Sky Sports journalist Keith Downie shares big plan Newcastle owners reportedly have in mind

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Sky Sports reporter Keith Downie has given an insight into some of the upgrades planned by the new Newcastle United ownership.

Last week, Magpies fans celebrated as the Saudi-led consortium took over the club from Mike Ashley and ushered in a new era at St James’ Park.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) – worth an alleged £700bn – have taken an 80 percent stake in Newcastle after the Premier League finally approved a deal which had originally been agreed early last year.

Newcastle’s new owners have made it clear they want to run the club in a sustainable way, but big plans are nonetheless in the pipeline – and not just in terms of players and staff.

According to Downie, the consortium are planning to invest at every level of the club – and even the area surrounding St James’ Park – to make Newcastle a “superpower” like the Manchester clubs and Chelsea.

“In terms of FFP, the club is in a good position because they haven’t spent much money in recent years,” he said on the Essential Football Podcast.

“But what isn’t so attractive is the condition of the club: the stadium certainly needs work done to it and a lick of paint, and the consortium are well aware of that.

“Amanda Staveley described the training ground as ‘awful’ last week, so that’s something she’ll want to either completely start again, or refurbish, but I’d imagine they’d want to rip it up and start again.

“They don’t own the land the training ground is on, so I’d imagine they might build an entirely new training ground elsewhere, similar to what we saw at Leicester.

“And they obviously want to invest in the city… so they want to improve the surrounding area, like we’ve seen at Manchester City, to bring it up to that standard.

“They want to invest in the infrastructure of the club behind the scenes, the commercial side of the club, and they also want to improve the academy, which isn’t the best, and they want to invest in the women’s team.

“So they basically want to invest at every level of the club to make Newcastle a superpower, like we see from Man City, Man Utd, Chelsea, and others.”

The Magpies are next in Premier League action on Sunday, when they welcome Tottenham to Tyneside.