Nick Woltemade

NEWCASTLE UNITED’s proposed plans for a new stadium to replace St James’ Park have seemingly stalled as the club plans to address other business concerns first.

The Saudi-led ownership group have discussed the prospect of building a new stadium in the city since taking over in 2021.

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Plans for a new 65,000-seat ground on the site of nearby Leazes Park were set to be revealed earlier this year before being delayed.

Now it seems these plans have been pushed back until the club is on more stable ground in other areas.

According to reports from the Daily Mail, the owners had prioritised other issues, namely the appointment of a new chief executive, a new sporting director and the production of a new training ground.

Headway has already been made on the list, with the club announcing David Hopkinson as their new CEO last week.

The executive has spent time working with football giants such as Real Madrid, and most recently held a role as a President and COO overseeing the business of the New York Knicks and the New York Rangers in the US.

Reports suggest Nottingham Forest sporting director Ross Wilson is in line to make the change to the North East to address the second point.

This follows the departure of incumbent sporting director Paul Mitchell, who chose to leave the club in June ahead of the summer window.

The holdup, it seems, remains on the final point, with Newcastle still unable as yet to find a suitable site for the development, having made one initial offer before negotiations fell apart.

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Ground has reportedly been broken on designs for the training ground in collaboration with Populous, the architects behind Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

The hope is to make further progress on the training centre in Autumn, but until then, it seems plans for a new stadium will remain on the back-burner.

Calls for a new ground have grown as Newcastle look to establish themselves in the Champions League.

Their current 52,000 capacity ground will host Barcelona on Thursday as the Magpies look to get off to a flying start in the competition.

The Blaugrana are facing their own difficulties as they renovate their stadium, a saga that has been marred by extensive delays.

CLUB football is back for the Premier League this weekend after the international break.

After the last round of fixtures, a chaotic transfer deadline day followed as clubs splashed out £375million on new talent to take the overall spending for the window to over £3BILLION.

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And with that wave of new arrivals, including emergency loans, the conclusions of blockbuster sagas and shrewd deals, there will be several new faces for fans to watch.

SunSport has taken a look at stars who could make their debuts this weekend, including two club-record signings.

Kicking off the team in goal is new Manchester City star Gianluigi Donnarumma, who arrived on deadline day from Paris Saint-Germain for £26million.

New £18m Manchester United star Senne Lammens could have been selected just as easily, but they can let their goalkeeping do the talking during the Manchester Derby on Sunday.

Arsenal’s Piero Hincapie – signed on loan from Bayer Leverkusen with a £45m option to buy – put in a great display for Ecuador against Argentina and will partner £13m Bournemouth signing Veljko Milosavljevic and West Ham loanee Igor Julio in defence.

There are three more loanees to consider going forward: Tottenham’s Randal Kolo Muani, Nottingham Forest‘s Oleksandr Zinchenko and Aston Villa‘s Jadon Sancho, who all arrived in the twilight hours of the summer window.

Harvey Elliott followed Sancho to the struggling Villans from Liverpool on an initial loan with a £35m obligation to buy next summer.

The front three is where the majority of the star power and cost come into play.

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Alejandro Garnacho, a £40m sale from Man Utd to Chelsea, was not a deadline day switch but was only announced after the Blues’ most recent game at Stamford Bridge – meaning he will be in line for his debut this weekend.

Newcastle star Nick Woltemade is the club’s record signing at £69m.

The 23-year-old German looked impressive during the Under-21 Euros this summer, while he scored 17 for Stuttgart last season.

But he – alongside fellow new Toon ace Yoane Wissa – will have big boots to fill following Alexander Isak‘s record-breaking £130m departure to Liverpool.

Isak’s saga dragged on all summer and was on and off and then on and off again, before possibly the move of the summer was finally put to bed on deadline day.

Elsewhere, there are the likes of Kevin, Fulham‘s own £35m record-breaking arrival from Shakhtar Donetsk, Jaydee Canvot at Crystal Palace and Brian Brobbey at Sunderland who could also make first appearances for their new clubs at the weekend.