Newcastle United director Jamie Reuben has delivered an exciting pledge to Toon supporters heading into 2025.

The Reuben family increased their stake in United to 15% during the summer after the departure of co-owner Amanda Staveley as PIF also bolstered their ownership to 85%. The Magpies will move into the new year with competition for Champions League places increasingly difficult but Eddie Howe seems convinced that the bad patch in form is now behind his side.

Reuben issued a festive message to fans before the Boxing Day victory over Aston Villa and said on X: "Progress never moves in a straight line but we all are absolutely determined to fulfill our ambition for this club."

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That ambition was underlined by Yasir Al-Rumayyan back in 2023 when he said: "Finishing in the top four, our revenue is increasing. Remember, you have to work within the financial fair play framework, so the more revenue we will have, the more players we will have ready.

"Then the Champions League will add more revenue for us. The sponsorship is improving and that’s more funds and more revenue.

"If you put all these things together, I think we should have an ambition and aspiration to be number one."

Reuben has been a steady presence in the background and Newcastle this season and has allowed sporting director Paul Mitchell and other board room figures do most of the talking to fans. But his ambition pledge has been a consistent one throughout 2024, with the former Queens Park Rangers director commenting earlier this year: "The journey to transform Newcastle United into a major force that competes at the highest levels continues and I look forward continuing this work with Saudi Arabia PIF in the years to come."

Howe was also asked what the ambition for 2025 will be at St James' Park following the 3-0 win over Aston Villa. The former Bournemouth manager said: "We're shooting for whatever we can shoot for. We'll take small steps, we'll go game-by-game, but I'm really heartened by how the team is playing.

"I think we're winning strongly at the moment, we're not winning by luck. I think there's been a definite upturn in our general performance. We look good defensively and we look good in attack, but of course we need to keep our standards very high.

"It's a great thing for us that we're ending the year on a high. This game is all about momentum and it's all about confidence, it's all about the players believing how good they can be.

"Hopefully we go into the new year in a better place with the squad. Touch wood, it looks like we're building some kind of stability in it, we're not losing players as we were last season due to injury with a couple of players coming back on the horizon as well which could make us stronger, so the signs look good."