Darren Eales has got a little taste of what is to come at Newcastle United after the club's new CEO was among more than 87,000 spectators in attendance for the Magpies final friendlies of the summer.
Eales jetted in for Newcastle's wins against Serie A side Atalanta and La Liga outfit Athletic Bilbao last week as the 47-year-old met his new colleagues and sampled the match day experience at St James' Park at the earliest opportunity after his appointment was confirmed last month. Eales sat alongside part-owners Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Amanda Staveley and sporting director Dan Ashworth in the directors' box for both victories and took the time to speak to supporters and pose for photographs before and afterwards.
Eales will have had an idea of what to expect - the executive has travelled to Tyneside before over the years - but you suspect the Chelmsford native will have been blown away by the atmosphere on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Indeed, it is hard to imagine many other clubs having 87,452 supporters clicking through the turnstiles over the course of two days for two exhibition matches.
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It was a timely reminder of the excitement and fervour in the city ahead of the start of the new campaign and Eales will have those supporters in mind with every decision he makes at Newcastle - just as he did as Atlanta United's president. Catie Griggs, who was chief business officer at Atlanta, said Eales 'lived and breathed it' as someone who understood what a football club 'should mean to a community'.
"Not only does Darren have technical knowledge about the sport itself, but he is truly passionate about learning and engaging with the fans and the way in which they want to be engaged and really investing in the communities that his club is in," she told ChronicleLive. "From a football club standpoint, you're there to win on the pitch but you're also there to serve the people who are coming and support you day in, day out. Darren is very good at keeping both those things front and centre at all times."
Atlanta previously confirmed that Eales would officially start at Newcastle on August 22 - two weeks after his scheduled final day with the MLS giants.
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