The summer not only gives Newcastle United the opportunity to strengthen the squad, it also gives the Magpies the chance to improve the club's infrastructure. Plans have already been submitted to North Tyneside Council to upgrade the training ground and work is now under way to refurbish St James' Park.
Although the training ground proposals are seen as very much a short-term measure - the long-term goal is to construct a new state of the art facility in the future - there are no plans to build a new stadium after St James' left its mark on the hierarchy. It won't be easy, of course, but the owners instead intend to exhaust every avenue while working with the city council to one day increase the capacity of St James' to 60-65,000.
In the meantime, noticeable changes have been made to St James' since the owners arrived last October, including taking down the hundreds of Sports Direct signs last December; bringing back Shearer's bar in March; or Alan Shearer's statue being moved to its rightful place on site last month. The off-season has now given the club the chance to set about improving the actual match day experience for supporters before the start of the new campaign.
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Photographs have emerged on social media this week of newly-painted walls in black and white club colours in one of the concourses in the Gallowgate and new flags being hung above the kiosks. One particular display spells out 'Who's that team we call United?' and the design of each flag is a nod to a colourful retro '90s kit, whether it is the McEwan's Lager green and blue away shirt or the iconic black and orange goalkeeping jersey with the Tyne Bridge silhouette.
These may seem like small changes, but it is a world away from how the stadium looked not so long ago. It was only a year ago, after all, that a ripped portrait of Shay Given, arguably the club's greatest ever goalkeeper, was still hanging on one of the walls of the concourse. It felt like a rather fitting metaphor for the Ashley era.
Ashley, of course, never realised what a force a united and engaged fan base could be as thousands of supporters walked away and made the painful decision to give up their season tickets. So much so, 10,000 half-season tickets had to be given away in 2019, an unimaginable prospect for any Premier League club.
In contrast, under the new owners, there has been an unprecedented level of renewals from existing season ticket holders. Is it any wonder? Nikos Dabizas, who returned to his old stomping ground a couple of months ago, told ChronicleLive that the atmosphere was 'back to the standard it used to be in our time' when Newcastle were playing in the Champions League under Sir Bobby Robson.
It was quite fitting, then, that Newcastle's final home game of last season, against Arsenal, felt like a European night as Wor Flags produced their biggest display yet. Perhaps, it was not a surprise that the players produced their best performance of the campaign that night after feeding off a special atmosphere under the lights.
It was a glimpse of a bright future at St James' Park.
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