Newcastle are all but safe from relegation after they sat inside the drop zone for the entirety of the first half of the season. The Magpies have won nine of their last 13 league games and are already preparing for next season which will be the club’s sixth successive campaign in the English top-flight.
At the time of the takeover by Newcastle’s current owners in early October, the Magpies were in 19th place with 3 points from 7 games. At the turn of the year they were in the same position with 11 points from 19 matches including just one victory. Present day Newcastle are level on 40 points with 10th-placed Brighton and Hove Albion, and one behind FA Cup holders Leicester City.
It took just five league games in 2022 for Newcastle to match their points tally from the first half of the season, and they are now on the cusp of breaking into the top half of the Premier League table. With help from a handful of additions during the January transfer window, the Magpies have fetched 29 points from a possible 42 this year. Eddie Howe and his men need just seven points from their final five games to ensure their safety against relegation.
Howe was appointed as the new manager on November 8, three weeks after Steve Bruce was sacked following more than two years in the job. Howe’s predecessor managed just a single match under the club’s new owners which was Bruce’s 1000th game as a manager and ultimately his final outing in charge of Newcastle. The 61-year-old was dismissed within 72 hours of a 2-3 home defeat to Tottenham.
Newcastle were bought out by a consortium headed by the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF). The PIF – which holds an 80 per cent controlling stake of the club – has an estimated value of £320-billion meanwhile the actual takeover bid was reported to be worth £300-million. Amanda Staveley, CEO of PCP Capital Partners, holds a 10 per cent stake in the club as does the third and final investor, Jamie Reuben of RB Sports & Media.
The takeover was years in the making with the first proposal of £250-million from new lead director Staveley coming back in 2017, which was rejected by Mike Ashley who at the time had been calling the shots on Tyneside for a decade already. The 2020 pandemic, together with a cluster of other unrelated occurrences, prolonged the finalising of the takeover on several occasions. Staveley and co. raised to £300-million which was on the verge of completion mid-2020 before the Saudi-backed consortium pulled out of the deal over a TV rights dispute in the Middle East.
After years of ‘heartbreak’, as described by Staveley herself, the Yorkshire pioneer has finally achieved her dream as a stakeholder of Newcastle United, and the new hierarchy will be looking to convert the Magpies into a significant powerhouse in the coming years. Needless to say supporters, club insiders and former players were beyond delighted to see the back of former owner Mike Ashley, after the Sports Direct tycoon‘s miserable 14-year spell as chief of the Magpies.
