'10 years is too long': David Hopkinson outlines monumental ambitions for Newcastle United in fantastic talkSPORT interview
Newcastle United CEO David Hopkinson sat down with talkSPORT this morning and gave a superb interview with Jim White, Alex Crook and Gabby Agbonlahor.
The Canadian spoke excellently about the club and his ambitions, and almost made me forget just how much the club has stalled this season for a moment.
Obviously, he addressed the recent transfer window, spoke about the financial restrictions in place that are holding the club back, and he touched on Eddie Howe and the ambition of the PIF.
But we're going to start at the end. Hopkinson's most powerful statement came right at the end of the 20-minute interview when Jim White asked Hopkinson if, in ten years' time, Newcastle United will have won the Premier League and the Champions League.
David Hopkinson has his sights set on Newcastle United domination by 2030
It was a bold question, for sure, but Hopkinson had actually already answered it earlier in the discussion, and doubled down once again with his response to Jim White.
"Yes, but I think 10 years is too long. We have a high ambition here, we have a concrete plan, it's a five-year plan that takes us through 2030, it has benchmarks along the way.
"A plan without a timeframe attached to it is just a fantasy; it's a dream. We have a plan here, we have a strategy here, we're working on it every single day, but 10 years is too long."
David Hopkinson was very inspiring, but does reality match his dream?
That's one hell of an ambitious plan, and there's a lot, A LOT, of work to be done if they want to get anywhere near to realising it in the timeframe they've set out.
As Hopkinson says, the work continues daily, but for fans, the big test is the summer. If Newcastle don't spend big money on top-quality players in the summer, and don't manage to keep hold of their biggest stars, we don't see how we could ever reach that level of ambition in that short a timeframe.
By 2030, the takeover will be heading into its ninth year, and Amanda Staveley had set out the PIF's ambitions over a 10-year period in 2021, so it all aligns with the PIF's original vision, but it's just hard to see how we're going to make it right now, given how much the club has flatlined of late.
