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Newcastle United enjoyed their best season in decades last term - but 2025/26 has been a worrying regression to mediocrity.
The Magpies ended their 70-year wait for a domestic trophy in 2024/25 by lifting the Carabao Cup, then finished fifth in the Premier League to qualify for the Champions League for the second time in three seasons.
Eddie Howe set to hold summit with Newcastle owners
There are mitigating factors for Newcastle's disappointing season, including the protracted summer transfer saga and eventual exit of Alexander Isak to Liverpool, injuries to key players and the inconsistency of big-money signings such as Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa.
However, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF) - the club's owners - will not have expected the club to be 14th in the Premier League with four games of the campaign remaining, with their hopes of European football next season rapidly fading.
It just so happens that figures from the PIF, including Newcastle chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, are in the North East this week for the club's annual summit at Matfen Hall, a hotel and country estate in Northumberland.
Senior figures at Newcastle have been keen to point out that the event was planned several months ago, so it has not been called as a result of the team's on-pitch slump.
While the summit will mostly centre on big-picture topics such as infrastructure projects and recruitment, Al-Rumayyan is expected to take the opportunity to seek answers for the Magpies' downturn in form, according to The Athletic.
Howe is expected to be in attendance and while he admitted that the meetings may be "slightly harder" than in previous years, he also viewed it as a useful opportunity to discuss his side's recent struggles.
"I'm sure there will be conversations on the team and how we have performed," he told BBC Sport. "I sort of welcome that to a degree."
Howe is in his fifth season in charge of Newcastle, having been appointed shortly after the club's takeover by the PIF in late 2021.
The former Bournemouth manager steered the Magpies away from relegation trouble in his first campaign, before qualifying for the Champions League and reaching the Carabao Cup final the following year.
Newcastle finished seventh in the Premier League in 2023/24, before last season's high point under Howe, although they did reach the Carabao Cup semi-finals and last 16 of the Champions League this term.
The Magpies host Brighton & Hove Albion on Saturday.
