Newcastle rows and Eddie Howe tension cast cloud over summer

Loss of ally Staveley leaves a void

Staveley had already been pushed to the periphery at St James’ Park. She was the public face of the takeover and helped push it through in 2021, despite widespread opposition given the controversial nature of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF). But she had no previous experience of running a football club and people were appointed to do the jobs she had initially taken on in the early days of the project.

Chief among them is chief executive Darren Eales, who has brought in a new sporting director he knows well, Mitchell, who in turn has brought in a new head of performance, David Bunce.

There is a dedicated board of directors, of which Staveley was just one, and his influence had been waning for some time before his departure was announced last week.

What Newcastle will be missing after her departure is a human touch. She was a people person behind the scenes and brought everyone together. She was also Howe’s champion and fought his battles in the boardroom.

Newcastle will look, feel and sound like a colder, more corporate entity without her as a driving force, as well as a figure fans could relate to. They knew Staveley wanted the best for the club and the city, and supporters have less of an emotional attachment to those who stayed behind to run things.

Questions are beginning to be asked about the stalled progress under the PIF. Is he as interested as he claimed to be at the start? Or has the PSR, combined with new rules to restrict sponsorship deals tied to owners, clipped his wings?

Newcastle cannot operate like Chelsea and Manchester City did before them and closing the gap on the richest clubs in England and Europe is much harder as a result. Saudi chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan has said he wants Newcastle to be the “number one” club in Europe, but it is difficult to see how they can do that in the short to medium term given the financial constraints in place.

Eales said: “As far as the PIF is concerned – and Jamie Reuben on behalf of the (co-owners) the Reuben family – they are committed.

“This is an ownership group that has a large portfolio of companies. In one sense, on an investment scale, it’s probably one of the smaller ones, but in terms of profile and interest, it’s one of the larger ones.

“We’re excited. I’ve talked about the end of the cycle with PSR and this is a big year for us now as we continue on that journey to become a club competing for trophies and being in Europe every season. That has to be our target going forward.”

Concrete news about the planned expansion of St James’ Park would be a step in the right direction.