Darren Eales needs to ensure the wider Newcastle United team are all pushing in same direction | OneFootball

Darren Eales started his job as Newcastle United’s new Chief Executive Officer in August.

Last month, the new CEO giving a first inspirational interview on NUFC TV as he began his work at St James’ Park.

Darren Eales declared “As we are going on a journey…..it’s important that everybody collaborates and that we are in this together..”

While Darren Eales has a long record of getting things done; the following are a few suggestions which could assist collaboration.

Figuratively speaking, Darren, Eddie Howe and the squad stand on the capstone of a very large pyramid; however, it needs the hands of everyone below to keep it aloft, steady and still standing.

Therefore, I suggest that if United is to join the small number of rarely relegated clubs, then everyone holding up the St James’ pyramid should be actively supported to do a great job and to show “…that we are in this together..”

Investing in Eddie Howe, the players and training staff is essential. In addition, tangible support for the 200+ staff who make St James’ function could also prove to be a wise investment.

I start at the top with the widespread trust in Eddie Howe. Thankfully, in terms of the highest level of management, at 44 years old Eddie is barely cooked; so there’s room for him to grow and for Eddie to introduce his sharp mind to more ways of managing his role, collaboration and the squad.

Difficult as it might be to visualise now, unforeseen problems have a habit of coming over the horizon. They can even hit such greats as Sir Alex Ferguson, who at the age of 48, according to some, was one game away from the sack at Old Trafford.

Among the rarely relegated Premier League clubs, only six have not been relegated since the Premier League was founded in 1992. In contrast, thirty five different clubs, including Manchester City, have all finished in the bottom three and found themselves in the Championship.

Many relegations were affected by off-the-field as well as on-the-field issues. In some cases clubs belatedly threw money at the problems, rather than prevent them in the first place.

Fortunately, as Darren Eales will know from his time at Spurs and Atlanta, there are many tested ways which collectively could help events at St James’ to continue to go in the right direction. Investment in staff is one.

When I retired, a friend asked me “… what’s the most important thing you learned in your time here…” Looking back it was easier to reply than I first thought and I said “If you treat people well they will work well; and if you don’t, they won’t.”

The use of this simple and not original observation, when applied to United, is explained below.

The second half of my reply said “…and if you don’t, they won’t”. This can be put out of the way quickly. Please recall Mike Ashley’s 2007 – 2021 ownership of United. A good many people were not treated well and didn’t work well. For some their job became just a job; discontent grew and the club resembled a yo-yo.

Before retirement, I struggled annually with my CEO over the staff training and support budget. Investment in staff training was key to treating people well. It helped us to do things better and importantly, to stay employed. At Newcastle United this would be about supporting players and all employees alike to be at their best, first rate and positive; and for United to become a fixture in the Premier League.

Unsurprisingly, Eddie Howe talks about development and improvement all of the time and practises it daily in training. Just ask Joelinton.

My CEO would argue that we had great people, so why did we need to spend so much money on them? Eventually, he was convinced after we looked at five years of stats. Our results were the second highest of fourteen sections. Treating people well, did work well.

If United is to make the most of Eddie’s extended contract, how are his skills and knowledge to be consistently added to and improved? He’s good of course and learning on the job will be a part. However, to develop and keep him at Newcastle, in the way Sir Alex was retained at Manchester United, I suggest that Eddie would welcome and benefit from some well organised “If you treat people well…” sustained personal input.

A question, perhaps for Darren Eales, is what experiences and personal development would Eddie need to rise to the stature of Sir Alex and Sir Bobby and stay with Newcastle for the long term?

Managing success is not tremendously difficult, but it takes agility to keep it going and to react in the right way when things go wrong.

In my experience, a key part of preventing things going wrong is well placed support for the workforce. If applied to United, this would mean various levels of spending on the people who behind the scenes hold everything together; such as those responsible for medical needs, catering, sanitation, crowd safety, media relations, buildings maintenance, security, the website and much, much more; all with the aim of making Newcastle United England’s best run club for the benefit of everyone – especially its fans.

One target for investment could be the grounds team. The St James’ pitch looks great to me; however, when compared in fine detail with Europe’s best, where does it stand?

In America, the pitch of the 63,000 seater Arizona Cardinals stadium is talked about in hushed tones and revered as being without parallel. The club is visited by grounds teams from all over the United States. Arizona is known for its unforgiving weather, so the Cardinals’ grounds people must be good at adaptation and doing some things in different ways? One thing which they definitely do differently is that the pitch is contained in, for want of a better description, a giant tray!

To help United’s grounds team add to their knowledge of playing surface quality, it could be a wise investment if United considered sending the team on a learning visit to Phoenix to inspire how St James’ pitch could become Europe’s finest? It might not take too long for St James’ to be discussed in hushed tones and have grounds teams from all over Europe visit to see how its pitch was improved.

If United transformed itself into England’s best run club, it is tempting to think that in time, after a 6-0 win in the Tyne-Wear derby, the most anticipated match of the season would be Newcastle United v Real Madrid, played before 75,000 fans in the expanded St James’, under gleaming floodlights, with Eddie Howe and Carlo Ancelotti on the touchline – and on Europe’s most revered pitch.

Obviously, the main thing is what happens on the pitch. However, when thinking of Darren, Eddie and the squad standing on the top of the St James’ pyramid, it’s important to have in mind the 200+ staff who keep it steady and standing.

If treated well, Newcastle United’s people will definitely work well; plus, they would have the huge enjoyment of giving Newcastle United and in particular its tens of thousands of fans, their absolute best.