Jamie Reuben had half an idea of what to expect, but you suspect nothing could have quite prepared Newcastle United's co-owner for the black and white rollercoaster he was about to jump on a year ago.
"These past twelve months have been an incredible journey," Reuben told ChronicleLive. "From being in the relegation zone this time last year to finishing a fantastic 11th, I am so proud of all our players, our manager and our entire team.
"We also couldn’t have done it without our supporters - the best supporters in the world. It’s such a privilege to be a part of the NUFC family and I am excited for the season ahead, building on the great foundations from this past year."
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These are the sort of words Mike Ashley never uttered about the club or its fanbase during 14 loveless years. In fact, it was impossible to even get an audience with Newcastle's previous custodian to hear his thoughts.
The reality was some long-serving employees never met Ashley during his time at Newcastle. As much as Ashley loved a night out, the idea of the Sports Direct magnate rocking up at a Christmas party at St James' Park, as new owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi did last December, was unthinkable.
In contrast, now, staff speak of a 'family culture' at Newcastle with the women's team and foundation brought back into the heart of the club. The consortium have also been 'close' to the players, particularly in those first few months when the team were struggling. Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, for example, stressed to the squad that they had his support in a speech delivered during a warm-weather training camp in Saudi Arabia in January as former defender Federico Fernandez recalled.
"He gave us the confidence in the bad moment to push even harder to stay in the Premier League," Fernandez told ChronicleLive. "It was simple, but he was very clear. After that, the people were around the training ground from time to time to support us and to chat with us to see what we needed to help us to perform better."
Staff have received similar backing. Club employees, like the players, felt in limbo during the Ashley era with heads of department simply unable to plan and lacking the support they sorely required. ChronicleLive understands Brentford, who were only promoted last season, were miles ahead of stripped down Newcastle with 190 full-time players and staff on the Bees' books, including 84 administration and commercial employees.
However, existing staff at Newcastle were quickly reassured they would get the help they have long needed and Staveley and Ghodoussi, who were handed the management contract to run the club on a day-to-day basis, held an open meeting at St James' just a day after the buy-out was completed. Independent assessments were carried out, which led to some existing employees getting their first pay rise in many years, and Newcastle became a living wage employer last February.
Heads of department now have the resources and backing to target the 'best in class' when it comes to staff and equipment. As a result, several new positions have been created at all levels of the club, including a CEO, sporting director, full-time nutritionist, general counsel, head of technical scouting and data analyst, and more are planned.
"The feeling is in the year since the takeover there's been a lot of positive progress but an acknowledgement as well there's is a long way to go," a senior source told ChronicleLive. "There is a sense we're only getting started still."
To show how far Newcastle have had to come, the club finally have a head of supporter services in Sarah Medcalf rather than head of media Lee Marshall also having to serve as a supporter liaison officer. On the subject of fan engagement, the Newcastle United Supporters Trust (NUST) have met with both Staveley and Ghodoussi in the St James' boardroom.
NUST board member Alex Hurst admitted there is a 'trust' there that 'didn't exist before' when the idea of having a beer with Ashley was once seriously floated by the billionaire's camp but, unsurprisingly, never materialised.
"We were able to sit in front of people who were talking about their vision and their plans," Hurst told ChronicleLive. "They want to make Newcastle United one of the very biggest football clubs in the world.
"It's easy to say these things - you have to back it up. So far, it's been spectacularly backed up."
As Hurst alluded to, around £210m worth of talent has been brought to the club, including Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier, after the hierarchy backed Eddie Howe's character-centered approach. Agents who have dealt with Staveley and Ghodoussi have told ChronicleLive they are 'sensational' and 'nice people'. Another representative, who was hosted in London by the pair and head of recruitment Steve Nickson, said they 'treated us in a very professional and friendly way'.
Just as new contacts have been made, relationships have also been rebuilt. Club legends now feel welcome again and this goes beyond prominent examples like Kevin Keegan and Alan Shearer, who were ostracised in the previous era. Shay Given, hurt by the way Ashley treated him after 12 years of service, has been back at St James' on a number of occasions. Jonas Gutierrez, now back home in Argentina, feels like he can one day return to Tyneside after previously telling ChronicleLive how the previous regime 'didn't see you as a person'.
The new owners have also been building bridges in the city. Unlike those who came before them, for instance, there has been dialogue between the hierarchy and Newcastle City Council. The Newcastle United business club has also been set up as a forum for figures in the city to come together to meet at St James' Park. Staveley and Ghodoussi spoke at the launch back in May and member Connor Oliver, a financial adviser at Emerald Associates, told ChronicleLive 'they're just massively on board with the fact it's a one club city with all the businesses within that'.
That was a sentiment shared by Newcastle MP Chi Onwurah, who was personally phoned by Staveley after the buy-out was finally completed last October.
"They have future ambitions for Newcastle United but, also, recognise the uniqueness of Newcastle United and the fanbase - the powerful potential - and have the desire to invest in the city and its people," she told ChronicleLive. "That is a huge turnaround from Ashley.
"Amanda being a Yorkshirewoman and, also, a woman who has worked extensively in all-male environments, which is something that we share, is particularly determined. We have male, female, black, white fans across the city and she's determined to reflect that, to reflect the uniqueness and passion of the Newcastle United fanbase, and also invest in its potential."
However, Ms Onwurah added that 'I don't think any fan can be happy where the money is coming from'. The chairman of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, after all, is Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the leader of a country with an appalling human rights record.
It is important to stress that Newcastle supporters are not being held accountable for Saudi human rights abuses, when fans have had no say on who owns the club, but the Newcastle Central MP wants the PIF's involvement to lead to 'greater focus on the violence and repression of the Saudi government - not sportswashing it'.
As Sacha Deshmukh, Amnesty International UK’s chief executive, knows only too well, 81 people were executed in a single day in Saudi Arabia last March while a Saudi court recently jailed Salma al-Shehab, a women's rights activist studying at Leeds University, for 34 years because of her tweets.
“Though a lot has changed in the past year at Newcastle United, things have only got worse in Saudi Arabia," Deshmukh told ChronicleLive. "With every fixture, the club is still being used to help sportswash Saudi Arabia’s shocking human rights record."
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