Sportski direktor Newcastle Uniteda Dan Ashworth sastao se novinarima iz Newcastlea gde je rekao nekoliko važnih stvari za bidićnost kluba.

"I think everybody would admit there are certain areas of the club that have been run on more of a skeleton framework and a survival basis. It was like, ‘If we can stay in the Premier League, that’s fine or enough’.

"That’s not enough anymore.

"So, consequently, we have to upscale the majority of departments and facilities in order to try to achieve our goals, which are to finish higher up the league and compete for trophies.

"They are our aspirational targets, and that’s the trajectory the club is going towards over the next few years. So, consequently, there is a building out of structures and capacity needed, in order to be able to achieve that.

"Some things are probably stocked and fit for purpose, but there are other areas that needed improvement. In some, that was an issue of head count, in others it might have been a facilities issue.

"So, the training ground is going through a period of improving our capacity. That’s not only to fit more people in there, it’s also to improve it for players on recovery, on diet and nutrition, a lot of money has gone into new training pitches for example.

"There are some short-term fixes you can have. But then there’s also the longer-term question of whether (the club needs) a purpose-built training (complex) that can incorporate an academy, women’s and first team, that may or may not be coming down the track. That’s more about the long-term, and those are processes that are harder to fix.

"Being pitched into a summer window without building relationships and understanding how the board works, how Eddie works or how the recruitment works, has been a challenge.

"Obviously, you are stuck within a tight timeframe because the transfer window shuts on September 1.

"So, it was about getting players out and off the books, getting some players in on loan from a development pathway point of view, adjusting contracts, for example Elliot Anderson, and then bringing in some senior and youth recruits.

"We brought in five senior players, and signed five younger players (for the development ranks). I’ve been doing this job 15 years now, and I don’t think I’ve ever said the day after deadline, ‘That was perfect and we got every position we wanted and everybody we wanted’.

"I would always like more emerging talents for the category of those younger players, and possibly one more to support the first team. But, overall, I was really pleased with the players we signed and business we did.”

photo: nufc.co.uk

CEO Newcastle Uniteda Darren Eales je pričao i odgovarao na pitanja na BBC Newcastle Radio:

"The reality is we aren’t like Manchester City when they had the takeover or even Chelsea. We haven’t got a blank sheet of paper where you can just spend what you want.

"There are regulations in place, so we have to get from A to B in a smart way. In a way, it's not that different from building a club from scratch at Atalanta. Yes, you’ve got a vision of where you want to be, you have a strategy, but it takes time.

"It’s always going to be evolving. We’re going a little bit from a low bar. It's going to be incremental, it’s not going to be just flicking a switch. I joke it’s like a 130-year-old start-up.

"It would make sense in terms of some of the doors that could be opened by PIF (to Saudi Arabian companies). They invest in a number of countries globally. I also think when you look at a country like Saudi Arabia with a young population, 36m and growing… there is some natural affinity there in terms of the commercial value of having an association with Newcastle.

"For us, we’re looking globally. The reality is the Premier League is the number one league in the world in all sports. It’s just incredible its reach. That is a great advantage when you’re talking to brands.

"When you layer on top of that the exciting journey we’re on with Newcastle - the history, heritage, passion of the fan base, it really does give us some great opportunities.

"The rules are there for fair market value (not to stop us being sponsored by Saudi companies) and the days are gone of it just being advertising and a name on the shirt.

"On FFP, the reality is we have some challenges. I like to think of opportunities and that helps guide our strategy.

"It’s something we are looking at now. In the year since the takeover you have seen all the changes there have been under the new owners in terms of infrastructure so we have already laid the bedrock in what we need to do in terms of delivering on commercial.

“We have a long way to go, but I’m excited. Around the world of football, there is a focus on this club.

"Newcastle United has an exciting storyline. It’s a club with a great history but one that hasn’t won a European trophy since 1969 or domestic one since 1955. Yet the fans still turn out and that is unique. That is something that we’ve got here that is really special and that is going to be really attractive to commercial sponsors.

"Hence, I’ve already felt, we are a club on a journey and part of the attraction for commercial brands is coming on that journey and being able to say they were onboard at the start.

"It’s not all going to happen at once but we can put the building blocks in place and we have some natural advantages that this is such a great football club.”

On the sale of stadium naming rights:

"As we think about anything to do with the stadium, we’ll talk to the supporters because, ultimately, it would be crazy to try and do something if all the supporters are against it. Bad business. It doesn’t matter what revenue you’re getting from that, it just doesn’t work.

"With the history of the club, something like stadium naming rights would be something where we’d be talking to the fans.

"Sometimes there’s a danger if you’re just chasing revenue; we want to have the best fan engagement. If we want to do anything with the stadium we’ll talk to the supporters. It would be crazy not to.

"It’s important that, anything we do, we bring our supporters along with us. Fan engagement is going to be front and centre.

"We want to be a top-six club consistently competing for trophies so it’s about how we get there but we also want to be sustainable.”

On remaining at SJP:

"This is the place we want to be: We have to look at, 'Can we expand it in any way?'

"It's champagne problems, though, that's the beauty of it. Hopefully it's going to be a conundrum that is going to get harder and harder because we want to be growing the club, we want to be growing the fanbase."

photo: bbcradionewcastle