Happy Cans Day to all who celebrate - How's that project looking did you say?

Today marks three years since the PIF booted the St James' Park boardroom door off its hinges and kicked Mike Ashley into the streets.

It was a day that promised a new era of trophies, mega-money signings and all-round good times, so three years on, how are we getting on?

Well there have been no trophies, but we've been in the Champions League for the first time in 20 years and we've had a nice little trip to Wembley for the Carabao Cup final.

Mega money signings? We've not splashed the cash as much as the media would have us believe prior to the takeover, but we've definitely spent some coin and we now have some genuinely world-class players.

Three years of the Premier League trying to ruin our good times

The PIF's arrival to the Premier League sent shockwaves through the institution with new rules hastily thrown up to stifle Newcastle's chances of growing into a powerhouse over night.

As such Newcastle have had to take stock of their initial five-year plan and admit that it may take a bit longer now. Profit and Sustainability Rules along with fresh restrictions on Associated Party Transactions have certainly done their job to keep us away from that top four on a consistent basis. Having to sell two young stars this summer to prevent sanctions from breaching PSR was a particular low point.

However, we're far from the side that was once scrapping for survival on an annual basis and despite an injury-ravaged campaign in 2023/24 we only just missed out on a spot in Europe thanks to Erik Ten Hag's Manchester United deciding to win a game for once.

Three years of wondering what will become of St James' Park

Off the pitch progress has been slow and steady. The training ground has been massively upgraded but the PIF still plans on building a brand new all purpose facility, however it's all gone very quiet on that front.

St James' Park has had a bit of a facelift inside with new corporate facilities installed, but talks continue over the long-term future of the ground with news expected early next year.

In partnership with the club's front-of-shirt sponsor, Sela, a new fanzone has been erected at Strawberry place providing the perfect place to kick-off and end your match day experience.

Speaking of shirts, Castore has been despatched and Adidas are back and producing some absolutely stunning gear from the kits, to training wear to general fashion.

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Three years of comings and goings at all levels of the club

It's not all been good, though. Newcastle were screwed over by Dan Ashworth who was brought in to create a whole new ethos at the club and build the club into a force to be reckoned with, but as soon as Manchester United came into some money he quickly turned heel and left. That whole thing was a saga all of its own and took months to rectify.

Ashworth's replacement, Paul Mitchell joined the club just days after popular part-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi left their roles and sold their shares in a shock move that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Mitchell's arrival also seemed to upset the applecart too with talks of a rift between him and manager Eddie Howe dominating the headlines for months.

Things are starting to get back on track. Or at least they were until Chief Executive Officer Darren Eales announced he'd be stepping down from his role at the club due to health reasons, and now the search is on for his replacement.

Three years of ups and downs

Overall, though, the good vibes are back at Newcastle. They aren't as strong as they were during the season before last and the cracks are starting to show, but it was just too perfect at first. It can't be good all the time.

Three years on, there's still a lot of work to be done, but the general belief is that we will get there. If I were to give post-takeover Newcastle United a mark out of 10 they'd get a six, which may sound low, but pre-takeover we were in negative numbers, so the progress has been excellent.

Once we bring that first trophy to St James' Park, when we have the stadium to make other clubs jealous and the training facilities to match, and we've finally got the Premier League to relax their constricting rules, we can start adding digits to that score.