Mark Douglas speaks to The Mag – Great interview (part 2) | OneFootball

Mark Douglas has been The Northern Football Correspondent for the i newspaper for the last three years.

Prior to that he covered Newcastle United at The Journal and the Chronicle for 13 years.

Mark Douglas sat down with Mag writer David Punton to give his views on all things Newcastle United.

Our thanks to Mark (pictured below) for giving his time to do this.

(This is part two of the interview – part one of this epic was published on Monday, see HERE)

Any NUFC characters who you can say you haven’t enjoyed interviewing?

I can’t think of anyone who was especially unpleasant: Joe Kinnear was obviously the most famously hostile but you could tell that some of it was for show. Press conferences with him were actually laugh out loud funny – his biggest problem was being linked so intrinsically with Mike Ashley.

The worst interviews are the mixed zones where a player clearly doesn’t want to be there, it’s two minutes of nothing and they escape for the bus. Pointless, quite frankly.

The Mike Ashley years, what it was like for the media?

Towards the end it was dreadful – especially when Steve Bruce took over.

My heart sank when that happened – I liked him as a person but I knew he didn’t have thick enough skin for what was going to happen. And it curdled into the worst sort of toxicity where there was real hostility between some at the club and the media.

But, looking back through slightly rose-tinted glasses, at times it was also fascinating: they had Kevin Keegan, Alan Shearer and Rafa as manager, finished fifth and there was the Graham Carr-inspired French revolution which was great to cover.

What made it most difficult was how little the club aspired to do anything other than survive for the last few years. Fans actively distrusted you if you got close to anyone at the club, and that was a problem.

What have you made of the job Eddie Howe has done at United?

Hugely, hugely impressed.

The 4th-placed finish is one of the most impressive seasons in modern Newcastle history – and Howe put together, motivated and inspired that side.

But actually what he did last season (and so far this) is the measure of the manager: a triumph of good coaching with little in the way of backing in the transfer market and against a horrendous injury list.

On top of that he is good man and seems to ‘get’ the club. He just looks a perfect fit: back him and watch Newcastle improve.

Who are the most important players in the current Newcastle United side?

The obvious ones are Alexander Isak, Joelinton, Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon. All four could walk into almost any Premier League club.

But what about Lewis Hall, Lewis Miley and Tino Livramento? The trio are the future – and it says a lot about Howe that he’s developed them so much.

The departure of Amanda Staveley and her husband from United’s boardroom and the appointment of Paul Mitchell as sporting director, what is your take on it all?

It was a big change that unsettled everything.

Staveley had been a huge driving force for everything and people liked her. She was popular inside the club and had made a lot of good decisions.

But given the way the club was heading it was always inevitable she would either have to find new funds or leave. It didn’t make it any easier in the summer when suddenly things seemed unsettled.

Mitchell was an interesting choice and clearly a nod to the fact that things had to change. Overall I think it’s the right move to try and do things differently – clearly recruitment hasn’t worked out in the last year – but whether Mitchell is the right man or not will become obvious in the next two transfer windows. I give him a free pass for the summer (and think his interview in September was laudably honest) but by the end of summer 2025 I want to have seen things change for the better.

What does the future of Newcastle Utd hold under PiF?

It’s not the golden ticket some assumed it was when they took over – I’ve reported consistently that sources at PIF insist it’s a long-term, methodical investment where decisions are taken to add value to the investment rather than for cosmetic reasons – but they remain ambitious and committed.

The club has ambition under them, they aspire again. But PSR and whatever come next are a big obstacle to future achievement. It may take longer than we first assumed, and will need people to keep over-achieving, but I think Newcastle will challenge the elite in the next 5-10 years.

How big an impact will FFP/PSR regulations have on Newcastle United moving forward? Can NUFC close the financial gap? Will the rules ever be significantly changed in favour of clubs like Newcastle, Villa, Forest etc?

Clearly the impact is absolutely huge. Newcastle can’t spend anything like what they want to at the moment, and sales they wouldn’t want to make will have to be considered for the foreseeable future. PSR’s successor squad cost controls won’t make life any easier, unfortunately.

They can close the gap because a lot of clubs with more funds aren’t as smart as them and don’t have a manager anywhere near as good as Howe. But a lot is going to depend on them growing revenue – through sales, improved commercial offering and maybe even the stadium issue being settled.

Will the rules be changed? It’s going to be tough to ever get a consensus to loosen things up given so many clubs see Newcastle as a real threat. But the Man City case – both the 115 charges and associated party transactions – show that the rules are vulnerable. The issue for Newcastle is that if the Premier League even loosens things up, UEFA’s rules don’t seem to be going anywhere. So to prosper at home and in Europe, I think there’ll always be financial fair play rules to deal with.

I seem to recall you once got banned from the NUFC press box – what can you tell us about that?

It was farcical. The club banned the Chronicle for the way we covered fan protests but I had nothing to do with that story, or the way it was presented. I think it was probably the straw that broke the camel’s back.

In the end it probably didn’t hurt us all that much as at the time we were moving away from bland press conference quotes but being outside the tent makes it more difficult for sure. There were bizarre moments sat in the stands or blocked from asking questions of Alan Pardew in press conferences at away games.

I do remember a grim Saturday just after the ban when we were encouraging fans to hold up placards protesting Ashley (an ill-fated idea dreamt up by people who read too much on social media and assumed all fans would be with us). In the event Newcastle won the game 2-0 against Chelsea, everyone walked away happy and I remember overhearing two older fans saying they thought the Chronicle might have gone too far with their criticism….

Best moments Eddie Howe has delivered in his time at the club?

You can’t look much further than PSG at home. A superb win, an electric atmosphere and a night where Newcastle could have beaten anyone in world football.

After that: the 6-1 v Spurs was an incredible, jaw-dropping day. And the defeat of Arsenal in Howe’s first season – ending a season where they had been on the brink of relegation by beating a team in Champions League contention – was just as good.

Where do you think United are going to end up this season?

There’s no reason Newcastle can’t finish in the top six this season – they have a good enough team and the league doesn’t feel especially strong. Given the League Cup draw I think another run to Wembley is possible – and this time it wouldn’t be just about ‘being there’.

What do you think the January 2025 and Summer 2025 Newcastle United transfer windows are going to look like?

Good question!

I just wrote a long, detailed piece on January 2025 and it’s going to be difficult because of PSR (and it’s a difficult window to trade in anyway). But there are clearly a couple of areas where they need to strengthen so it’s going to be fascinating to see whether they can trade to create space.

The summer is the big one and there will be some freedom to manoeuvre, even with squad cost controls (PSR’s successor) meaning unlimited spending won’t be possible. By then I’d expect to know what Mitchell’s big plan is and to have seen some positive changes. I think there’ll be sales – perhaps ones fans don’t want – and a couple of big additions as well. The right winger issue has to have been addressed by then, and they need to add another centre-back and forward too.