The Athletic's George Caulkin has delivered some insight from behind-the-scenes about PIF and their current plans for Newcastle United.

What's the story?

Writing on Twitter, he said: "Not much more than what I’ve already said & written about. Everything is going through PIF & they’re assessing everything, including what would have to happen next. The first step is taking too long though.

"The hope from inside is that within a couple of months the system of making decisions will have settled down. And it needs to - you can’t hang around during transfer windows," he continued.

"No, I don’t think it’s about bigger names - it’s about right names. Not sure the people they would ideally want are available (and I don’t know who). My argument, the football argument, would be that you just need to take the first decision."

Fans will be reassured

Make no mistake about it, after completing the takeover a couple of weeks ago, Newcastle fans would surely have been hopeful, if not expecting, entering a new era with a new manager for the weekend game against Tottenham at St James' Park.

Instead, a whole week of uncertainty that saw reports emerge claiming Bruce would be sacked well ahead of the match didn't come to fruition, and the Magpies' new owners watched more of the same as the Tyneside club fell to a disappointing defeat at home.

On Sky Sports' Monday Night Football, both Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville pointed the finger of blame at the new owners and suggested that they had made an early mistake in not sorting out the managerial mess before that Spurs clash.

What Caulkin's update should do however, is reassure fans that PIF do have a plan at hand, and that once all the early drama and confusion subsides, their judgments can become quicker and clearer.

Clearly, they have a big job on their hands, and it's no surprise that they want to take their time over making decisions.

But, as Caulkin says, "the first step is taking too long", and it's high time they dealt with it.

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