Exciting times ahead as Ashley heads for Newcastle exit.

Posted on April 20th, 2020 | 5 Comments |

St James Park.
A new dawn at St James’ Park?
The news that Mike Ashley’s time as Newcastle United owner is coming to an end has unsurprisingly gone down extremely well with the fans.

A Saudi Arabian-funded consortium is set to complete a £300 million takeover and will pump in significant resources to try and establish the Magpies as a force in the Premier League.

We take a closer look at four key areas Newcastle’s new owners must address if they are to deliver success to the North East’s biggest club.

Time to say goodbye to Bruce.

Steve Bruce has done a reasonable job as manager in difficult circumstances, but he is not the man to take the club forward.

The bookmakers listed at your-bonus-code.com would offer fancy prices at Newcastle winning the league with Bruce at the helm, but that would change under a top class manager.

A return for Rafa Benitez would immediately get the fans onside, although there are certainly other attractive options available.

Former Tottenham Hotspur boss Mauricio Pochettino has been linked with the role and would undoubtedly be an exciting appointment.

Invest in the squad.

Ashley’s failure to invest significant resources into the playing squad has been a major source of frustration for Newcastle supporters.

The owners have the financial clout to make some big improvements and there could be some interesting arrivals at St James’ Park this summer.

Barcelona forward Antoine Griezmann is the standout name to be linked with the club and his signing would be a major statement of intent.

Bringing in someone of that stature would help to attract other top players to the North East and prove that the new owners mean business.

Repair the relationship with the fans.

It is fair to say Ashley’s methods have left the vast majority of Newcastle fans feeling that their support has been taken for granted.

Communication under Ashley has been extremely poor and the new owners will need to quickly find ways to build bridges with the fanbase.

Investment into local community projects would be a good place to start, while ensuring that club legends like Alan Shearer are onside would also help.

The fans are an important part of the fabric at Newcastle and getting them properly back on board would make a huge difference.

Build a solid infrastructure.

Newcastle’s training facilities lag behind many of their Premier League counterparts and significant investment is needed to bring them up to scratch.

Improving the Academy is also imperative, particularly for a club that has previously prided itself on producing its own talent.

Commercial revenues also need addressing, with the club failing to capitalise on its marketing potential under Ashley.

Manchester City’s owners have shown the benefit of building a solid infrastructure since their takeover and are a great model for Newcastle to follow.

NUFCBlog Author: Frankly Various Frankly Various has written 67 articles on this blog.

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Comment on this post

5 Responses

  1. Good to get rid of Ashley as he has run the club down as far as premier league clubs go. Every season is a gamble whether we stay up or not.
    The potential new owners come with massive baggage. MbS is a murderous assassin yet most seem to be turning a blind eye because he could benefit the club. More scrutiny is required before i will feel comfortable with the takeover.

  2. Bring on the Saudi’s, we’ve had 13 years of harsh times under the Ashley regime can’t wait for imminent news, then all the geordie faithful can celebrate. Bring it on

  3. Troy! long time no see!

    I agree with you, this blog isn’t my view but I think we’re in a very small minority.

    Les Kellett was one of my favourites too when I watched World of Sport as a bairn.

  4. Hmm ! the future of NUFC, is already being projected by Many.
    Of course most are taking the stated value of the Saudi’s for granted, when in fact I believe this particular Saudi Prince is Limited to a personal value of just over seven billion, still putting him among the top ownership group and having enough dosh to afford a decent side.

    It also appears that every top player now approaching thirty is looking to extend his career /in the big money leagues, openly using the press and other media to make sure the club is aware of their interest.

    Hopefully we can have in place a decent upper management bunch, something lacking since Ashley took over and mostly useless or were never given the freedom to establish a decent management system .

    By upper management I mean those who are people with a good history
    of building a club, good scouts. coaches for both the main side and building a system of youthful players that can make that breakthrough to the first team.

    An improved training area would be a decent start, the building of NUFC as a PL competitor should be a gradually employed system, no sense in buying over the hill stars, looking for that last payoff.

    I suppose we will find out soon enough, but a director of football wouldn’t be a bad idea, as for Bruce, look he’s a really decent guy, but would anyone suggest he is a good enough manager to win anything, my answer is not really, perhaps the Saudi’s can also purchase Gateshead and they could be our youth team, why not ?
    give the job to
    Bruce perhaps

    A director of football, a new coach/manager, scouts, a completely new side, of course not all at the same time, feed it to us slowly so we can have more to argue over and enjoy the ride, cause we have had little joy during the Ashley occupation.
    Ad it will be nice to voice the chants of the Puerto Rican fans , when playing against the Dominicans and who never forget to chant, “you don’t have a country”, only to have the Puerto Ricans reply with. “but we have the money”!
    And oh ! that’s the Caribbean Baseball playoffs, yeah a different game.
    AND there are bound to be away crowds whose singing sections will no doubt mention how The rich NUFC depend on their Saudi wealthy ownership , so a good counter chant would be good to have.
    something similar to a chant I heard at St. James’i heard when playing West From a few years back, NUFC fans, chanting going down with the Mackems who were also candidates for relegation, only for the West From, fans to reply, so are we! so are we !

    p

    p fans in Hiram Bilthorn stadium in Puerto Rico which the

    a d

    of

  5. At what price though, Chuck?

    I just can’t get into it knowing what is behind all that money, I’m surprised that a New Yorker like yourself is so sanguine about it after 9/11.

    BTW, keep away from the NY subways.