Newcastle United will be one of the top clubs in the world by 2030 and winning the Premier League is a realistic short-term aim for the club.
That is the bullish verdict of Newcastle CEO David Hopkinson, who described the Magpies as a “rocket ship” as he laid out his blueprint to turbo charge their progress in an interview designed to shake complacency out of the club.
The i Paper was in the private function room above Shearer’s Bar in Newcastle city centre as Hopkinson made a series of bold, ambitious claims that are bound to be used as a yardstick for progress in the years to come.
Flanked by director of football Ross Wilson, Hopkinson said his focus was on building an organisation whose “sole focus is on winning”. He talked of the club becoming “perennial contenders” to win the Premier League on his watch.
“We have to have the courage to ignore those that doubt us, and even those that laugh at us,” Newcastle’s CEO said. Here’s the key takeaways from a remarkable half-hour.
St James’ Park is home for ‘years to come’
There’s no getting away from it, the breaks have been pumped on Newcastle’s big stadium plan.
A year ago the direction of travel appeared to be towards a new-build arena in nearby Leazes Park, but Newcastle are now planning for life at their current home for a while yet.
“Recognising that we are going to be at St James’ Park in pretty much its current format for years to come is important,” Hopkinson said on Monday. He admitted that important decisions had been parked while they awaited PIF’s final decision and that sense of stasis had to end.
Intriguingly, he said that “tweaks and improvements” to St James’ Park were back on the table while the club work through the complexities of a bigger decision that will take “years and years” either way.
A bold ‘transformation plan’
On Monday, Hopkinson will meet with PIF to deliver a detailed “transformation plan” that includes specific milestones the club intend to meet year-on-year to achieve their lofty aims. And boy are they are bold.
You could feel the frisson of excitement in the room when Hopkinson was asked where the club would be in 2030 (a year imbued with significance for the club because of the Saudi Vision 2030 intended to transform the country). “I see this club being in the debate about being the top club in the world,” he replied, not missing a beat.
It undoubtedly makes for a juicy headline but how that lands with supporters as the team toils and the big infrastructure projects remain elusive is unclear. But perhaps it needed someone to start talking big and embracing accountability.
“Can Newcastle win the Premier League? Yeah, of course. Why not? Our job is to set ourselves up to be perennial contenders,” he said.
“This is a tough league, and the correlation between points earned and revenue is undeniable. So, again, so much of this is self-help and doing everything we can to try to increase our ability to compete by driving revenues.”
In a light-hearted aside Hopkinson also bemoaned the lack of end-of-season play-offs in the Premier League “which introduce an element of luck”. That drew an intervention from Wilson that the CEO was not advocating for them to be introduced.
New training ground absolutely key
Hopkinson branded their current Benton training base a “seven out of 10” (upgrading it to eight with ongoing, multi-million-pound renovations) but admitted it was not “world class” and that the club are planning a “very big investment” to haul it up to a “ten out of ten”.
He is the first CEO to admit that the facility in its current guise isn’t particularly impressive to “world-class talent”, saying: “I don’t think we have a lot of (world-class talent) who say they want to go to Newcastle because of the training ground.”
The new facility is going to be all-singing, all-dancing, leaning into North American “campus”-style facilities which include creches, places to get their cars worked on and even get their haircut. It is an “arms race” that Newcastle are willing to invest a big sum to join, Hopkinson suggested.
PIF commitment is ‘absolute’
Hopkinson said he had sought reassurances about the level of commitment of majority investors PIF in the lengthy interview process – and the Saudi owners had backed them up with daily calls.
“I truly believe in my heart of hearts that we are their favourite investment,” he said.
“I think we take up so much of their shared mind and heart, way more than would be warranted given the size of the investment. I feel like we’re a special investment to them.
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‘World-class’ commercial talent incoming
Here’s some music to the ears of fans: Hopkinson made a pledge that within a year they will have a training ground sponsor.
“We can literally wake up tomorrow morning and get cracking on closing some of those obvious and less obvious opportunities,” he said.
The club will also soon appoint their first chief strategy officer and are considering splitting up the chief commercial officer job that Peter Silverstone has vacated.
Hopkinson said that Newcastle were on the hunt for “world-class talent” and that two impressive overseas candidates had contacted him and said the club was a “rocket ship” they wanted to get on.
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