Newcastle United have appointed Jonathan Kane as the club’s new director of partnerships and ChronicleLive has taken a look at what the former Liverpool man will bring.
There is quiet excitement behind the scenes at Newcastle United about a summer addition who will never kick a ball for the club: Jonathan Kane. The new arrival from Liverpool may well be the first ever director of partnerships to be unveiled with a club statement and photoshoot.
Yet that tells you just how important this role is. Kane will work closely with Peter Silverstone, Newcastle’s chief commercial officer, to drive growth and direct the search for future global partners as the Magpies attempt to boost revenues and increase spending power in the transfer market.
Kane already has more than 15 years’ experience of doing just that at Liverpool as Ian Ayre, the club’s former CEO, knows only too well. It was Ayre who hired Kane at Liverpool, in 2007, and the 60-year-old also even provided a reference when his one-time colleague went for the job at Newcastle.
“In these sorts of roles, you always get a lot of people who have a great CV,” Ayre told ChronicleLive. “The difference with Jonathan was he was a guy who didn’t just talk about getting deals. He got deals done.”
While it is important to stress Liverpool have a huge commercial team – the Reds even have an additional office in London – Kane was at the ‘tip of the sphere’ in the words of Ayre as the club’s vice-president of partnership sales. That is the expertise Kane will bring to Newcastle at a time when the black-and-whites have work to do to bridge the gap off the field after leapfrogging Jurgen Klopp’s side on it last season. In fact, following years of neglect in the Ashley era, the 65 or so employees Newcastle have in their commercial department is a mere fraction of the workforce Liverpool possess – and that’s with the hires made since the takeover in October, 2021.