If You Were Newcastle United New Owner...

[RevFan]

... how would you turn around this sleeping giant?

Who would you put in charge of the club?

Who would you be appointing manager / head coach?

Would you appoint a Director of football / General Manager?

What type of players would you target?

Do you concentrate on short or long term for training facilities?

How would you win the fans back / attract more fans?

What other things would you invest in? E.g. More support for the women's team, refurbish the stadium. 

[Pyfish+]

42 minutes ago, RevFan said:

... how would you turn around this sleeping giant?

Who would you put in charge of the club?

Who would you be appointing manager / head coach?

Would you appoint a Director of football / General Manager?

What type of players would you target?

Do you concentrate on short or long term for training facilities?

How would you win the fans back / attract more fans?

What other things would you invest in? E.g. More support for the women's team, refurbish the stadium. 

Welcome!

I'd first of all reiterate that we aren't going to be the new Manchester City. I'd invest in the youth academy and make sure that the current crop of players actually want to play football for the club. If not, piss off. I'd make sure the community presence is there and restore some faith back into a club which has been let down for a while by the previous regime.

I'd refute claims that despite me having an affinity towards their North East rivals that I'm not the right man for the job. I'd give my all to the club that I'd just pumped millions of pounds into.

Manager wise, I'd want experience but I'd want an Eddie Howe type manager who is fairly young but also knows how to coach and manage a team.

[Smiley Culture]

Change the music to something a bit clubby, like you were in Ibiza and not Newcastle. 

[Pyfish+]

1 minute ago, Smiley Culture said:

Change the music to something a bit clubby, like you were in Ibiza and not Newcastle. 

Got to admit that it totally worked... 

[Smiley Culture]

In all seriousness; 

- Re-engage - The relationship between Newcastle United and it’s fans has been fractious, when Ashley wasn’t spending money, and there was a significant number who walked away last summer, so I think work there is probably quite key. You could just throw £100m at a load of mercenaries and hope for a Europa League place but I think the work needs to go a bit deeper than that. I’m not on about the cringy stuff you see from some club owners, who lap up praise as if they’re the clubs brand new star striker, either. 

Every kid gets a Newcastle United shirt on their 10th birthday and a letter from the manager wishing them a happy birthday. The third shirt sponsorship is given away, free of charge, every year to a Newcastle/North East based charity who get to design the shirt and a % of every shirt sold goes to the charity. Monthly donations to food banks, local businesses and charities. 

- Community - I have no idea what NUFC do in the community now but I’d pay for coaching courses to be undertaken so that every primary and secondary school has at least one FA qualified member of staff to teach Football and I’d offer money up for qualifications for a range of sports, activities and courses to get kids and young adults in Newcastle and the North East active and/or in work. Even stuff like cheerleading would be done under the NUFC blanket, if not exactly aligned to the club itself. 

- Academy - Think one of the NUFC fans on here said their academy is pretty bad so a full root and branch investigation into the state of the Academy and why it is or isn’t working, at present. I’d look at some clubs in Europe, not necessarily your Barcelona’s, Bayern’s etc, probably some of the “second” or “third” tier clubs sides like in Portugal, Holland etc and see what they’re doing and see if it’s possible to replicate or expand on and do so in Newcastle. 

- Staff - Lets be honest, this isn’t a case of throwing money at it and winning stuff straight away, it took City a few years to win anything and even so, I would argue that the Premier League wasn’t as strong as it is now. The Champions League is, still, a pipedream for Newcastle and the Europa League isn’t a given when you have so many top sides, a top four or five these days and then your Everton’s, Wolves’, Leicester’s etc.

With that in mind, taking over Newcastle is a longer term plan. Therefore, I’d need to work out whether Steve Bruce is the man to take the club to the next phase of the plan. If he is, great, see what he wants staff wise and see if it’s feasible and realistic. If not, the managerial search goes live. I think, firstly, I would look for someone with Premier League experience to move the club forward, at this stage. Not sure who I’d plump for. I don’t know if it suits Eddie Howe or Sean Dyche and I’m not sure that Brendan Rodgers moves to Newcastle. 

- Playing Staff - Obviously, this is up to the manager, his staff and any Director of Football type the club may have. However, you’d have to make a decent budget in place to improve the squad and to retain any players required. 

- Stadium - Not sure what you can do with the ground itself but it’s certainly big enough for what’s needed. Think the big thing is the match day experience and making sure everyone from those in the cheapest seats to those who’ve paid most have the best possible experience. How you do that? Talk to the fans. See what they want. Visit other sports stadia across the world and see what they do and if it’s possible to do similar at St James’. 

- Buy another club...maybe - Looking at what Red Bull and City do, there’s reasons behind them buying clubs across the planet and I think, unfortunately, it’s probably going to be the case for many going forward. I’d look at somewhere relatively cheap, where you could get good value for players in the Academy and where you could still attract players. 

[Stan]

14 minutes ago, CityTheBest said:

As for players? They need a mix of expereince and youth. I think they'll mostly go for older players past their peak but still playing at a high level. The likes of Falcao, Fabregas, Kaka, Drorgba, etc

Drogba?

The same Drogba that retired a couple of years ago?

Kaka at 37. Yeah really wise buy that would be.

Fabregas to leave Monaco for Newcastle? What a great decision that'd be. 

[Dr. Gonzo]

If I were Newcastle’s owner I’d be MBS, so I’d kill myself and my family and make the world a better place.

[Honey Honey]

Who would you put in charge of the club?

Currently ran by an over promoted pen pushing yes man. Someone who wants to grow the business not implement austerity from top to bottom would be a start. The most damning thing of Ashley's reign is the revenue was more than or around the same as Spurs when he took over. It's now miles behind on all levels. Bad decisions have destroyed opportunity. We were the only club whose commercial revenue was the same as 10 years prior. 

Who would you be appointing manager / head coach?

Progressive manager. Preferably someone who hasn't failed before. More often than not the reasons for someone's failure tend to repeat at the clubs they move to.

Would you appoint a Director of football / General Manager?

Our current head of transfers bought Joelinton for £40m. Interestingly Joelinton has the same agent as Saint-Maximim suggesting that this was all some sort of dodgy deal. If you know anything about Keegan's time under Ashley you will know that the club were signing players to gain favours with agents. It was corrupt. It was dodgy as fuck.

What type of players would you target?

We currently average about 30% possession on a good day. A new manager might boost that 10% or so but ideally we need a good centre forward, a kante type, a Cabaye type and a couple of full backs.

How would you win the fans back / attract more fans?

Shouldn't be hard. Pull all the sports direct signage down and set it alight. I and several thousand boycotted this season. The club has been spiting us all season. First things first is get in touch with the NUST on making sure we get to come back. 

It's the only way to get the atmosphere back as most vocal home fans are gone. The atmosphere this season is the worst in the club's history by far. Pure silence.

[Honey Honey]

Remember when Mike Ashley tried to drive Jonas Gutierrez out for having cancer, a wasted wage as he saw it and Gutierrez mum contemplated killing herself over it.

I'd say maybe the new owner should not be like that.

[Stan]

You can't just chuck money at a club and instantly be successful. Not least in Newcastle's scenario. 

This isn't FIFA. 

Albrighton £30m  

Vardy  

 

[Honey Honey]

Man City finished 10th, 5th, 3rd, 1st in their first 4 seasons.

In their first 2 years the defence was no better statistically but their attack rocketed.

They spent about £200m to get 3rd back then, wasting the majority of it. It'll be about £300-400m now.

If reports are to be believed we will have £150m due to ffp.

[Spike]

I'd buy Sunderland aftwards and make sure the two were always in the same league. Since Sunderland are not getting promoted ever again, it would be a lot of relegations for Newcastle.

[Spike]

Nah but for real, I'd invest money into maintanence of the St James' Park and make sure the staff that run the place are professional, locals, and paid well for their services. It is a club that represents a passionate community and they must feel the stadium and the atmosphere respect that passion.  I'd probably try and repair the issues the club created with Rafa Benetiz, as he probably the best manager the club will ever find, and I would thusly make sure that the head scout, and director of football were two men that the manager could trust and build a respectable team with.

I would also invest hugely into the youth football of the are, making sure that the local teams, the young kids and all that had proper equipment and training, making the local teams affiliated to NU. I would emphasise technique and skill over physical attributes, using Gascoigne and Shearer as examples. It would be a cultural overhaul to the grassroots system, and I would fail to get the FA to understand that but I'd tell them to suck my Australian beef sausage and I'd do it anyway. 

The FA Cup and league results would be the focus.

[Happy Blue]

I would sell the stadium to Tesco and make them ground share with Sunderland, sell all the current players and promote the U21's to the first team  ..think what we could save on wages & stadium costs 

[Stan]

If @CityTheBest was in charge. 

 

[Honey Honey]

12 hours ago, Happy Blue said:

I would sell the stadium to Tesco and make them ground share with Sunderland, sell all the current players and promote the U21's to the first team  ..think what we could save on wages & stadium costs 

We'd also score more goals.

[Dr. Gonzo]

17 hours ago, Harvsky said:

Remember when Mike Ashley tried to drive Jonas Gutierrez out for having cancer, a wasted wage as he saw it and Gutierrez mum contemplated killing herself over it.

I'd say maybe the new owner should not be like that.

I don’t think your new owner will do things like that with Newcastle. Because your club is now a PR project for a man who is about a billion times more heartless than Mike Ashley and who’s human rights abuses are no comparison to being a dick to a nice guy with cancer.

But you’ll probably be good at football, so there’s that.

[DeadLinesman]

6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I don’t think your new owner will do things like that with Newcastle. Because your club is now a PR project for a man who is about a billion times more heartless than Mike Ashley and who’s human rights abuses are no comparison to being a dick to a nice guy with cancer.

But you’ll probably be good at football, so there’s that.

There’s sacking people with cancer, then there’s murdering people 

[Honey Honey]

3 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

I don’t think your new owner will do things like that with Newcastle. Because your club is now a PR project for a man who is about a billion times more heartless than Mike Ashley and who’s human rights abuses are no comparison to being a dick to a nice guy with cancer.

But you’ll probably be good at football, so there’s that.

Though we might in large part be a PR project, that is not the reason why they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it even if this wasn't just about PR.

The purpose of the PR is to allow more UK businesses to gain confidence in opening up to their investment. That is why they hire Tony Blair's PR firm. 

The bad press creates an impression of them as monsters and our conception of monsters is that they are vile all of that time, but in reality the powerful and vile are never always vile. They are manipulative. That's how they came to own large parts of western life already and Newcastle United will perform to aid manipulation of the asset rich.

[Dr. Gonzo]

7 minutes ago, Harvsky said:

Though we might in large part be a PR project, that is not the reason why they wouldn't do it. They wouldn't do it even if this wasn't about PR.

The purpose of the PR is to allow more UK businesses to gain confidence in opening up to their investment. That is why they hire Tony Blair's PR firm. 

They need to gain confidence in opening up to investment because a lot of people find it distasteful knowing they're banking or doing other business with people who are okay with working with shitty regimes like that. The entire attempt at PR is to get people to ignore the fact the Saudi government are a bunch of cunts who do horrible things that are far worse than Mike Ashley being a cheap dickhead ever could really compare to.

It's fine to be excited about what is possible for you to accomplish on the pitch. I don't begrudge you or City fans to be excited from being pretty bog standard to having the money that can get you to the level of Chelsea or what City are at now.

But it's hard to not see the investment wing of MBS's involvement with any English football club to get the public to ignore the bad taste in their mouths when they hear other people are doing business with the Saidis. Replace that bad taste with, "ah, they aren't so bad - look what they've done for Newcastle." And get as many people as possible to ignore the dismemberment of journalists and the promotion of Wahabi bullshit in the Islamic world, amongst other shitty things.

We've had some bad men in charge of football clubs in Europe. But we're about to get someone that's on a whole level of bad, and there's nothing wrong with being realistic about that while still getting excited about what that might mean for Newcastle's fortunes on the pitch.

[Honey Honey]

2 hours ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

They need to gain confidence in opening up to investment because a lot of people find it distasteful knowing they're banking or doing other business with people who are okay with working with shitty regimes like that. The entire attempt at PR is to get people to ignore the fact the Saudi government are a bunch of cunts who do horrible things that are far worse than Mike Ashley being a cheap dickhead ever could really compare to.

It's fine to be excited about what is possible for you to accomplish on the pitch. I don't begrudge you or City fans to be excited from being pretty bog standard to having the money that can get you to the level of Chelsea or what City are at now.

But it's hard to not see the investment wing of MBS's involvement with any English football club to get the public to ignore the bad taste in their mouths when they hear other people are doing business with the Saidis. Replace that bad taste with, "ah, they aren't so bad - look what they've done for Newcastle." And get as many people as possible to ignore the dismemberment of journalists and the promotion of Wahabi bullshit in the Islamic world, amongst other shitty things.

We've had some bad men in charge of football clubs in Europe. But we're about to get someone that's on a whole level of bad, and there's nothing wrong with being realistic about that while still getting excited about what that might mean for Newcastle's fortunes on the pitch.

 

You mistake my post for endorsement or looking the other way. What happened in Newcastle in the past doesn't become any less significant than it was just because of who now owns the club and what the Saudi state has done isn't any less significant because of who Mike Ashley is. I disagree with anyone suggesting either are. The removal of bad behaviour at Newcastle United is a net win. 

By becoming public the Saudi's will actually get more public scrutiny not less. See Mike Ashley. You probably wouldn't know what happened in Shirebrook without him owning Newcastle. 

It's actually a big gamble for the Saudi's.

[ScoRoss]

Pretty much this...

 

Although probably hold off on paying him that much.

[Pyfish+]

On 21/04/2020 at 10:02, Stan said:

If @CityTheBest was in charge. 

 

Is that Santiago Munez next to KDB?

[Rick]

Get proper, successful people to run every part of the club too to bottom. Go all out for Poch, giving him a massive initial transfer budget. Sort out the academy and start bringing some talent through the ranks sharpish. And get marketing to the fucking farthest outreaches of earth. Asia pre season tour/ tournament, the lot. 

[Dave]

From what's been said, theres so much work that needs to be done in regards to establishing a reasonable infrastructure in terms of academy, training facilities and recruitment I hope they're all focused on that.

In regards to on the pitch I hope they try and grow things semi organically. They do need new players from an attacking sense but I hope they dont go all out on the likes of Coutinho, Bale etc and try to become a marquee club. Theres plenty of players available in a similar position to what Saint-Maximin was in last season that will be available and can help take Newcastle to compete for the European spaces next season.