Amanda Staveley: The Untold Story Behind Newcastle's £300M Takeover (E370)

0:28Watch it early on the High Performance App. God, sorry. That is really lovely. And that's why I went into Newcastle, because the fans are just so incredible. That is the voice of Amanda Staveley, the trailblazer and business leader who fronted one of the most transformative takeovers in modern football history, bringing new hope to Newcastle United. Well, this is a conversation that goes far beyond the boardroom or takeovers. What Amanda shared with us is raw, emotional and deeply human. Absolutely. I mean, we start with her time at Newcastle. We talk about building a squad. We talk about backing Eddie Howe.

1:04But Damien, the bit that stood out for me was that kind of brutal reality of what the club looked like when she arrived. And there's a moment where she breaks down in tears. I mean, you and I were almost moved to tears, weren't we? Yeah, definitely. But I resonated with the hidden cost of leadership that she talks around and the pressure that she felt obliged to keep private. You know, when she spoke about a diagnosis with Huntington's disease and what that means for a future. I found myself choking up. The deep love that she has for her son and the tools she's putting in place to protect him.

1:37Yeah, you're totally right. Again, really powerful stuff. Yeah. If people think this is just a football conversation, then they're wrong. It was so special. Amanda also shares some untold stories from behind the scenes in her world, from persuading players to join Newcastle to fixing the training ground herself to the moment that a certain couple of people called Anton Deck said, hey, don't give up. This is a story of strength, sacrifice and what it really takes to lead with heart. As we welcome Amanda Stavely to High Performance.

2:13Amanda, welcome to High Performance. Lovely to be here. Very excited to be here today. You seem to be a master of getting deals over the line, of bringing people together, of turning big dreams into big realities. What is the secret to doing big things in life? Being persistent, being tenacious, never giving up, having vision, very clear vision. I think that's been the sort of tenet of what I believe and how we want to go and push things forward. But every dream you have, it all starts as a dream and a vision, But to turn it into reality takes incredible hard work, good teams, good people around you, people that you can trust and lean on when things get tough.

3:01What's the dream that you turned into reality that you are most proud of? Oh, that's a hard, hard question. Before Newcastle, it would have been the Barclays Bank recapitalization because that was, I was only 34, but it was a point when the world was just, you know, there was no financial markets. It was catastrophic. It was another COVID type, you know, scenario. So to recapitalize a bank and to do something that underpinned the banking regulatory system was key. I didn't really appreciate how important it was till many years later. But then post that... How were you in that moment, 34, how were you not overwhelmed by the size of the task that you were undertaking?

3:45Because I think that I was so focused on getting the task done. A, I didn't have the ability, I didn't have a track record. So that was a real issue. I'd only just done Man City. I wasn't really well known to the business community. I'd have my restaurant, I'd done very, very well in, I was very well known in the Cambridge area. I had a very supportive, you know, university and I had a great team of a partner, NatWest Bank at the time who backed my restaurant but I wasn't really well known so to convince people that actually I can go invest into a major 3.5 billion into a recapitalization of a bank at that age was tough but we raised the money with the wonderful support of Sheikh Mansour and Abu Dhabi and Adia and it was just incredible and structuring that deal in terms of everything underpinned it, doing the due diligence on the bank, understanding whether this wouldn't fail.

4:47How do you put the sale and purchase agreement? How do you negotiate agreements with stakeholders? How do you structure bonds? How do you put warrant documents together? All of that eventually became very valuable years later when I moved into football properly and gave me such a springboard to do other things. So that was the first thing. Obviously, the most thing, the thing I'm most proud of today is, apart from Lexi, definitely not Newcastle and everything we did with the wonderful fans and the privilege it was to work with them. It was just an incredible team of people. When you did that deal at 34, do you feel people underestimated you?

5:27Yes, I think we get underestimated all the time. Women probably are more, not so much today, but yes, I was very much underestimated. And that continued, I would think, right up for many years. Even though I've done real estate, I've done investments across all sectors, whether those have been hotels, the banking, you know, I'm always underestimated. But that is a positive, that's a real help. They underestimate you, therefore, you have more time to get things really right. And I plan everything we do in years in advance. I literally will start thinking about a project years ahead of it. So Barclay was, I thought about, you know, what's going to go on we saw the credit markets really start to change and you know debt at that time was it was starting to really balloon and I thought this market's going to really blow up this is ridiculous some of these valuations are crazy and I was I was very fortunate that I was getting to work with incredible people and seeing you know incredible opportunities and we thought there's going to be some thing that could be transformative.

6:34So how do you spot these opportunities though because that's quite a talent in its own right to think so far ahead. I'm very particular about what I can do and I know what my skills are and I know what my weaknesses are so I only focus on those things that I really love and really think I understand. So I love finance you know I work with some great hedge funds now as in my other world and I love the work that I do and I learn from those people all the time. I love football. I am an absolute football freak. I take my son to football. I love every game he has on a Saturday morning and I watch all the games I can.

7:15I believe that football is about the fantastic work that you guys do with production. It is a theatre. You are creating fantastic theatre and games. So if I can do things which really excite me, my business brain and my love of football, then we should hopefully get somewhere.

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9:18But as somebody that is skilled in being able to project and look forward so far, what do you think are the big issues then that football teams are going to face in the next 10 years i think player welfare is a big issue making sure that players are mentally well and that's in the world of social media and i've seen that with all the players that we've had at at newcastle making sure that people have the tools that they need to get supported within their clubs the amount of games that everybody's having to play is a lot and i used to when i was at Newcastle, I was constantly worried, constantly saying to the lads, you guys and the girls, get your rest, make sure, or little things that make a big difference to player welfare are making sure there's a supportive partner, making sure if you've got a baby, someone's there to help and dads aren't trying to be super dads or moms.

10:13We all go through that and that you're not knackered. So those are the big issues on the player side. On the other side, it is the broadcast. It is the how do you get your direct consumer model eventually there done. And you're going to need to do it with good production partners because it is so hard. We know what goes into it every game to produce the quality that you know that who produce great quality content. I think everybody has to give and take. Let's talk then about Newcastle. Yeah. And you said initially the issues around the fact that it was Saudi money that was going to buy the club.

10:50Yeah. Was that ever an issue for you? No, God, no, no. Quite the reverse. When I went to Newcastle, I went as a Liverpool fan. I think someone's a Liverpool fan. And I went as a, trying to buy Liverpool, went to the stadium and it was like, I was just electrified by the people, the fans. And I assume when we looked at it and thought this is the right deal. And somewhat a few weeks ago, my face had been tagged onto the back of an airplane where they just threw it over a stadium saying, save our club or something like that. And someone sent me a picture of this, said, oh, come on, Newcastle fans are saying, please come in and help us.

11:29So I already felt very local because I'm northern, so we have quite similar values. Went up there and thought, you know what? Eventually, I thought the best partner will be PIF. And there was a reason for that. you need and the Rubin family but you have to have what Newcastle needed was very patient capital and a very young demographic so the Saudi fans were very young are passionate about football you know I know that from my experience but nobody else really knew that at that point I mean look how well they did in the um at Al-Hilal Club World Cup yeah so so when I went in I actually You did think they'd be great partners.

12:12And they were. And they're hardworking. The other benefit was that we learned, we worked together for four years before we bought the club. So we got to know each other very well. And Yasser's, his, how high can you jump? Well, if you get there, you just got to get higher. So you know that. And he's got a really good ability to inspire people, to give them boundaries. And to say, this is your job. this is what you're going to do. Also, when you get there, you almost want to, you know, you want to do well because you want to say, you know, we've done this, we've got there when everybody thought we'd never get there.

12:51So as partners, they were so professional, so hardworking, but as hardworking as we were, you know, Jamie, obviously, Ruben hugely, and Simon and David, you know, the whole family were just very focused. So I was lucky. So let's talk then, and I'm very excited about this conversation, how you buy a Premier League football club. I mean, what is literally the first thing you do? So your first for us was finding value. We wanted to find something that represented good value. So there were a lot of valuations that were toppy, and so there were some clubs that just weren't achievable. You've got to find a willing seller.

13:31We were lucky with Newcastle, we had a willing seller. If you don't have a willing seller, it doesn't really work. That was the starting point. We knew it was going to be difficult. And don't ever think it's not going to be the hardest thing you ever do, because it really is. You've got to build your business plan. You've got to raise your money. You've got to put not just the football plan, but how are you going to develop the stadium, the infrastructure, the existing football. When we looked at Newcastle, there was very little of anything. There was a great team of very core people, but there was no C-suite.

14:04So we had to go in and think we have to do everything. That means I'm going to have to negotiate and go back to my old days, contracts. You're going to have to draft. What for players? Sometimes, yes, draft player contracts. You'll have to do, so those days years ago, all of that help from years ago. You're going to have to be able to look at sale and purchase agreements. You're going to have to negotiate warranties with sellers and you're going to have to make sure that when you're buying players, those similar warranties are in place. the most important thing for us when we bought newcastle was coach and luckily there was a great graham jones game was fantastic and he was really helpful in when i said we we got a i remember the brighton game we desperately wanted eddie to come and join us and i think eddie was coming up for that first game but to get eddie we had to invite we had to go through we interviewed over 30 people we looked at every player and there was two outstanding candidates one was Unai Emery and one and Eddie and Eddie was just unbelievable but he didn't have that he had a track record of getting up but he just obviously had Bournemouth relegated so there's a lot of people that were saying to me well because there's a lot of agents that are thinking well I know I don't want them to take Eddie because I don't get paid so they'd be saying well that Eddie that guy you know if you taken you'll be relegated and and amanda i know that you know i know you're not very well versed in football this is very new to you you don't you don't want we don't want you to look stupid and so you'd say thank you appreciate that so luckily you've got to rely on your fantastic board which was there which we had him from day one so we had a great board infrastructure with you know the pif team um the time we had lovely mahanada blairhead and jacobo solace and Yasser and all of the senior team.

15:59And they were so good. They took, and Yasser has a very good sense and loved Eddie straight away. And he didn't really get to speak to Unai, but it was the perfect manager. And God, you know, he's just extraordinary. So what was the thing that Eddie said or did in the interview that made you go, oh, okay, this is special? It was what he said that he didn't do well. And I think he also, for me, I mean, that maybe not to anybody else, but I remember he talked about what happened in the past and relegated. I was more excited about him being relegated and going through that battle and having done that without a serious amount of money.

16:44Because I also knew that we didn't have any real revenues, commercial revenue. What did he say that he learned in that time that impressed you? his presentation was very good he was very well versed he knew that we were taking a chance he was he has very low ego he's very intelligent he's just such a nice guy I mean you will know that it was such a privilege for me to count him as a friend today and also to to work and learn and I'm quite selfish I love working with good people because I I suck all their good stuff put it take as much as I can and then I can take it on and it's so I'm a bit of a magpie so I thought I'd learn a lot because I think it was I know he wasn't working at the time but it was a big deal for him yes I'm sure he did I mean you've talked to him I'm sure he had a lot of doubt what did he want to know from you then I was so convinced I said that A you know there was a lot of press stuff about the club and there was so much issue there was a lot of bad press around us at the time.

17:49You know, funding, how would we, you know, making sure we had the sufficient capital to fund the transfer windows, the players that we loved. Obviously, I had a relationship with Kieran Trippier, which I knew he did. I talked to Graham about Kieran day one. And what could we get the right players? And we knew that the other big issue we had was if we could get the right players, one of the biggest issues was the training ground was a joke. And And we couldn't, we had to be able to attract players immediately. So we couldn't just say, well, okay, we're going to develop a fantastic new training ground and it's going to take 18 months to do the plans and it'll take two years to develop.

18:27We needed to solve the problem there and then. So my husband and his brother and the PIF team and Jamie, we put a plan together to do that, to take what we had and then train it into which now when you go up is really lovely. I mean the food was bad there was no you know I think people were almost like having cold bottles it was just like ice buckets it was there was no chiro therapy there was no all the things you know there was just all the lack of facilities that you need Can I ask you about that interview process though because the track record of so many managers in the Premier League is just 14 months before the board or the decision makers decide they've made a mistake and they need to refresh it Yeah You obviously had a successful hit rate of doing it.

19:12So what were the kind of questions that you were asking that you feel did allow you to make such a wise decision? Well, look, we made wrong decisions. You always make wrong decisions. Eddie was a really good decision, but there were... And I think it was because we were all... It was collective. It was a board decision. We did our due diligence. We looked at everybody. we looked at his style of play. I mean, we knew he trained on the grass. For me, I wanted someone because I'm very passionate about training myself. And I didn't want someone that was just going to run it from the, you know, and not be involved on the training themselves.

19:54And he excited me about that. And I also realized that he will be someone that will get better and better and he'll learn. he's ferociously intelligent but he is also able to learn from his mistakes and you have to be able to do that Right And how soon after he walked out of the room did you decide that he was the man for the judges? I knew immediately I knew immediately Because we were reporting in the press you'd offered it to Unai Unai had a really strong track record and he's an amazing manager and remember he did not have his track record with Aston Villa then so actually we picked two extraordinary managers so we also actually Unai we knew would be great but it was what is right for Newcastle and we had a lot of older players so it was very tough One of the things I think you got right really early on was understanding the power of the fans at Newcastle I just want to read this to you Make no mistake we're grateful for the investment for the progress on the pitch and for finally seeing our club compete again.

20:59But a football club is more than just a business. It's a community, a family, and families thrive on communication, warmth and understanding. Without War Mandy leading the charge in that regard, Newcastle United risks losing a vital connection with its soul, the loyal, passionate and ever-present black and white army. It's time for the club to rediscover its voice, to reconnect with the fans and to bring back some of that much-needed warmth that Amanda Stavely so brilliantly provided. That was from a Newcastle fan page just this week. how do you feel when I say that makes you emotional

21:33that's really hard god sorry

21:40that's really hard sorry that's really would you like a tissue sorry I didn't mean to no it is really hard sorry I didn't expect to cry don't worry I always cry bloody hell that's really hard sorry love that is really hard because that is really lovely and that's why I went into Newcastle because the fans are just so incredible and they really are and so leaving was the hardest thing I've ever done really and it took a long time to understand you have to do what's right for the club and PIF is going to be an incredible partner for Newcastle and the Rubens, so leaving it in very safe hands. But that connection is extraordinary because I love all of the fans and seeing them at the Carabao Cup, there's just so many good people with great hearts who put so much into that club and into the community and into everything about it.

22:43So it was, for me, a privilege. Every day I would go to work thinking, God, I am so lucky to do this job, even to go into the Premier League meetings when it was really tough and we were exhausted and I was screaming I was sleeping separately to my husband at the time we had to sleep in separate bedrooms because we'd have so many in the hotel so many bloody rows about you know just the workload and the stress but it was all worth it because we you know we now sleep back in the same bed so are those happy tears or sad tears happy tears happy tears but it's really it's because i do in a funny way i feel a bit like i don't deserve that because sometimes i see so many lovely comments on social media and i couldn't explain why and there's a time when you you feel you have to make the right decision you know we loved running that club but but pif have a right to put a management team in place that the board can be responsible for.

23:49And there's certain things that nobody ever knew I did do. You know, we just got on with the job. You just get on with it. Well, I remember being at the Carabao Cup final and my dad, I said, well, at least I'm not running around trying to fill up bags of notes. I was writing hand notes to the players and making sure that all the staff had and the players just had wash bags and presents and trying to source the wash bags and putting notes and just, you know, just little things that we did, trying to find them uniforms at the time because we didn't have a, you know, the lads wanted to go out with just having a nice suit and making sure all those things were done.

24:28And so being there when all those things were done, I'm like, oh, I get a nice corporate pack now. When we went to the Champions League, all of those things were lovely that someone else in the marketing department now does that work and those things were were done but the core thing those those are the things that we we're good at Murdad and I are good negotiators and that's come from years and years of hard work and learning you know and doing so many deals that you you see so many different businesses you learn a lot and trying to put yourself in other people's shoes and trying to to do that and I think for the Newcastle fans they sometimes feel frustration because they want to see change and and it's it's so hard to make change because actually what what we realize and people don't realize which I'm sure PIF do realize and and the Ruben family realize but I can assure you that Eddie realizes the value when we started we had such a low par the value of that team today is so good that to bring in another player at that level that can replace it's very hard when you strengthen eddie has to make a very difficult decision is this player better than what i have and that's hard and there's a real chemistry a real dynamism between that team they are you know electric yes you need to strengthen but it's also about who do you put and buying the wrong player at the wrong price is a nightmare.

26:04You can't make those mistakes. But as somebody that has sort of worked in high finance, somebody that's been in very different cultures and learned to work really effectively, Amanda, have you ever passed on any of your wisdom or advice to Eddie that you feel he has been able to use in the dressing room? I think he's passed on that stuff to me. I've learned a lot from Eddie.

26:33and I think what we had is a real chemistry and we have today a great deal of respect for me and because he gave me that respect it allowed me to do the job I do without, you know, it was just easy. It's the same as his whole team, by the way, all the team. So when we came to negotiating, I knew we had very tough FFP issues. Every club has those. The other problem with FFP is that every other club probably knows your FFP issues. So you've got to negotiate whilst you think, whilst you're pretending that you have no FFP issue. So for instance, the last window we had, which was critical because it was after we'd spent an awful lot of money in the transfer windows, we didn't obviously want to sell key players you know the wonderful elliot and we sold an amazing player to um brighton and i loved i really liked the player and i said and but i knew he'd do incredibly well at a brighton but i also knew he would who was that minty yankube yeah yeah so minty and i when minty when we saw minty i he was really had a real talent but I also knew that he was very you know he was young he's driven he's he's very ambitious and I felt kind of responsible because when we came in his he was he wasn't in our first he wasn't in our team and I know that you know we had a better offer thank god we had a really good offer from Lyon at 40 million which was really helpful because It meant that, you know, in the process of being very open with the transfer, we could say we could demonstrate that we got a very good price for that player.

28:22Also demonstrated that we made a good choice in picking this as a player to buy in. And we bought him incredibly well and we sold him to Brighton for 30 million. I think that's public known, 30 million. Now, Paul, who I'm also selling him to a club that I respect the owner, Tony and Paul immensely that they are incredibly good negotiators they don't fuck about you know they just don't if they like a player they know he's good it gave me comfort in my choice because the fact they wanted him to buy him they've got a good eye really good eye but we needed to do it sometimes because of FFP you have to make sure you do if you're going to do a payment it's got to be in one hit because the rules are so stringent today that it had to be done in one payment.

29:12So it hit in our FFP, that that 30 million fell straight to our bottom line. Coaches have to look after their number one. The academy director, and we have an incredibly good academy director at Newcastle, who I liked enormously, who's very, very good at spotting young talent, emerging young talent. Also, the team there, Steve Nixon, Andy Howe, are incredible. I mean we brought Andy in you know with Eddie as well and they're a really good team and they see and I learnt a lot from them I have to say how much you know I learnt a lot What did you learn from Eddie? What was the big thing that he taught you?

29:54Don't give up same thing I am you know hard work judgement you know trust your instinct he also has a very good judgement he taught me players get them girlfriends friends uh sorry sorry because i used to say why did you why is it important they have a partner because they're then not going out drinking well so alex ferguson used to love his players being married young yeah because he's like calms them down get married have a baby yes then you can just not be going out all the time exactly yeah so that was important to us but it also meant i then have been because i've been a mom with a prem you know with a very early step baby i know the stress of actually having a young baby so I wanted to make sure that we provided him with the support network in the training room that you know the players could ring me up if they had any issues and I think that's what Eddie said I liked he said to me I want you to be around I want you to be there on a you know on pre-training so that you and Murdad Lexi we were always there whether we're playing table tennis whether we're talking about nannies or things that just help nutrition issues, you know, and that became really important when we had an issue, when Sandro, we got Sandro in.

31:11So that became, you know, really important because he was facing a huge issue. And so that relationship that we built was very important. Go on, tell us about that. So Sandro, we, you know, we were, he'd been, you know, like Alexandre, he'd been on top of our list for ages and we just thought we were never going to have it, be able to afford him or get him but he's got such a talent a I get frustrated at my lack you know I don't speak Italian so that used to really frustrate me that my Italian whereas my French is pretty good my Italian is awful and I felt when we got him in and he had the issue we wanted to give him as much support and say you know addiction we understand very well this issue we understand very well through many relationships I have.

31:59We thought he must be terrified he's coming to a new club. This is an environment that is, and the way he dealt with this issue with such humility, and he worked so hard to deal with all his demons and overcome all those demons and to become, we knew he'd become the most incredible midfielder. Now, also we knew that he was in the right club because we knew that the Newcastle fans would be so protective of him. So I said to him, this is going to be the best thing that happens for you, your career. You're going to get a year out where you're going to be able to train with the best guy in the world.

32:41You're going to learn so we can communicate. You've got the best people and people like Yasser who understand this and Eddie and Murdad and Jamie and all of the board. were so supportive of what he needed. So I think very early on, we made sure he was first day, first weekend we had him, I think he was sat in front of me or in the suite to show people that, you know, we wanted him to know how supportive we are. And young kids, young footballers are facing this all the time. Imagine, I mean, people forget, you know, it's like, for football, I always used to think it's like saying to an alcoholic, okay, yes, you've got a problem with alcohol, but we're going to let you work in a bar.

33:25And you're going to have to serve alcohol every day to people. But you're not allowed to touch a drink. For some people, that must be like football. And you've got pretty, you know, A, everybody goes they earn a lot of money. Well, you know, they've got pretty solitary lives. They train hard. They don't drink. They work hard. They're in, you know, it's hard. It's the worst mix of things will come in together. And I love the fact you talk about it as demons because I still think when we say someone has a drug, problem we kind of understand that now when we say someone has an addiction to alcohol we got we we're you know we realize how addictive it is i still think when someone has a an issue with gambling and i saw it in the media when sandro had his ban they were critical of his behavior and there wasn't enough conversation about the fact that this is a young a kid virtually yeah with an addiction yeah and he's addicted to gambling for a reason there's a reason why people develop predictions so you can't just say don't gamble you have to say what's going on yeah that absolutely and did you manage to kind of understand him in that way and get those 100 we knew why we we understood i mean that's for him to talk yeah of course his story but we understood what and you can help him understood it totally yeah it reminds me amanda of when we interviewed joe wicks the yes fitness influencer yes he spoke about his own troubled background with his father who had addiction issues and he used the idea that the antidote to addiction is connection.

34:52Yes. Which sounds like that's precisely what you've offered. Was that going against the common reaction though that people would have had of feeling anger, disappointment and let down towards Sandro? Yes, there was a lot of support but there was a lot of people that were, you know, you picked the wrong player. He's the right player and we knew the chemistry he'd have with Joe Linton and I knew Bruno I mean remember we knew that he had such an incredible support from Bruno from Joe Linton from all his players Kieran was brilliant I mean I the first thing I did was speak to Kieran who I you know think the world of can you talk to him because he's that that's why we wanted Kieran to come in as captain because he would just be such a support in the and and he got so so much support from his colleagues and from us and I was just so proud of him I was proud of the fans from when he went off and then he came for his first game.

35:50And I got goose pimples. And every time I see him, I saw a little kid walk through London with Tonali on the back just the other day. And I said to my dad, oh, look, it's Tonali. And I go up and I look and the poor kid thinks he's this weird woman who keeps sort of saying, do you mind if I take a picture? Anyway, nevermind. I think there's a misconception about you. What? What? And I think the misconception is that because you come from the world of finance, and because most of the time when football fans see you, they see you sitting in the stand, watching the game, looking very glamorous, focused on the match.

36:22I think the misconception is that in that world of finance, it's cold. It's about deals. It's not about human connection. And all you've spoken about for almost an hour to us is about human connection. Am I right? Well, to me, that is football. That is definitely football. That's what I love. Where does your empathy and understanding of others come from? That's, do you know what? My husband, I have a great husband who's a really good guy. Oh God, I get him. And I don't want to cry again.

36:54I have a really good team and who've taught me, you know, and I have great partners. So I feel very lucky to have such a privileged life. And so I feel, and I see so much crap. we all do at the moment in the last few months god and you just want to make things if something could be a little better then make it better and i think because i've been treated so well by so many and i had such a tough start in times i was trying to you know prove my own father wrong that but so i i have learned a lot of empathy over the last few years because i i want to give back what I have. And if I can be more empathetic to other people's needs, then, you know, and sometimes Murdy used to say, God, you're so soft.

37:42You know, you're so soft. I mean, with my son, I am so soft. I am a useless mother. You know, homework. Oh, babe, no, you've worked too hard at school all day. I'll say Murdad just gets so cross with me. You know, he's got 11 plus, you know it's it's tough so I think you learn as a mum I've become more empathetic because you you have to be being at Newcastle the love and support of the fans has been incredible so I feel I feel just you know happy every day that I can just be a small part of someone else's you know machine. If you're still overpaying for wireless, it's time to say yes to saying no.

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40:27Take us back to that sentence you said about your father. Yeah, I think my dad was very straight with me and said, you know, you're not gonna, he's now incredibly proud but he was more I think you know boys you're not going to inherit things you know and it's hard for my brother also because you know he had to build up my you know a business in a very difficult environment but for my father you know my father faced real challenges with his business what was his business he had a theme park called Lightwater Valley and my dad said you know you're not going to inherit but you're going to marry you And he was, I mean, he said it's much easier to be wealthy, to marry a good-looking, sorry, not good-looking, he said, you know, just go marry well.

41:18And he said, because life, he wanted me to have an easy life. Doesn't every dad want their child, daughter to have a much easier life? And I always felt I had a lot to prove. I don't know where that comes from, but I think it comes from my father and wanting to say to him, actually I'm as good as any other boy or you know and that's that's also really hard for my brother now because I had a big chip on my shoulder which he doesn't deserve to have a sister that had a chip on his shoulder because you know I was the eldest and you know he's done an incredible job with my dad's business and it was in a quite a tough time when he took it over so I'm really proud of the work he's done and I've learned a lot from you know my family I have a great support network in my you know in that and my my husband recognized that in me he recognized that desire to prove everything but there's a bit intriguing bit of your story Amanda about your struggles when you got to Cambridge University where you had to walk away from the university and why that yeah why because you've spoken about this resilience and this grit and this persistence well i think also i think tenacity is i am tenacious but when you're very young you don't have the tool set and and i had you know i've been very open about i had problems with you know eating and i had problems with things that i didn't really want to talk about openly but i did talk about much later things that i couldn't cope with as a young person and and at that point you were we were educated with just women and being educated with And then I was not very confident, not about what I looked like or, you know, and I still am not, you know, which my husband gets so frustrated because I'm just not confident.

43:07He said, why, you know, why are you not confident? You know, but that age, one wonderful thing about getting older is you build that confidence back into your system. So I think I always felt that I kind of failed early and I didn't fulfill my full potential. And I, you know, I did my A-levels in one year. Sometimes I wish, you know, I'd taken a long time to explore, you know, my being young and not going straight into business. I borrowed, you know, stocks was bought because I borrowed£180 ,000 from NatWest Bank. You know, it took huge tenacity to convince a bank manager to lend me that money, you know, at 21.

43:48But where did that come from? Like the courage to go into the restaurant industry? I don't know. particularly when university had been such a struggle just a few years before um i don't know i think i just wanted to succeed i wanted to and be honest i wanted to have the comfort of having you know money and also when you're younger you have much more you don't have anything to lose you know if i lost you know i could you could try everything you only become less risky when you when you have a lot to lose. So I threw everything into life. I didn't know about the Huntingtons at that point, obviously.

44:25So I was able to just throw everything into my life and say, I want to be the best version of myself. I was a good athlete. You know, I still am, you know, I've still, sport is a big part of what I am. So I just didn't want to let myself down. I didn't want to let my dad down, my family, my wonderful grandfather, who was just incredible. But what would 52-year-old Amanda go back if you could see that 18-year-old girl struggling at Cambridge University? What would you want to tell her? Just, you know, I think courage. Just because you don't have those tool sets at that age. Funny enough, I created them, not at 18, and I went through this with Murdad last night because he asked me actually a very similar question.

45:12but not at 18. He said, what did give you the courage eventually? And I said, do you know what? Do you remember the Lark? We were at a Chelsea game a few weeks ago. We met JJ Abrams, the producer of Alien. I was like a star in the headlight, literally. I was like, do you know who it is? He did Alias. Alias. And he said, why do you know so much about Alias? I said, do you remember? I used to pretend I was Jennifer Garner. So before I go into any big meetings, I used to think, how am I, before I did the Barclays deal or Man City or, you know, stocks or whatever. I used to think, how am I going to cope with these meetings?

45:48And I used to pretend I was super spy and capable of, you know, all these things. And I had all this, you know, and I just used to say, Jennifer Garner. And my secretary, Joe, who's been with me forever and is kind of like my surrogate mom, she'd say, Jennifer Garner, get yourself together, be alias. so I did that and it did give me and like women do these power moves you know people do these things and I did the same thing with football players you need to do those same power poses before matches you need to sight yourself up you need to do all of those things so those tools I learned and now I have my Jennifer Garner moments but now I have the track record that actually allows me to go into meetings with the confidence to be able to say, no, I can just point to the track record I have.

46:40You mentioned your Huntington's disease. Can we talk about that? Because I think that's one area of your life where you can't pretend to be Jennifer Garner because this is real, right? For those that don't know, what is Huntington's? It's a neurodegenerative disease. It's inherited. I inherited it from my mum. I have a particular CAG repeat of a part of my DNA, So I have an expansion of a gene, of the Huntington's gene. A healthy person has a sort of 25 to 35 repeat of this gene. And my husband can explain it a lot better than I can actually. But I actually have a repeat of around 41 to 42 of the Huntington's gene, which means I have at some point will develop full Huntington's disease.

47:30and it's a bit like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's combined. But there's no cure. There's no cure. So you can't have a test until you're 18. So you take a blood test and you will know, do you have it or do you not? But I have quite a low repeat, fortunately. I could have a repeat of 48 and I'd be in a wheelchair. But I'm at a manageable repeat, which is really good because it means my symptoms will come on much slower, hopefully, if I have a pretty clean life. So I used to drink and don't drink much now. I have meds. And I have a lot of help and support around it. There's a positive side to it that it tends to affect people who have very high numeracy.

48:19And we don't know why this is. A lot of people that have had, whether they've had hedge funds or whether they've, there are three or four people who've invested into Huntingdon's disease and a cure for Huntingdon's very recently that have the gene who are similar position to me that have put huge amounts of money into the disease. And it seems to have a correlation between quite high IQ and numeracy. So I didn't know when I was doing the Barkley Steels, I could do multivariate maryls, I could do models in my head. And I just used to think, everybody could do this. I never used to think I was any different.

48:56And I didn't think I was smart because I know I wasn't that smart. I was very hardworking, but I just had a natural, you know. And now that is something which is positive and I have to look at the positive side and I have to be aware that there is a negative side. And so I have to see the positive because you can't go into this looking any other way. So you take medication every day? Yes, every day. Actually, when I was tested, nobody thought I had it because I have really good balance I do a lot of pilates a lot of exercise so those sort of things shakes and um my emotion some of the emotional episodes I have I used to find traveling on my own really hard and now I travel all over the world on my own purposely without a PA without a team of people I go to China on my own I go to New York I go to see my hedge fund clients and I push myself to do everything that I shouldn't do and it keeps everything firing really really well and I find that if I get into routines that that helps me and if I challenge myself that helps me does that make any sense and and I think it's like a brain you know you've got your brain is so plastic you know I remember having and I have to look and I have to be confident they'll find a cure and I do believe we will find a cure I'm now proud of my diagnosis whereas before I was very ashamed and was ashamed why were you ashamed because it was considered because when people when it was first diagnosed when people first knew about it people would say oh god you know it's a bit you know because the symptoms you end up being quite quite a nasty person and for me yes you can be quite yes yes it affects the brain It affects your mood.

50:47It affects the way you sometimes shout to people. So for me, I'm someone with who has quite a lot of empathy. And to see my mom turn into someone who didn't have a great deal of empathy terrifies me. But I have a support network around me that can help me deal with that. I have an incredibly brave husband that made that decision. So when I found out I had the disease, I didn't want to get married. He just proposed. And I wanted to have the test because I wanted to know what the future has. He proposed we found out. Now, he'd seen mum. He knew mum was not well. He'd seen how ill my sick mum was.

51:26So he wasn't like he didn't know, but he still decided, actually, we're going to get married. I didn't want him. How did that feel? I'm so grateful to him. I mean, there are days when there'll be, I just hope that, you know that's hard he's he's amazing he is my sorry and my son and he has huge empathy and and patience and when I have a tough time he just says don't worry go away go away just run it off so I was walking back we were walking back from someone's house the other day I think from Lexi's football or something and I was getting frustrated being in the car. And I said, look, I'm going to run home.

52:08And I got out, poor Lexi's going, where are you going? I just pelted, started to run. And that helped. I beat them home, which was the other positive thing. But you know, you have to do things and you have to learn. And I have Professor Sarah Tabrizi, who is the head of neurology. She's head of Huntingdon's at UCLH. She's actually head of neurology for the whole bloody hospital now. She's so brilliant. And she's looked after me for many years and she's just, and the whole Huntington's community is really supportive. So I spoke in LA at their conference and I tried to explain some of the things I go through to other family members because it is scary.

52:51So getting diagnosed is, I want people to be, I want people to be confident and comfortable about having the test because it is better to be tested and change your life than not I think. And since you have been tested what's become more important and what's become less important? I'm not a time waster you know every day is important and I value every day so I don't want to waste my time even with work you know with business what businesses and things we go into I'm also very ambitious so I don't want to die because I love my life so I want to long live to be a very old so I have to work really hard at getting things right so that I can be as healthy as possible um but I also know that that might not be the case so you have to put tools in place today that can safeguard Alexander and uh and my and the legacy we leave sure but what's become less important in your priorities time wasters so people that want you know um your family's everything so you just i just i think what i used to do is i used to give everybody time i used to try and make time for everyone because i felt so guilty when i didn't now i can't i just say i you know and i'm very honest with someone who a guy i really respect sent me a lovely text can you look at my friend once you I took up their business and I sent, first time ever, sent a text back and said, do you mind?

54:23I'm really sorry. I'm not in a position to help. I can point you in a direction, but I just, I don't have the time. And it's just, I can't help. And that I would never have done. Have you had the conversation with your son about Handingham? No. Yes, sorry, we have. He knows I have it. And he's, we've tried to explain to him what it is. How old is he? He's 10. And he's seen that in the media. he's read it read my wikipedia and that was a shock to him because he's had to and if he reads this i i mean we have we we're very conscious of that um he's also very proud of you know me and we explain when i have you know my dad explained to him sometimes mommy might go a bit mad and then he said mommy never he never gets cross and that i suddenly thought of course he never sees me angry because I never tend to lose my temper with him because he's just like, so, but he will now.

55:25He will see that as he gets older. Can we also talk about the lessons you learned from your son being born so prematurely? Yes. Oh, God, he is a superstar. He's our absolute rock star. He was born at 26 weeks. he was as small as my, well, smaller than my hand, 858 grams. And actually so extraordinary that, you know, when my waters broke at 25 weeks, we were told to have a termination. So my husband, who is my other rock star, just was, we were determined we were going to have him however tough life was going to get. And he's just come into this world a total fighter. And to see him grow, into, you know, I was thinking he's this small.

56:15And then, you know, now he's at Athletics. You know, he's won every Athletics award in the last few weeks. So to see him go from that tiny little thing in my hand that we were told would never walk, would never talk properly, wouldn't be able to, you know, cope, would be born into a plastic bag and we'd be better having a termination, you know, to see that, we're just so proud of him. And there was an interesting moment before we started recording when our producer Will told you that he too was born at 26 weeks, right? I was shocked. And you then said straight away, how old are you? And when he told you he's in his 40s, you said, what a relief.

56:52It is a relief because he's so tall. I loved it. Because of course, my other friend, I have to say, I've got another director found who was also born at 26 weeks. So I was so relieved because you think, hang on, amazing. And Lexi had all the incredible support of UCLH. And we got to UCL, they were amazing. I mean, the hospital, the team, it was incredible. I've really enjoyed getting to know the person behind the headlines, behind the stories, and sometimes behind the things that I read online. Yeah. And I wonder whether, with all of these reminders of mortality and this lovely conversation about the stuff that actually really is important in life, personal connection, relationships, family, love, how you cope with the things that do come your way when you're in the public eye, the kind of criticism that feels so unfair and so unkind.

57:53I used to, I mean, I had a time when I got quite a lot of, I've been also very fortunate that there's been a lot of very positive comments. So what I tried to do is look at the positive comments and things. and I think actually the media's been very fair so I've been very lucky and fortunate. I've had online criticism a lot of people say oh she's had a facelift she's had a boob job I wish I've never had a facelift I've had no plastic surgery at all and I wish I had because you have to look a certain way and I'm 52 I'm like not a young you know and so I used to be very conscious of my, you know, of my figure.

58:32I was quite shy. So I used to find criticism really tough. But now, older, I take it, you know, I just try to ignore it and get used to it. I think the Sunderland fans were pretty much the worst when we beat Sunderland. But I, you know, I was expecting that. And how did you cope with that? Actually, I rang Lee Marshall at the club and said that, you know, I just want to kind of talk this through with you but i what i wanted for the players because i i'm far more aware of it for the players because they have to deal with it all the time actually anybody in today's public eye and you you have to either i don't follow i you know i i don't read i don't have a twitter account i have instagram but i i don't what i read twitter i nick my husband's but i don't you know because a i'd never get any work done and i'd be and because of huntingdon's i have very little filter so we protect he says you cannot have a twitter account because you just you know that's it and so we just try and deal with that that way and we've spoken about the different roles that you play a mom a daughter a partner a businesswoman i'm interested in how you juggle all those identities and significantly which one do you sort of draw on most when times do get tough I think you you know when times are tough it's always you go back to you know your son your husband being a mother is the most important role I have and the privilege of being a mom to Alexander that makes it all very much easier but it's hard it's really hard we have a lot of support and I have to juggle a lot of balls so there's stories about movies being made about your life there's articles books all kinds of things written and said about you do you ever stop just to think what an incredible journey this has been i stopped to think i'm very lucky but i also realize i've had to work incredibly hard and none of it's been easy so i i think i why i wanted to kind of speak to you today was i've i've watched and read and listened to your podcast to get ideas about how I deal with other situations that come up, especially when you're dealing with high performance athletes and they've got a lot of issues.

1:00:56And so these types of opportunities where you can talk about your life and have an opportunity to talk openly, I think is really important. So the final question then before we move to our quick fires, which you will know because you listen to the show. What's been the cost of a life like this? It's given you so much, but nothing comes for free. I have very little freedom. I mean, I just have no free time. You know, I work all the time, apart from, and I love my life. I mean, I love my friends. So I like to spend time with my friends. So I have a very full life. But sometimes I worry that, you know, I don't give enough to, you know, I get guilt.

1:01:36You always feel that, you know, I want to build a great business. I want to leave a legacy, but equally so, I wish I could spend every moment with Lexi. Because that's what I would love to do. Will there ever be a day you think where you go, do you know what, I've really done, like you talk about wanting to prove your father wrong as a young girl. Will there ever be a day where you think, do you know what, I have done it. I have proved not just him, but everyone else. I've scaled a mountain. Now I stop. Now I prioritize myself, my son, my friends. Do you ever see that day? I think there'll always be a balance.

1:02:10I think luckily my friends and family know that work's really important. And I think I'd be kind of a different person, but they'll always come first. But, you know, I've got a lot of things I want to do, a lot of new opportunities ahead of me that I want to really take and I want to be able to develop our new fund and that's going to take a lot of hard work. So invest in some great sporting businesses. And, you know, the one great thing is, you know, Alexander gets to meet fantastic people and work in an area that he loves. So he gets to come on that journey with us. So luckily he adores football.

1:02:53I mean, Christ, he loves football. So in a way... As much as his mum? Even more. Even more. Right. Quickfire questions.

1:03:05What are the three non-negotiable behaviours that you think are most important in life? tenacity integrity and yeah just you know don't give up be true to yourself brilliant what advice would you give to a younger don't smoke I used to smoke I gave up don't go to every you don't have to say yes to every every opportunity you have to be selective if you could go back to one moment in your life where would you go and why Carabao Cup final really yeah crying with Ant and Dec lovely what's the single best piece of advice you've ever received of my probably my husband my husband this morning make sure you finish your sentences because he says you you constantly you start your sentence you've immediately moved on to something else in your head and you never finish your sentences I thought your sentence completion's been exceptionally good over the last hour or so.

1:04:10And the final question, Amanda, after this truly exceptional episode, and thank you very much for being so honest, so vulnerable and sharing so much with us, is for everyone watching and listening, your golden rule for living a high-performance life. Don't give up. It's the same. I think it's the same as, you know, you've just got to keep going. You've just got to be consistent. and life is seriously difficult and for all of us, especially in this environment, in today's world. And so you've just got to keep thinking you can move forward.

1:04:52Damien. Jake. It's very rare, isn't it, to have someone so universally loved by a fan base like Amanda Stavely is by Newcastle fans. But do you know what's even rarer than that? Go on. having an administrator in football or a club owner or someone in a senior leadership role that takes the time to really understand what the fans want and has a kind of emotional investment. And I like, I look at football now and I see investment from the Middle East. I see investment from America. I see people talking about football club as a commodity or talking about the fans as our customers. And I just think so many of you are getting football so wrong.

1:05:32You think it's a toy to buy and sell, to make money. And I'm not saying she hasn't made great money out of her business investments, but she understands that football is about a connection, a connection that often people don't get anywhere else in their life. And I think that that's why she is so hugely revered. It's as much for how she thought about Newcastle as it is for the work that she did while she was there, you know? Yeah, yeah. Well, it's funny you say that. I'm reading a really fascinating book at the minute called The World's Biggest Cash Machine about how the Glazers bought Manchester United.

1:06:04And like Malcolm Glazer only ever issued 80 words about owning Manchester United. He referred to them in a statement calling them a franchise. He had no sort of reference to the history or the legacy of the club. And I think that is almost part of the reason why there's this fractured disconnection where the Manchester United fans can't stand the Glazers because they don't seem that they have that passion that we heard from Amanda. and I didn't feel it was confected from her. I thought it was really genuine. I thought there was real honesty from her. But I was fascinated by the relationship she had with the players and the coaching staff that she seemed to really care about them as people, seemed to want to help them develop.

1:06:45She wanted to be there as a sounding board. I've never heard an owner of a club talk in those terms. And look, I'm pleased you've said that because as you know, I'm good friends with John Ruddy who's one of the goalkeepers at Newcastle and he joined after she left. and when I said that she was on he said oh the players still talk about her as being like a mum like any issue at the training ground they could go and see her any problems and you know football still remains a very closed world you know we had Callum Wilson on who came and spoke about his mental health challenges did you tell anyone you played with?

1:07:16no of course I didn't but she kind of created a warmth that I think is missing at times in football particularly from owner to fans you know there is a huge disconnect Man United are not a rare example and what Newcastle had was special and it was rare. And you know what, I think that, I don't think the story is finished for Amanda Stavely. I think that she remained, as we saw, so driven to do something else. I'm very interested to see what happens next. She's a brilliant example of reinvention. You know, when she spoke about her early days of her father almost expecting her to go out and make her own way in the world and then going to Cambridge University, then going into the restaurant trade, then going into the Middle Eastern cultures and thriving and being successful there.

1:07:59I agree with you. I don't think this is the end of a story. Thanks, mate. Thank you. Huge thanks to Amanda for joining us and for letting us into her world with such honesty and vulnerability. And if something in this episode has helped you reflect, please follow the show and share this conversation with someone who'd benefit from it. Just hitting follow is so powerful for us. Don't forget the High Performance app gives you early access to every one of these episodes and exclusive extras you won't find anywhere else. And if you want more in our back catalogue of leaders and trailblazers like Claire Williams, Toto Wolff and Serena Wiegmann, just check them out.

1:08:34Thanks so much for joining us. On behalf of myself, Damien and the whole team, we really appreciate your support. We'll see you next time.

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