Newcastle chief executive David Hopkinson says Eddie Howe’s future will be discussed “when the time is right” as the club announced record revenues of £335.3m. for the year ending June 2025.
The Magpies’ turnover is up by £15m on the previous year and commercial income is up 44 per cent to £120.1m, but these figures remain significantly less than the Premier League’s top clubs. Liverpool reported record revenues of £700m in their latest financial results and Manchester United’s forecast revenue is £640m.
Newcastle’s latest results do not reflect income from this season’s Champions League or the British record sale of Alexander Isak to Liverpool for £125m. in August.
Despite recording a profit of £129m selling St James’ Park to a company linked to themselves, Hopkinson admitted that a “box office” summer signing might only be possible with a remarkable sale.
‘We will talk about the future when it’s time’
Howe’s future at Newcastle has been the subject of speculation, with the club 12th in the Premier League – 12 points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa with seven games remaining – coming off the back of a home derby defeat to newly promoted rivals Sunderland. Howe’s side were also torn apart in the Champions League by Barcelona in the second half of the second leg of their round of 16 tie.
Asked about Howe’s future, Hopkinson said: “I don’t have a position on his future. What I can tell you is that the derby loss hurt. We take it seriously. There’s nothing within us that thinks ‘well, it’s just three points and we’ll go’. It has resonated.
“I spent a few hours in a one-on-one lunch recently with Eddie [Howe] and we talked through a whole range of things, including that.
“Eddie is our manager. I expect to have a good run to the end of the season here and we will talk about the future when the time comes.
“Right now we are focused on this season’s competition.”
Pressed further on whether he was leaving Howe’s future open, he added:
“I wouldn’t frame it that way. We’re not looking to make a change at the moment. We’re not having those conversations.
“We’re still in the middle of the season. Right now we’re focused on the seven games we have left and not distracting ourselves with speculation about what we can or can’t do in the summer.
“Right now we all only have so much bandwidth and we’re focused on this season and finishing strong.”
‘Tonali sales? Any player under contract will leave on our terms”
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Take a look at some of Sandro Tonali’s best plays from his time at Newcastle United so far
Alongside Howe’s future, Sandro Tonali is another who has been heavily linked with a move away from the North East.
Should Tonali leave the club, it would represent back-to-back departures of marquee players at St James’ Park after Isak left last summer. Isak’s exit was a long, drawn-out affair that included the Sweden international training away from the squad and releasing a damning statement before his move was complete.
In response to a direct question about Tonali, Hopkinson says the players will leave on Newcastle’s terms.
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The Transfer Show looks at the most in-demand midfielders this summer – is Newcastle’s Sandro Tonali top of the list?
“We don’t have an overall strategy in terms of players out, necessarily,” he said.
“We are thinking through what players may or may not want to do this summer. But if an Isak-like scenario arises again, any player under contract will leave on our terms and we will maximize the opportunity that can represent for the club.
“Going forward, our strategy is to buy well and sell well. Buying well doesn’t necessarily mean spending the most money. It means working in the marketplace for the players who generate the most value for this club rather than the fee paid for them.
“So there’s a ton of things we need to do, including developing our own, looking for opportunities in the market and making sure we’re maximizing our options within the available price we can produce.”
Analysis: Newcastle ready for summer of change
Sky Sports News’ Keith Downie:
I said on air last week that it looks like this summer could see a change at Newcastle United and nothing David Hopkinson has said in the last 24 hours has made me change that view.
Without Champions League football, it will be difficult to retain the prize assets at St James’ Park where the Premier League vultures circle. Even without big name departures, Newcastle need fresh blood. As many as eight new signings could come, depending on departures.
But here’s the thing. Newcastle must sell. They admit it themselves.
“Going forward, our strategy is to buy well and sell well,” Hopkinson said.
Newcastle CEO David Hopkinson joined the club in September 2025
Hopkinson was not in situ when Alexander Isak was sold on deadline day for a Premier League transfer record, but also said: “For me, Isak was a good sale”.
Try telling that to the Newcastle fans still reeling from a tough summer in which their best player went on strike to force a move to a league rival.
Hopkinson can be forgiven. He wasn’t around then, and he didn’t live and breathe the emotions of that particular transfer rollercoaster.
But his words on player sales were honest and upfront, showing the club plans to learn from last summer’s mistakes. And if nothing else, it manages the expectation of fans going into the summer transfer window.
“If an Isak-like scenario arises again, every player under contract will leave on our terms and we will maximize the opportunity,” he added.
It leaves fans under no illusion that sales will take place this summer to help them freshen up the squad, with the likes of Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento exactly the sort of players Newcastle could extract maximum value from.
There seemed to be a lot of variables from Hopkinson’s answers, and they can be reflected in a season of ups and downs.
Even the leader’s future was open to interpretation.
Asked twice about what the future holds for Eddie Howe, the chief executive said all talks on the subject had been put on hold until the season ends. “We’ll talk about the future when it’s time,” he said.
It certainly left a question mark over Howe’s future, whether it was intentional or not.
A lot happened last summer … and it feels like another hectic one could potentially be on the horizon on a number of fronts.
What about the financial numbers? Newcastle topped off their press release with news of a 44 per cent increase in commercial turnover. It looks and sounds very positive, but to compete with the Premier League’s top clubs for league titles and new signings, they need to at least double that number.
While revenue rose five per cent to £335m, it is still half of what Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal bring in. And until Newcastle’s commercial revenue streams are competitive with their competitors, they will always be in their slipstream.
They are on an upward trajectory, but not at the pace fans feel they were promised when the PIF takeover was pushed through in 2021 or when Hopkinson took over as chief executive earlier this season. Yes, they are hampered by PSR, but the growth in commercial revenue has not been as rapid as many of a black and white persuasion hoped or expected.
Those financial achievements predate Canadian Hopkinson’s time on Tyneside, and do not include the Champions League prize money from this season’s European adventure, so Hopkinson deserves time to make his mark.
But fans will still ask why the club haven’t helped themselves by getting sponsorships for the training ground, or why they’ve waited until there’s virtually no PSR benefit to sell the stadium to themselves and lease it back. It certainly could have been done a few years ago.
Hopkinson said in his interview to accompany the financial figures that Newcastle “can get there quickly”. But how fast? In 2030, he said back in December. Twelve months is a long time in football, but only when Newcastle publish their figures for Hopkinson’s first season can the former Real Madrid boss be properly assessed.
Why Newcastle can’t spend £129m on stadium sales
Newcastle sold St James’ Park to a company linked to itself, then leased the stadium back, leading to a profit of £129m. But Newcastle’s finance chief Simon Capper says the club would be “restricted” and “restricted” in how they spend that money, which could leave fans asking why they didn’t do this earlier to make their lives easier in a PSR world.
“Because of the consequence of the profit calculated on the sale, it gives us a significant amount of PSR headspace,” Capper said.
“The ability to implement that PSR height is very limited because we have to comply with UEFA rules and because the PSR regime is coming to an end so that the profit does not roll forward into squad costs. In a very narrow window, yes (it gives us more opportunity to spend on players), but we are very limited in how we can spend it.”