Loving this sound of silence | OneFootball

It’s now only five weeks until the much-anticipated start to the new season and there is absolutely no news about Newcastle United at all.

I absolutely love it.

Under the previous regime, this was very much a case of “hello darkness my old friend” (look it up if you’re under 40!) as we looked forward to another pre-season of non-investment in… well anything really.

Followed by a constant borefest of scraping draws, snatching lucky wins and suffering heavy defeats, if we were lucky, Newcastle United would reach the “Holy Grail” of 40 points with a couple of games to spare and finish a lofty 16th.

On top of this, there would be constant briefings to the owner’s favourite press puppets and the certain conclusion that any decent players would be sold and replaced by ageing, often useless free transfers.

Things are so different now.

However, the big thing I’ve noticed this year is the wall of silence around the club.

I don’t even know if pre-season has started yet, although I’m sure it has, especially as one of our players has already been injured and is out for months doing the dreaded Bleep Test (an absolute nightmare of a thing if you’ve ever tried it).

We had a cacophony of noise a couple of weeks ago from the press about PSR but did you see or hear one word from Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi, Jamie Reuben, Eddie Howe, Saudi Arabia PIF?

Sure, we had the usual PR statements about Minteh and Anderson, but no actual quotes or comments from the main people.

We have now appointed an absolute powerhouse of a Sporting Director in Paul Mitchell, he was our first choice back in 2022 but at the time turned us down as he was under contract with Monaco. A man of honour in the modern game, what a breath of fresh air.

He now comes in to replace Dan Titchmarsh and for me personally, he is head and shoulders, both physically and professionally, above the wee weasel. I have a feeling he has been working away behind the scenes for the past few months, under the radar, going through his massive black book of agents lining up some blockbuster deals for the next month or so.

The brilliant thing is that not one single press outlet is printing garbage about who Newcastle United are (to quote the great John Gibson in the Chronicle) “Set to Sign.”

I am extremely confident that the wheels are turning very quickly behind the scenes but they are a new silent electric version that don’t make any noise.

Watch this space for the Breaking News on the odious Sky Sports News, that we have paid £60m for a new player that nobody knows anything about.