This week’s jog through the main Newcastle United news lines with a cynic’s take on what it means and doesn’t mean. 

Share and Share Alike

News that the PCP (Amanda Staveley) stake in Newcastle United had reduced to 6% from the original takeover share of 10% didn’t seem to unduly trouble the media or indeed supporters last week. The reduction is due to further investment going into United largely from the Saudi Public Investment Fund which necessarily reduces the PCP (Staveley) holding within the club. In the short term I don’t imagine this means much but in the medium and longer terms it will mean something material for who owns the club. It is interesting that the Reubens shareholding has increased to 14% in United, indicating the shares have been sold to the other minority shareholding who must be the ones buying the PCP shares. This is one to watch and it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the PCP shareholding will reduce completely over the next few years with Amanda Staveley’s role becoming non-executive if not marking an exit for her from the club should the major shareholders, namely PIF decide not to renew any management contract she has with United. That will be one to watch. What we can take a decent guess at is PCP (Staveley) will be making  a tidy profit on the sale of shares to the Reubens given the value of United is estimated to have increased to £1Bn in just over two years since the takeover in October 2021. Not bad for her or at this moment begrudged given Amanda Staveley’s pivotal role in loosening Ashley’s death grip on United.

Read All About It

Still with Amanda Staveley (sort of), social media Mags were left wondering whether to be excited or not when she posted a kind of news flash that the management group led by main man Yasir-Al-Rumayyan had reconvened to Alnwick Castle in what was believed to be a transfer window meeting. But that was that and as I type up this old gubbins an offer for Kieran Trippier from Bayern Munich remains politely declined and Miguel Almiron with Callum Wilson remain as Mags. The latter made a social media post of his own which was difficult to decipher as Eddie Howe himself said as his name is linked to Atletico Madrid, AC Milan, Chelsea, West Ham et al. Strange days.

Sponsorships

There was news this week that United may be on the verge of announcing more lucrative commercial deals in the near future that will help the club overcome the obstacles put in front of it by the Profit and Sustainability Rules. I say obstacles, but not really. It’s my opinion, we should want the ownership of United to build a powerful business behind the club which will sustain it in the longer term and provide the foundations for long term success. We shouldn’t want United to become a version of Man City which is by and large a vanity project for the Abu Dhabi state and whose success can only be said to have been funded by funny money from the Middle East. We need Newcastle United to operate properly and to be developed in such a way so as to develop its real potential. We are a big enough club with huge potential and the role of the executive team at SJP is to unlock all of that and achieve a feat that has been neglected for decades.

Welcome

Whilst eyes have been on his ex-Man City colleague Kalvin Phillips, now on loan at West Ham, United brought in 18-year old Alfie Harrison on what is considered to be a long term deal. So far he is the only arrival at United and Javier Manquillo is the only departure.

Fan Matters

It never fails to baffle me that with so much complete and utter shite appearing online masquerading as news so many media outlets fail to provide any kind of coverage to the issues that impact supporters. In these last couple of weeks we’ve had news of the Fans Advisory Board and an away ticket workshop which have largely been ignored despite the most cursory look at social media confirming how much this stuff matters. Piss poor really.

For Sale

We shouldn’t let this stuff bother us but it does. During the week Eddie Howe was asked about Joelinton’s contract situation. Reading between the lines it would appear United and Joelinton are a distance apart in what they believe will form a decent package for the player. Joelinton has 18-months remaining on his contract and is 28 so the Brazilian understandably sees his next contract as his last big opportunity to cash in on the peak years of his career. Howe calmly suggested if a deal couldn’t be agreed between United and Joelinton as we go into the summer then he could be sold. I’d say that was pretty standard practice given the alternative would be to allow a player to run down his contract and leave for free 12-months later and the club left empty-handed. It’s no big deal is it? It didn’t justify the dramatic headlines it generated but this par for the course in the hysteria of the football media.

Shopping

There have been some entertaining ads run by Adidas this last week involving United which are reminiscent of those from the 90s with KK, Sir Les etc. This is a follow-on from United CEO Darren Eales telling us eagerly about the club having its own retail operation from the summer which we can reasonably expect to be a few notches up from the cock-eyed operation run currently by Castore who have been shite from day one (admittedly I’m keen on the current first team kit design). Whether this means we can look forward to a return to retail outlets in the city centre, Metrocentre and elsewhere (SJP obviously) remains to be seen but the online operation can expect to be on steroids and it would wind up all of the right people were outlets to open in Riyadh etc.

Keep On, Keepin’ On …

Michael Martin, @TFMick1892