Newcastle victory would be a serious marker for PIF project

What will worry City is the pace of change in the North East of England and the money available to spend there.

FAST PACED CHANGES: Changes in Newcastle are happening at a fast pace - the club has money to spend but doing so wisely. Pic: James Warwick

Newcastle United’s owners have the perfect role models to analyse when they arrive in the east of Manchester on Saturday, aiming to learn from the success of Sheikh Mansour at Manchester City and perhaps believing they can emulate it. 

But if they are going to do so, they’ll need to move extremely quickly.

In just a few weeks’ time, on September 1st, it will be the 15th anniversary of the day Mansour and the Abhu Dabi United Group changed English football by paying €234m for City before going on to deliver consistent and unmatched success.

How they have transformed the club at every level, and elevated their local community in the process, has been nothing short of astonishing and although some say their reputation has been damaged by accusations of breaching FFP regulations, there aren’t many football fans who don’t throw an envious glance at Manchester City’s trophy cabinet at the players they now attract to the Etihad or at the way they are run.

In the space of those 15 years the club has won 17 major trophies, including seven Premier League titles and, last season, a Treble that encompassed the club’s first ever Champions League victory.

What’s interesting for Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, the people now in charge at St James’ Park, is the pace of change delivered in Manchester. City won their first trophy under Mansour within 985 days of his arrival and their first league title within 1350 days. That’s a hell of a schedule to follow.

The PIF have delivered strong results so far-- saving the club from relegation, reaching a League Cup Final and then qualifying for the Champions League – and they have only been in charge for 681 days so far. Should Eddie Howe’s side achieve a miracle and win the Premier League title this year it will have been achieved in an even shorter timescale than Mansour and his Abu Dhabi United Group.

Doing so, however, won’t be easy. Many owners have tried to replicate City’s success, spending ever-increasing sums in the process and often failing miserably.

Look at Farhad Moshiri at Everton, who has spent the best part of €1 billion on transfers and infrastructure but still almost saw his club relegated to the Championship last season.

Think about Tottenham, too, whose trophy drought goes back as far as 2008. And who knows where Chelsea’s Todd Boehly will end up given his disastrous, and extremely expensive, start to life in west London.

But there’s something about the way the way the PIF are doing things that suggests they may be different.

A lot of money has been spent, but not on glitzy glamour names designed to sell shirts and attract global attention. They weren’t in for Neymar or Ronaldo, for instance, even though they could have afforded to do so.

The choice of intelligent, under-stated Howe as manager has set the tone for a different type of revolution to the one Boehly is trying to instigate at Stamford Bridge. A more considered version.

But it is still moving at pace, and should they deliver this season it would put the Toon ahead of other high profile rich owners in the Premier League, including Stan Kroenke at Arsenal.

The good news for Newcastle’s long-suffering fans is they now have money in their favour. The PIF is said to be worth €375 billion – compare that to Sheikh Mansour’s fortune of ‘just’ €27 billion. Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan is also the chairman of Saudi Aramco, one of the world’s largest petroleum and natural gas companies.

So, should City be worried as Newcastle arrive at the Etihad this weekend?

In terms of the game itself, given the way Newcastle begun their season last week with such a convincing 5-1 victory over Aston Villa, you’d say ‘yes’. But when you look at the bigger picture? Not just yet. It took a lot of hard work for Mansour to turn City into perennial trophy winners, with the first silverware arriving in his third season, and if you compare this current side to those early days, the progress is extensive.

What will worry City, however, is the pace of change in the North East of England and the money available to spend there. Unlike many other owners they seem to be spending it wisely – and victory at the Etihad today would be a serious marker.