When you tinker with something as important as a club badge there is always the risk that the branding experts who are behind the redesign get things horribly wrong.

That is the dangerous territory Newcastle have put themselves in, although it was comforting to hear that, rather than just impose a new design on supporters, they will instead be presented with different options and allowed to vote on which one they prefer.

Newcastle are no stranger to a new club crest. This will be the fourth time it has changed since the 1950s. And although many will be instinctively against the idea, given it tramples over tradition and history, there is only so much of an argument you can make to hold back modernisation.

The current crest is too intricate and too complex. The club has pointed out that some of the details, such as the lion holding the flag of St George, are too small to be seen and cannot be made out when embroidered onto the club shirts.

It was also pointed out that the two seahorses – which strangely have hooves – are not aligned, meaning the badge, when looked at in detail, is lopsided and difficult to replicate.

Newcastle want to make themselves more visible in a crowded market place. They believe they need a new modern brand design to help them do that. They are not the first Premier League club to reach this conclusion.

While the corporate jargon of the boardroom will irritate many, football is big business and big business likes to focus on things like branding and marketing.

This is all part of that world and while it does not help you win football matches, it is part of Newcastle’s mission to increase revenue and close the financial gap on the traditional ‘Big Six’ whose income, more than three years after the takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, continues to dwarf their own.

But get this wrong and they will risk stirring up unnecessary anger among the fanbase, so there are few things they must consider.

The first thing is there can be no reference to Saudi Arabia in the new design. This badge belongs to Newcastle United and the city, the identity of their owners is irrelevant to that. Changing to an all green away kit as the club did last season – and are believed to be switching back to again next term, the same colours as the Saudi national team – was already contentious. The badge needs to retain its key, traditional elements although there are some easy (but not uncontroversial) tweaks that can be made.

The key things that spring to mind when you think of Newcastle United are black and white stripes, the Norman castle that gives the city its name and the club’s nickname, the Magpies.

These three things should form the core of any new design and that means I am willing – although many will disagree – to sacrifice the seahorses.

Yes, they are a traditional element of the badge and reflect the city’s coat of arms and its proud maritime history, but they do not sing any songs about seahorses at Newcastle. In fact, there are no references to seahorses at all in anything to do with the club beyond two of them appearing on the badge.

Seahorses (also known as hippocampi) are not evocative in any way shape or form to me, so if you want modern branding, focus on the three key elements. As for a motto written in Latin? Nothing screams old fashioned more.

In fact, it is pretty simple. Put a Magpie, sitting on a castle and somehow incorporate the black and white stripes. Or, strip it back even further and just build it around the image of a Magpie.

Opinions, of course, will differ wildly on this subject but the most important thing is, surely, not to overthink it. Sometimes simple is best.