Yasir Al-Rumayyan remains committed to ensuring Newcastle reach the pinnacle of football - Paul Mitchell

Newcastle United's sporting director Paul Mitchell has faced the media to discuss the turbulent summer and address a few issues.

We've already seen how Mitchell has suggested that our scouting fell short over the summer and that's something he will have to address going forward.

It wasn't all negative though, as Mitchell spoke about the PIF's ambition after having held face-to-face talks with Chairman, Yasir Al-Rumayyan after the win over Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

Mitchell emphasised how Al-Rumayyan is still committed to ensuring Newcastle United become the number one club in English football.

However, it's understood that the initial plan is going to take longer than first thought thanks to oppressive rules like PSR and the restrictions on Associated Party Transactions.

Newcastle United still have their sights on being number one

There's now a desire to reach the top and to do so by making everyone else appreciate that they've done it by being a well-run club, not just by buying their success as Mitchell told reporters (via The Chronicle).

"I have a few more grey hairs because of the level of ambition that we actually have. He (Yasir Al-Rumayyan) is as ambitious and enthused as ever. I only know from my interaction - I can't speak for anyone else's - but he's super ambitious and he wants us to perform at the number one level.

"He wants us to perform not only through the money we spend - he wants us to be best in class across everything we do, whether that be youth development, the women's team, scouting and recruitment, data and insight, coaching, innovation. He wants our position to be at the top, but to be there for the reasons that people admire as a really well-oiled, well-executed machine of a football operation. That for me came across in his message.

"He's a very smart man. I think he can see that the club is growing, but he's smart enough to know it's moved very quickly over a very short period of time. He knows infrastructure is important. He knows people are important. He knows a higher overarching framework and strategy are crucial to get to where we want to get to. Using terminology like that shows there's a plan and patience. You have to then deliver and execute across that plan and timescale, but he's a very intelligent owner."

Fans just want to see the progress

Basically, the messaging coming out of this is that Newcastle still have the ambition to reach the top, but we are going to have to be more patient.

That's absolutely fine, as long as we can see the progress, but after a summer where the first team wasn't really improved, we're allowed to question whether progress has been made.

At the minute, from the outside, it looks and feels like there's a lot of division within the club and, while everybody is working towards the same goal, there's not a lot of cohesion when it comes to how people are trying to achieve that goal.

With the transfer window closed and the season underway, now is the time for everyone to get familiar with how each other works and to come up with a way of working together.

We still have some of the best people for their respective roles at the club, but there has to be cohesion or it's all for nothing.