that. “The ownership has committed to spending to the maximum amount that we can within the rules,” Eales reiterated.
Mercifully, heading into what is a critical summer when significant squad surgery is expected (and in many ways feels necessary), Eales insists that Newcastle are on a stronger financial footing. PSR considerations will continue to influence the club’s dealings — interestingly, should Newcastle qualify for Europe, UEFA’s financial regulations are not believed to be as problematic for the club as the Premier League’s rules are — but they are in a far healthier position to bring in quality additions.
“The amount (available to spend) is going to depend on a lot of factors up until then,” Eales said, citing potential European qualification, and the specific UEFA competition Newcastle end up competing in, as one variable. “But it is a new (three-year PSR) cycle, so that’s good news for us.”
Howe wants a right-sided centre-back, a right winger and a versatile forward as a minimum, while recruits may also be sought in other positions, including goalkeeper, full-back, midfield and striker. And Eales believes Newcastle can finally benefit from the recruitment expertise of Paul Mitchell, the sporting director, who has felt hamstrung by PSR during his first two windows.
Paul Mitchell, left, could have a busy summer transfer window ahead (Serena Taylor/Getty Images)
“Ultimately, it’s about getting the players that Eddie wants in his positions,” Eales said. “There’s real alignment in that respect. So we’re excited about the summer ahead.”
PIF’s ambition
“We’re an ambitious ownership group that is looking to drive Newcastle to be sustainable, to compete for trophies and, ultimately, we want to be winning the Premier League,” Eales said.
This was nothing new. When Newcastle’s takeover was ratified in October 2021, Amanda Staveley, then a minority shareholder, spoke about competing for all the major honours within five to 10 years.
On the pitch, much has happened since then. Off it, Newcastle’s accounts reveal a sharp and sustained uptick, yet in terms of big infrastructure projects, the pace has felt more sluggish. There have also been reports that PIF is refocusing time and money on internal Saudi investments, raising concerns about the club’s future.
Eales batted those suggestions away. “We’ve got an ownership that’s fully committed to the long term, so the future is bright,” he said.
On this subject, he referenced PIF’s engagement on the stadium issue and the aim of building a new training facility. “Let’s take a step back,” he said. “Whichever path we go down, that (will be) huge investment so the fact that the ownership are taking that very seriously and looking to invest considerable sums shows their ambition.”
Eales returned to the theme of being hamstrung by PSR. “I have a different insight because I’m dealing with ownership day to day, but they are 100 per cent committed to Newcastle United,” he said. “That’s the exciting part; there’s no change in terms of where we want to get to.
“The one thing we would say is that we have to do it within the regulatory regime that’s there and the frustration which we’ve spoken about before is we have that PSR constraint. Because if it wasn’t for that, we could spend more on the team and accelerate our progress on the pitch.”
Stadium plans
“We appreciate the patience on this matter…”
And with that, it was clear that this was going to represent merely the latest in a series of remarks which have pretty much represented non-updates on the stadium.
That is not a criticism of Eales, more just a reflection of the position the club is in regarding the future of St James’ Park: they are simply not yet ready to announce their plans. Despite the CEO stating last year that a call was “imminent”, before an announcement in October that a “decision stage” was forthcoming in “early 2025”, Newcastle cannot confirm what is happening yet.
“It’s a once-in-a-generation decision,” Eales said. “We want to make sure we’ve got everything right. We don’t want to rush and just do something and then think in 20 years’ time, ‘If we’d just spent a little bit more time…’.”
Essentially, the club have narrowed it down to a straight choice between renovating and expanding St James’, or building a so-called “super stadium” on a site close by, which is believed to encroach on to Leazes Park. The latter is thought to be the preference of several key figures inside the club and presentations were made to PIF and Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Newcastle’s chairman, during a meeting at Matfen Hall in Northumberland earlier this month.
Without confirming that Newcastle are edging towards a new-build stadium over a renovated St James’, Eales also did not deny that was the case. He even stressed that a new stadium would not only allow Newcastle to get “more fans in”, but also “help us make tickets affordable to more of the people”. His rationale was that, because Newcastle could provide a higher-end corporate offering, which would raise greater revenue, they could have cheaper ticket prices elsewhere.
“We want to make sure we take everybody on the journey,” Eales said. “So it’s about narrowing which of those is the best option in the long term for the club. But also bearing in mind how important Newcastle United is to the city and the region. So this is something that, if we can get it right, we feel can be something that benefits not only the club, but the wider region.”
His stated desire to ensure all stakeholders are “aligned” also implied that a controversial move away from St James’ is becoming the most likely option.
“We’re looking to try and get something done in the near future,” was as close as Eales got to providing any sort of deadline for an announcement. But, given the Fan Advisory Board (FAB) must be consulted before a decision is reached, confirmation of stadium plans certainly does not appear “imminent”.
A new training ground
If there had been any equivocation over whether Newcastle would eventually build a state-of-the-art training ground, Eales shut it down.
“We know we have to do that,” Eales said, when asked about the timescale for a new venue. “To get to where ownership wants to get to, we need to have a new training ground.”
This statement will reassure supporters — and even some inside the club — who have questioned whether Newcastle were ever going to commit to such an infrastructure investment. There have been several significant upgrades to Benton, costing in excess of £20m, yet Eales has confirmed that is to provide the best facilities possible in the short term, before a move to an elite facility in the “medium term”.
The exact timeframe for construction is unclear, though he suggested that a specific site has still yet to be selected. “We’re at the early stages and have to look at all viable possibilities,” Eales said. “If we could, we’d want to stay in the city.”
However, Eales insists Newcastle are “excited” about the prospect of building a new training ground and that, once they have secured a location, they will move “with full speed”.
That still means that a new training ground is still a matter of years away, but at least the message is that it will definitely be constructed.
Howe’s position
Eddie Howe has led Newcastle to two cup finals in three seasons (Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
Eales was gushing in his praise for Newcastle’s “wonderful” and “amazing manager” and the “remarkable” job he has done in lifting the club from the relegation positions into the Champions League and to two Carabao Cup finals in the space of two years.
This was noteworthy in the context of last summer, when relationships trembled after Staveley’s departure — she and Howe had worked closely together — and the abrupt nature of Mitchell’s appointment. Speaking to journalists during pre-season, Howe admitted, “There’s no point saying I’m happy staying at Newcastle if the dynamic isn’t right.”
Newcastle is a far less intimate club without the presence of Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, her husband, and has, by necessity, been far less dynamic in the transfer market. But, from a difficult start, Howe and Mitchell have found a way of working together.
“What’s great about Eddie is he’s super collaborative,” Eales said. “He’s unique as a manager in that he appreciates and understands we’ve got this PSR cap. He knows the club and the ownership are providing the maximum support they can within the rules and that every decision has a knock-on effect, that if we choose to renew contracts of players and keep key players, it means there’s going to be an impact in terms of what you have available elsewhere.
“We’re obviously super pleased that we’ve got Eddie as our coach. We’re delighted he’s with us and hopefully he’s going to be with us for a long time.”
The search for a new CEO
When Eales announced in September that he had been diagnosed with a chronic form of blood cancer, few expected him to still be in post six months later. But the outgoing CEO provided a positive update on his own health, while confirming that he is still serving his notice period.
“I wanted to say thanks to everyone,” Eales said. “The fans have been super compassionate and I’m doing well.”
As encouraging as that news is, the identity of Eales’ potential successor remains uncertain. Although Eales claims it is “business as usual”, the reality is Newcastle’s long-term strategy will be determined by somebody who has yet to be identified. Eales is not involved in the recruitment of his replacement, which is being led by “the ownership” instead.
“My focus is on trying to get as smooth a transition as possible for that new person coming in,” Eales said. “Ownership’s aware of my position and the timeframe.”
So the search continues and, with Eales’ notice period unconfirmed, theoretically it could be a matter of months before a new CEO is in situ.
Ticket prices
Tens of thousands of season-ticket holders are desperate to find out what they will be paying for the 2025-26 campaign, but Newcastle have yet to confirm their prices.
Many fear a significant rise, given Newcastle put up prices by five per cent for some seats last year — and, for those coming off the long-term price plan, which will cease to exist, that represents a further hike on the already substantial increase in cost they will have to pay.
West Ham United, Liverpool, Brentford and Wolverhampton Wanderers are among the clubs to have either frozen season-ticket prices for next season, or limited rises following consultation with supporter groups. With the north east among the poorest regions in the UK, and given the present cost-of-living crisis, the Newcastle United Supporters’ Trust (NUST) wrote to Eales in January and urged the club to “make a statement” by keeping prices the same.
Clubs that have consulted & listened to their supporters, securing concessions & freezing prices for 25/26 season:
Liverpool, Brentford, Wolves and West Ham.
Well done to those clubs & their supporter groups / FABs 👏🏻
We hope NUFC follow suit and put our fans first !…
— Newcastle United Supporters Trust (@nufctrust) February 27, 2025
“It’s always a balancing act,” Eales said, citing “reflected praise” for Newcastle’s Champions League ticketing bands for 2023-24, before expanding into an answer which appeared to lay the groundwork for potential price increases. “When we speak about PSR and trying to compete with teams that have got much bigger revenues, we want to be a team that’s giving Eddie the resources to compete on the pitch, but we’re also aware of where we are in the country… so we always look at it in the round.”
The new bands will be announced “in the near future” and only then will fans learn if the NUST’s calls have been heeded.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
