Has Newcastle’s inevitable rise begun?

Bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and guided by manager Eddie Howe’s recalibrated methods, the Magpies are playing at a level which suggests that their ambition of joining Europe’s elite will be realised soon

There have been few transformations in club football history as swift and inevitable as Newcastle United’s. After 12 games last season, the Magpies were bottom of the Premier League standings. The only target was survival, staving off the calamity of relegation.

Fast forward to this season and Newcastle currently sits in fourth place — the final Champions League qualification position — having lost just once in 12 games.

In a thoroughly deserved 2-1 victory last weekend at Tottenham Hotspur, where Newcastle had suffered a 5-1 defeat last season, the side offered a sense of how far it has come.

The main reason for the turnaround is obvious: last year’s controversial Saudi Arabia-led takeover, with the Public Investment Fund buying the club in a deal worth just over £300 million. When a football team is bankrolled by the world’s richest ownership, there is — as Newcastle sporting director Dan Ashworth said — “no ceiling” on its potential.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp referenced these words recently, saying that it was almost impossible to compete with clubs like Newcastle, which have no limits on what they can afford.

“There are three clubs in world football who can do what they want financially,” said Klopp, in an apparent reference to Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Newcastle, which are backed by oil-rich Gulf states in Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, respectively. “There is no ceiling for Newcastle. Congratulations, but other clubs have ceilings.”

Although Newcastle was expected to move up English football’s pecking order, few predicted it would happen this quickly. Newcastle’s owners have stated their ambition is to win the Premier League within a decade. But the club’s return to the Champions League could come sooner than expected, with the side showing it’s well and truly in the fight for a top-four finish.