Amanda Staveley exposes multi-club aspirations and transfer attitude in Saudi interview

Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has been discussing multi-club ownership and the club’s summer plans during the Bloomberg Power Players’ summit in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking at the event in Jeddah, she admitted to being a ‘very big fan’ of the multi-club model that Man City have adopted, seeing them partner with 13 different clubs across France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, China, Japan, Australia, India, America, Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia.

Asked if Newcastle planned to follow suit, Staveley said: “We very much are. Multi-club is part of football. It’s a real benefit to be able to have players and train players that aren’t part of your squad.

“The UEFA rules are changing so we have to see what emerges. The dynamics around whether we could have a club has changed dramatically over the last year.

“I’m still a very big fan of the multi-club model. A lot of other competitors and friends in the Premier League have multi-club relationships, but it has to be considered as a whole.”

She then revealed that the club have explored opportunities in Belgium, Australia, Brazil and Asia, with a focus on picking up top young players for our academy system:

“We have looked at Belgium, we have looked at a lot of European markets. We have looked in Asia, Australia, Brazil – pretty much everywhere. We have look at every market to see and getting players through our academy system and through that multi-club model would be very helpful in terms of allowing us to buy and have players part of our journey earlier on.”

Staveley was also asked if there would be any ‘big transfers’ this summer, saying: “I’m not sure. You will have to come back and see a little bit and see how we do in the next few months. I don’t know. I’m not sure what we will be doing on transfers at the moment.”

She gave little away, but the “see how we do in the next few months” comment seems telling, suggesting our plans will be dictated by our Premier League finish and whether or not we qualify for Europe next season?