Tuesday marks the four-year anniversary of Newcastle United's takeover, so what has changed?
Eddie Howe's voice trailed off.
"I remember walking around the training ground when we came up that first time," said the Newcastle United head coach last week. "It was…"
Howe was not suddenly getting misty-eyed, but reflecting on the work that was needed to improve the club's tired Benton base following his appointment nearly four years ago.
Newcastle had not long been taken over by a Saudi-led consortium in a £305m deal which was opposed by human rights campaigners.
The club had been dubbed the richest in the world by outsiders, but the reality on the ground was rather different as they battled relegation.
In a planning application to upgrade the facility a few months later, it was even stated the training facility fell "significantly below the Premier League and perhaps even Championship standards".
The base has since been modernised with hydrotherapy and plunge pools, a new canteen, a players' lounge and bigger dressing rooms, among other features, but it is the team that has been truly transformed since then.
So what has changed since the takeover and why didn't the wealth of Newcastle's owners automatically mean more success and honours?
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'We need more but things will change'
Matt Ritchie sensed it.
He knew what could happen if Howe "got hold of them" and "had some firepower", after previously working with the manager at Bournemouth.
"When I first arrived, I would talk about Eddie Howe and Bournemouth," said the 36-year-old winger, who played for Newcastle between 2016 and 2024 and now at Reading.
"The lads would say, 'come on, drop it, he can't have been that good'. But I'd tell them there was no stone left unturned.
"I was so pleased that they got to sample it. Until you actually see it and feel it, you don't truly believe you have never worked like that before. It's the attention to detail, the preparation and the desire to improve - all the things that make Newcastle what they are now."
It has not all been plain sailing, of course, since Howe's appointment or the takeover a few weeks prior.
Newcastle, currently 15th in the Premier League, missed out on a number of targets during a draining summer window and lost striker Alexander Isak to Liverpool for a British record £125m.
The club do not have a sporting director after Paul Mitchell left in June, following less than a year in the post.
And the wait continues for announcements concerning the future of St James' Park and construction of a new state-of-the-art training ground.
But this is a side that ended a 70-year drought to win a major domestic trophy back in March after lifting the Carabao Cup by beating Liverpool.
They have qualified for the Champions League in two of the past three seasons - recording their biggest win in the competition against Union Saint-Gilloise this week - and only Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal have picked up more points in the Premier League since Howe took charge.
"A lot has changed just in terms of the general feeling of the club," added Howe. "Of course, the team has changed. Naturally, teams progress and change over time.
"The way we're working behind the scenes as a football club is totally different but, also, if you look around the training ground here, there have been big improvements. That's what the club needed and still needs.
"We need more, but things will change and gradually evolve over time. It's exciting times for the football club."
Trying to bridge huge revenue gap
Newcastle have also grown off the field.
Revenue is set to increase from £140m in 2021 to upward of £400m when the club's latest accounts are released later this season, while staff numbers have more than doubled to 550 in recent years.
There has been substantial investment in the academy and the women's team, while hundreds of millions have been pumped into to the club to help with day-to-day running costs.
But one question outsiders might be asking is why the wealth of their Saudi owners hasn't produced greater success.
Though new signings have arrived - around £100m net was spent in the summer - this has been a relatively gradual build as supporter Charlotte Robson explained.
"Because the new ownership were so wealthy, on paper, a lot of people made an assumption that they were going to buy the way to the top," said BBC Sport's Newcastle fan writer.
"Yes, Newcastle have brought in some excellent internationals like Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, but the development of existing squad players and the signing of players like Dan Burn from the region to bolster that feeling around the club has been massive and really important."
Such an approach has been influenced by Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR), which restrict losses to £105m over a rolling three-year period, so finding a way to create further headroom will be crucial for Newcastle.
For context, Manchester United may have experienced their worst campaign in more than four decades last season, but the club still generated record revenues of £666.5m.
Digging deeper, Manchester United brought in £333.3m worth of commercial income and £160.3m in matchday revenue.
Newcastle, by contrast, raised £83.6m and £50.1m respectively in their most recent published accounts from 2023-24.
Buy-out 'heightened' rivals' concerns
Manchester United have not necessarily made the most of their huge income streams, of course.
But, historically, the sides who spend more on wages pick up the most points per game in the Premier League.
Previous disruptors like Manchester City and Chelsea were able to blow their rivals out of the water with superior packages before the current rules were introduced in 2013.
But Newcastle 'only' had the eighth highest salary bill in the Premier League just a couple of seasons ago and the club came mightily close to a PSR breach in June, 2024 following years of imbalanced trading.
"I'm not necessarily sure these are unintended consequences of the rules," said football finance expert Kieran Maguire. "The more Machiavellian view of the Premier League is that the clubs at the top didn't want another City or Chelsea to arise. This is a way of creating a glass ceiling."
Newcastle are going to have to do things a little differently - and that has been clear since the takeover.
In fact, an unnamed executive previously contacted the Premier League on behalf of his club and 10 others amid concern Newcastle could enter into lucrative sponsorship deals with Saudi Arabian companies.
He requested that notice was given of a vote to introduce a short-term ban on related-party transactions just five days after the buy-out in 2021.
This senior figure openly admitted the Newcastle takeover "heightened" worries and "encouraged the clubs to seek action" when he was later cross-examined by Manchester City's legal team after the Abu Dhabi-owned outfit challenged the validity of the previous incarnation of these associated party transaction rules (APTs).
'No-one should excuse Saudi human rights record'
The APT regulations have been updated and remain in place.
But Newcastle's new CEO, David Hopkinson, has set out to find ways to unlock the club's "under-realised commercial potential".
That has not come as a surprise to close friend Tom Pistore, who worked with the Canadian at Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment.
"Our group under his leadership were always trying to focus on how do we continue to evolve?" he said. "Status quo keeps you stuck so it was about continuing to be creative in business and partnership relationships, innovation, digital and ticketing.
"As the landscape changed, David was always very forward facing with a curious interest in new concepts. Leading edge, but not bleeding edge were terms we often talked about in watching someone have the first stab at something and then having a proper evaluation."
Hopkinson, who previously served as president and chief operating officer at Madison Square Garden Sports and head of global partnerships at Real Madrid, wants to position Newcastle "among the world's elite".
That remains the long-term ambition of chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) - who own a majority stake in the club - as well as fellow owner Jamie Reuben.
But Felix Jakens, Amnesty International UK's head of campaigns, said "goals and glory are distracting from executions and repression" after a record 345 people were executed in Saudi Arabia last year.
"This was never just about football," he added. "It's about using the global prestige of the Premier League to sanitise a brutal human rights record."
Newcastle Central MP Chi Onwurah was the first to admit she "wouldn't choose Saudi Arabia as the owners of the club".
However, she stressed supporters were the "last people who get to choose".
"When you make it all about money, which the Premier League have, those with the most money will end up winning the great clubs like Newcastle United," she said.
"But no-one should be expected to justify, stand up for, or excuse Saudi Arabia's human rights record."
Category: General Sports
