Newcastle United have confirmed plans to change its club crest for the first time since 1988.
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00:00Here outside the Newcastle United media centre where we've been speaking to Eddie Howe ahead of Newcastle United's match against Chelsea on Sunday.
00:09But that's not where I want to start. As you may have seen, we've had a briefing this morning with members of Newcastle's branding team,
00:17but it will have been announced by the time you watch this video, Newcastle United are planning a change to the club crest.
00:25The crest that has been in place at the club on the shirts since 1988.
00:32And yeah, the club have released a statement. They started a fan consultation process.
00:40Surveys will be sent out to season ticket holders and members for feedback.
00:45But what is clear is Newcastle will be changing their club crest, not next season, but potentially the season after.
00:53We spoke to a member of Newcastle's branding team.
00:58And yeah, it's going to be not next season, but you're looking at the season after, which is significant.
01:06The Newcastle, the current crest, while iconic and is probably associated with really memorable moments of the club's history,
01:14winning the Carabao Cup, the Entertainers era, things like that.
01:17But it's been cited as quite problematic in terms of how complex it is and sort of replicating that brand and creating almost simplistic images is difficult.
01:29And that's sort of the direction the club are looking to take.
01:32We're presented three sort of options where it's refine, redesign or reimagine.
01:40And it's looking like the club are looking to refine the current badge, make changes, minimal changes to the current badge, which makes sense.
01:50It's something that if you look at a lot of Newcastle's Premier League rivals, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City, even Liverpool have adopted a more simplistic design
02:01and almost like inspired from either previous designs or a more simple element of the previous badge.
02:11So you look at Man City, they've pretty much reinvented their old logo.
02:17You look at some of Newcastle's older logos, far more simplistic and have nostalgia elements attached to them.
02:23Do the club go down that route or do they go down the Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool route where it's very, very simple?
02:30I mean, I'm not advocating a seahorse, just a seahorse on Newcastle's badge, but things like that.
02:36So that's sort of where the club are looking to go down in terms of the fan consultation process.
02:42But what is clear, the message the club want to send out is fans will be at the heart of the decision-making process.
02:48Will they sign off the final badge? I doubt it.
02:51I reckon decisions have already been made that the badge will change.
02:55And that's clear in the statement, but fan feedback will be very important.
03:00So that's the big news this morning or this afternoon, whenever you're watching this.
03:05But it comes at a strange time because it's ahead of Newcastle's biggest game of the season in the Premier League, at least.
03:12And Eddie Howe recognised that. He said, Carabao Cup aside.
03:14Yeah, biggest game of the season.
03:16And it's going to be like that between now and the end of the season, really.
03:19Three games left to secure Champions League football.
03:21But this is the one against Chelsea, a direct rival for Champions League football.
03:26They sit fifth in the table. Newcastle sit fourth.
03:29Same number of points, same goal difference.
03:32It's just goals scored for Newcastle separating the sides.
03:35So if you win at St James' Park, the early kick-off, the 12pm on Sunday,
03:40then you're in the driving seat for Champions League qualification with two games to go.
03:43You lose that game and it starts to get a little bit more hairy, a little bit more complicated,
03:48considering you look at Aston Villa play Bournemouth at the evening kick-off on Saturday.
03:53And then Nottingham Forest play Leicester City straight after Newcastle play Chelsea.
03:58So if Newcastle were to get beat, they would drop out of the Champions League places,
04:04potentially, if Forest were to indeed win.
04:06If the draw will guarantee to stay fourth, but it's very, very tight heading into the final two games.
04:12You win, you're three points ahead of Chelsea, potentially three points ahead.
04:17Well, you will be three points ahead of Aston Villa, potentially more.
04:21And then you'll be at least two points ahead of Nottingham Forest with two games left to go.
04:26So we'll be in a really good position.
04:28It's a really important game for Newcastle.
04:30Obviously, the brand update, the crest thing, does take a bit of focus off that in terms of our writing,
04:38in terms of what the fans will be talking about, thinking about ahead of the game.
04:41But, make no mistake, Eddie Howe and his side, fully focused.
04:45And in terms of injury news, Eddie Howe would give nothing away.
04:48He said a few knocks and niggles that they're assessing ahead of the game.
04:52I asked him about Fabian Schenk here in Trippia, but he said they're doing good.
04:56So we'll wait and see on them.
04:58You can never take an Eddie Howe injury update with too much sort of honesty
05:05and take it as fact, if you like, because Eddie Howe did say he's keen to keep his injuries under wraps.
05:11So we'll wait and see from that.
05:12Joe Linton, of course, won't be involved.
05:14A big miss for Newcastle, potentially for the rest of the season as well.
05:18So, yeah, that's the latest from the Newcastle United Media Centre this morning.
05:23I've been Dom Scur.
05:24Please check out shieldsgazette.com for all the latest coverage and Newcastle United content.
05:30Cheers.