Newcastle chief executive David Hopkinson said Eddie Howe’s future would be discussed “when the time is right” after the club announced a record income of £335.3m for the year to June 2025.
The Magpies’ turnover increased by £15m on the previous year, with commercial income up 44% to £120.1m, but the figures are still significantly lower than top Premier League clubs. Liverpool reported a record income of £700m in their latest accounts, while Manchester United’s expected income is £640m.
Newcastle’s latest results do not take into account this season’s Champions League or the British record sale of Alexander Isak to Liverpool for £125 million in August.
Despite recording a profit of £129m on the sale of St James’s Park to its own affiliates, Hopkinson admitted that the ‘box office’ summer deal may not have been possible without a notable sale.
“Let’s talk about the future when the time is right.”
Howe’s future at Newcastle has been the subject of speculation, with the club sitting 12th in the Premier League (12 points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa with seven games remaining) and suffering a home derby defeat to newly promoted rivals Sunderland. Howe’s team were also torn apart by Barcelona in the second half of the Round of 16 in the Champions League.
Asked about Howe’s future, Hopkinson said: “I don’t have a stance on his future. All I can say is that the derby defeat hurt. We take it very seriously. There’s nothing in us that thinks, ‘Well, it’s just three points and we’re off.’ That resonates.”
“I recently spent a few hours with Eddie (Howe) for a one-on-one lunch and we talked about that and many other things.
“Eddie is our manager and we expect him to do well here until the end of the season and we will talk about the future when the time is right.”
“Right now I’m focused on this season’s games.”
Pressed further on whether he intended to remain open to Mr Howe’s future, he added:
“I don’t think that way. We’re not going to make any changes at this point. We’re not having those conversations.”
“We are still in the middle of the season. We are now focused on the remaining seven games and not getting distracted by speculation about what we will or won’t do in the summer.
“We all only have enough bandwidth at the moment, so we are focused on finishing this season on a strong note.”
“Toner resale? Players under contract will leave on our terms.”
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Take a look at some of the best parts of Sandro Tonali’s time at Newcastle United so far
Along with Howe’s future, one of the players heavily linked to his departure from the North East is Sandro Tonali.
Tonali’s departure from the club would be the latest in a string of notable departures from St James’ Park, following the departure of Isak last summer. Isak’s departure was a lengthy affair, including training away from the Swedish national team and making damning statements before the transfer was completed.
In response to a direct question about Tonali, Hopkinson said the players would leave on Newcastle’s terms.
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The transfer show will highlight this summer’s most in-demand midfielders – will Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali top that list?
“We don’t necessarily have an overall strategy when it comes to player departures,” he said.
“We are thinking thoroughly about what our players want to do or not do this summer. However, if a scenario like Isak’s occurs again, players under contract will leave on our terms and we will make the most of any opportunity that may arise for the club.”
“Our strategy going forward is to buy well and sell well. Buying well does not necessarily mean spending the most money. It means working the market for players who create the most value for this club, not the fees paid.”
“Therefore, there are many things we need to adopt, including developing our own, exploring opportunities in the market, and making the most of them within the price range we can produce.”
Analysis: Newcastle enters summer of change
Keith Downey on Sky Sports News:
I said on air last week that change could come to Newcastle United this summer, and nothing David Hopkinson has said in the past 24 hours has changed that view.
Without Champions League football, it would be difficult to maintain prize money at St James’ Park, where Premier League vultures flock. Even without big names leaving, Newcastle need fresh blood. Depending on departures, up to eight new players could arrive.
But here’s the problem. Newcastle need to sell. They themselves admit it.
“Our strategy going forward is to buy well and sell well,” Hopkinson said.
Newcastle CEO David Hopkinson joined the club in September 2025
Hopkinson was not present when Alexander Isak was sold on Premier League transfer deadline day, but added: “For me, Isak was a good sale.”
Try telling that to Newcastle fans who still feel the scars of a summer when Newcastle’s best players went on strike to force a move to their league rivals.
Hopkinson can forgive it. He wasn’t in this world at the time and wasn’t living and breathing the emotions of that roller coaster transfer.
But his words about selling players were honest and direct and showed the club intends to learn from last summer’s mistakes. And above all, it meets the expectations of fans heading into the summer transfer window.
“If a scenario like Isak’s occurs again, players under contract will leave on our terms and we will make the most of that opportunity,” he added.
Fans are therefore under no illusions that a sale will take place this summer in order to revamp the squad, with players such as Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento available for Newcastle to extract maximum value from.
There seem to be a lot of variables in Hopkinson’s answer, and they could be reflected in an up-and-down season.
Even the director’s future is open to interpretation.
Asked twice about Eddie Howe’s future, the CEO said negotiations on the matter were on hold until the end of the season. “We will talk about the future when the time is right,” he said.
Whether intentional or not, it certainly left a question mark over Howe’s future.
A lot happened last summer…and in many ways it feels like another frenetic summer could be on the horizon.
What about financial numbers? Newcastle headlined their press release with the news that commercial income had increased by 44 per cent. It looks and sounds very positive, but they need to at least double that number if they are to compete with the Premier League’s top clubs for league titles and new signings.
Revenue rose by 5% to £335m, but that’s still only half the income of the likes of Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal. And until Newcastle’s commercial revenue streams can compete with its competitors, it will always be downstream.
They’re on an upward trajectory, but not as much as fans felt they were promised when the PIF acquisition was pushed through in 2021 or when Hopkinson took over as CEO earlier this season. Yes, they are being held back by the PSR, but commercial revenue growth is not as fast as many of the black-white persuasion would like.
These accounts pre-date the Canadian’s time on Tyneside and do not include the Champions League prize money from this season’s European adventures, so Hopkinson deserves time to make a name for himself.
But fans will still question why the club didn’t help itself by acquiring a sponsor for the training ground, or why they waited to sell and lease back the stadium until the PSR benefits had effectively disappeared. That certainly could have been done years ago.
In an interview accompanying the financial figures, Hopkinson said Newcastle could “get there very quickly”. But how soon? By 2030, he said in December. Twelve months is a long time in football, but it’s not until Newcastle release the numbers for Hopkinson’s first season that the former Real Madrid manager will be properly evaluated.
Why Newcastle can’t spend £129m on stadium sale
Newcastle sold St James’s Park to an affiliate of their own, then leased the stadium back for a profit of £129m. However, Newcastle’s chief financial officer Simon Capper said the club would be subject to “constraints” and “limitations” on how it spent its funds, and could leave fans wondering why they hadn’t done this sooner to make life easier in the world of PSR.
“The impact of the gain calculated on the sale creates significant headroom in the PSR,” Capper said.
“Because we have to follow UEFA rules and because the PSR system is coming to an end, our ability to use that PSR headroom is very limited and the benefit is not passed on to team costs. In a very narrow way that’s true (more room to spend on players), but how we use it is very limited.”
