New Newcastle United challenges amid transfer budget boost
Newcastle United are flying the flag globally as 78,419 fans watch Tottenham Hotspur game in Australia – but this has not always been the case.
In more than two decades as a Newcastle United writer, I’ve had a few tickings off from managers.
But none so far away from Tyneside as the one delivered by Alan Pardew over a bagel and a coffee.
Pardew had wanted to meet a couple of colleagues and myself in a downtown Columbus, Ohio, during an eventful pre-season tour of the United States.
We arrived on time, and Pardew, generously, bought the bagels and coffee. Then, less generously, he let rip.
It was the summer of 2011. There was a heatwave in the Midwest, and, maybe predictably given the headlines of the previous few days, Pardew boiled over.
Everything that could have gone wrong seemingly had gone wrong by the time the club arrived in the city for the third and final leg of its tour across the pond.
Pardew had been forced to leave behind Joey Barton and Nile Ranger due to previous criminal convictions, while Yohan Cabaye, signed that summer from Lille, had been bizarrely denied a visa due to a disputed dental bill from a previous visit to the country.
"It was a minor incident involving a bill,” said Pardew at the time. “He claims he paid it, and they claim he didn't."
Hatem Ben Arfa was injured in the first game in a sweltering Kansas City, and a grass pitch laid over the artificial surface in Orlando for the second fixture had to be hastily ripped up after it was deemed unplayable.
Tweet storm
The day after that game against Orlando City, another storm was brewing in thundery Florida as the team prepared to fly to Columbus for the final leg. A simmering Jose Enrique tore into then-owner Mike Ashley on Twitter.
“The club is allowing all the major players of the team to go," Enrique tweeted. "This club will never again fight to be among the top six again with this policy."
And, inspired by a noisy Baptist convention at the team’s Orlando hotel, a colleague wrote: “Newcastle’s American tour is in a state – and that’s the gospel truth.”
That line was the final straw for a frustrated Pardew, who had plenty to get off his chest over coffee in Columbus. Once he had done that off the record, he calmly went back on the record a few questions. That was typical of Pardew, who was quick to move on after making his point.
One time on Tyneside, he lambasted what he felt had been some “f***king disgraceful journalism” that week before starting his press conference as if nothing had happened.
Anyway, so much had gone wrong on that eventful tour of the United States, but so much would go right that season.
The club, captained by Fabricio Coloccini following the departure of Kevin Nolan, would finish fifth in the Premier League in 2011/12 despite the less-than-idea pre-season stateside, and Enrique’s tweeted prediction was proved to be wrong, as he was reminded at St James’ Park during an eventful game which saw him go in goal for new club Liverpool following Pepe Reina’s dismissal.
However, that impressive season was more like the exception rather than the rule during Ashley’s time as owner.
The club had a tight budget over those 14 years. While other Premier League clubs were involved in high-profile jaunts around the world, Newcastle embarked on a few more ramshackle tours.
That said, those trips, like the 2011 visit to the United States, were good for journalists.
I also remember the following season’s short-haul jaunt to Europe, which was hastily put together following the cancellation of a tournament in South Africa.
The last of the club’s three tour fixtures, a match against Fenerbahce, was due to be played in Hungary, but it was switched across the border to another country – Austria – midway through the tour.
Nobody from the club had bothered to tell the Tyneside-based journalists out there covering the tour in advance of the announcement.
Still, we made to the modest, 5,000-capacity Sonnenseestadion along with around 100 fans, as estimated by nufc.com.
“A Toon contingent of 100 arrived by bus, taxi and hire car from across Europe, although familiar faces were in short supply, with only four confirmed arrivals from Tyneside, plus the Chronicle and Shields Gazette reporters – all adding Austria to the ever-lengthening list of countries where they'd reported/spectated/imbibed and watched United,” they wrote.
Well-travelled Newcastle supporters have more recently added a few more countries to that long list.
Today, the club took on Tottenham Hotspur at a far grander arena, the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground in Australia, and there were many more than 100 United fans in attendance at the fixture, which kicked off Global Football Week – Melbourne.
A crowd of 78,419 watched Newcastle win on penalties after a 1-1 draw which saw Alexander Isak cancel out a strike from James Maddison.
The fixture is followed by a game against A-League All Stars at the city’s Marvel Stadium on Friday.
Newcastle’s Kieran Trippier, in England’s Euro 2024 training squad, admitted the extra games, which following a demanding and draining season, were “not ideal” earlier this month, but the extra revenues and commercial benefits are ideal for the club as it seeks to compete on and off the pitch while complying with domestic and European financial fair play rules.
Global ambitions
Newcastle are going global. The club is also heading to Japan in pre-season for games against Urawa Red Diamonds and Yokohama F Marinos.
The tours and friendlies of the Ashley era weren’t especially aimed at generating revenues and building the club’s brand, but the club, majority owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, has expanded its commercial operation since its 2021 takeover by an ambitious consortium led by Amanda Staveley.
United’s touring parties no longer have to deal with the kind of logistical issues thrown up by budget travel and accommodation options.
However, these long-haul tours still throw up challenges around fatigue and injuries for Eddie Howe and his staff, but, if the club is to challenge for honours and build its brand overseas, it has to follow the money around the world.
The money they bring in will strengthen its hand in the transfer market.
Speaking last month, United’s head coach said: “I don’t think it’s something that, being honest, in my position you’re saying ‘I want to go’.
“From a physical perspective, after a long season, it’s not something we would want to do, but the club’s moving forward very quickly, and we have to keep up the pace with everything they want to do.”
The pace of change at Newcastle since the takeover has been extraordinary.
United’s global push, as demanding as it is for Howe and the squad, is about maintaining that momentum, though Howe is understandably keen get the balance right between intertwined financial and football imperatives.