'Very serious' - Eddie Howe shares end of season message from Newcastle United owner Yasir Al-Rumayyan

Eddie Howe insists that the Magpies' Saudi Arabia-based owners remain "very serious" about taking the Magpies to the next level.

Newcastle United, backed by 80% majority shareholders, have saw £400million of transfers poured into the once ailing and relegation-haunted Premier League club plus £10m into training facilities. That has turned Newcastle from perennial relegation battlers into European challengers.

READ MORE: Brentford 2-4 Newcastle player ratings: Bruno's sparkling 10/10 as Isak and Murphy impress

READ MORE: Brentford 2-4 Newcastle United: Magpies must play waiting game and pray for Man City FA Cup win

PIF have also injected funds into the LIV Golf scene, UFC, sailing and F1 but Howe says he remains convinced that the project at Newcastle will go from strength to strength.

Howe said: "They (PIF) are very serious about it. I have seen no indication otherwise. The issue is in those sports, you can possibly invest whatever you want. Here, you certainly can’t and I think that is the thing, and that is a talking point for everyone connected with football at the moment."

It remains to be seen how much Newcastle will splash out on new players this summer but no stone will be left unturned at St James' Park. But Howe is realistic about the success that is possible at Newcastle in the next few years.

Notably, Howe said that his ambition to take Newcastle to the top will never change regardless of spending pots or resources.

He said: "Everyone wants to grow the club quickly, but I don’t think you can look at it as a race. The club will progress at the rate it can within the rules.

"I understand everyone wants success yesterday. My job sometimes is to control that and give a truer picture of what is happening at the football club."

Howe was around the table with the club's owners for an off site meeting in Northumberland with Toon chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

He suggested everybody was on the same page in terms of how quickly Newcastle can grow and said: "We are trying to grow it but the players and staff have done incredibly well in the time I have been here.

"Our progress rate has been really quick in my opinion and everyone has done incredibly well, so I understand the demand for more, but you have to reflect that we’ve done OK so far.

"The ambition is there, but you have to work within the reality and the reality is we are not the number one club off the pitch yet in terms of income or the number one club in lots of areas, so for us to get there takes a lot of hard work."