Better late than never. After a momentary post-Wembley hiatus, the weekly TF editorial is here, and Stephen Ord (@smord84) has a few things to get off his chest…
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So it’s here again … that feeling of being so close and falling short. We play the plucky underdog so well, and I’ll be honest I hate it. I love the fact that we have a team that tries, that we have a cohesive thought-out process and we aren’t going around breaking financial rules every window. However, the circumstances that have led to us feeling the same as in 1998 and 1999 are not too dissimilar.
The weekend was a real marker point from where we were, to where we are and to how much further we need to go. The club is at pains to point out that the target this season was a top 10 finish. Whilst that looks likely, if we were to fall out of Europe to eighth or ninth, how would that sit with the fanbase? Or some of the players? Is it a missed opportunity?
Our next step is to arrest a worrying downturn in our form. The reality is that since Leicester on Boxing Day we’ve only really dominated against Southampton, which, when they’re the worst team in the top flight, isn’t saying all that much. This weekend at the Etihad is likely to be a lot of hard work, and if the rumours are true and Bruno’s injury (which looked bad in real time) is unfortunately going to keep him sidelined, then it’s likely we are going to have a few more tough weeks.
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Another issue which came up at Wembley, before and then after was the issue of ticketing. I think the club largely got the policy right, but even if they did the opposite, they wouldn’t be able to please everyone. However, there were some things that struck me as odd about some of the groupings in Level 1 on Sunday. Firstly there were a number of fans in that area who were not fans of Newcastle United. One fan on the way in who was clutching a bag from the Chelsea store at turnstile N1 seemed a bit surprised that Newcastle fans were questioning his allegiances. The Carabao merchandise on show from him and his fellow match goers pointed towards this being sponsors’ tickets in our end.
In addition, I was pleased to see a number of our ex-players in our end. I’m not sure how many loyalty points James Perch has, but if he was in bracket 1 as a fan then the club should explain how that is the case. I find it odd that tickets were changing hands for some eye watering amounts of money, yet the club and Wembley seemed to have very little control of this. If this happens in the corporate end that’s one thing, but in the areas reserved for fans you would hope for some better systems in place.
However, that’s been and gone now, time to look forward.
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The owners have come out with a statement today saying they want to win the Premier League and the Champions League, admirable statements but easy to be shot down at. How will that happen? All the other clubs of ‘the big Six’ will spend again in the summer. Chelsea surely can’t be this bad again. It would be good if, instead of talking about the top prizes, we were just going about our business. We don’t hear from the Arsenal ownership – they might win the league this season.
The next step has to be looking at spending money in the right areas, whilst revenue comes in from new streams. We obviously decided that we couldn’t spend beyond Anthony Gordon and young Ashby in January, but we knew that, unbelievably, Forest had agreed to give us a big wedge back for Chris Wood (up there with Silvio Maric for me as best deals the club can have made). Could we have made more of that money and investment, or was Gordon the only player we were likely and able to get?
So if we don’t make Europe, the FFP amount we can spend considerably decreases. Could we be left in a position of having to sell one of our better players to allow future investment? Have we already reached a point in the cycle where we need a refresh to complete our goals?
I will also admit that I wasn’t that bothered by the owners saying we are great fans and we will be back. Sure we heard the same thing in 1998 and 1999, people say this is us building for the future, but I see a team running on empty and no back ups available of the same quality. Spurs and Liverpool will both catch us in my view. Therefore sixth would be our best possible final position.
Whilst disappointment was to be expected after this result, the weeks ahead allows us to question certain things. Some people seem to think the club and everyone in it are above any sort of criticism. I disagree – Keegan got it for selling Cole and was ultimately judged differently when Ferdinand and then Shearer arrived. Have we got a plan B? Is it the 4-2-3-1 formation we saw when Isak came on? Have we got a plan C, or is it always inverted wingers? Are some players now reverting to their mean? I don’t think I can question any of their effort, but I do wonder for example what is happening with Callum Wilson? Why doesn’t he look anything like the player we had pre-World Cup?
This week should be a time for reflection – how far we have come should be applauded, but how much we have to do should not be sugar coated. We are a long way off the top teams, Eddie will know that. I’ll judge him, the owners, and the executive team on what they do next to adapt and to push us on.
Stephen Ord @smord84
This weekend has shown us that we are going through a rut in the form right now, of the whereabouts we need to invest in the squad, club. And the possible need to change formation, selection to get our season back on track.
But at the same time, we don’t want to start allowing ourselves to get constantly negative or frustrated, of undercutting the positivity of our fanbase, of the progress we have made in the last 17 months. After all the years of toxicity under Ashley, allowing our fears, doubts to sink in.
As it’s easier said than done that we need to do this, do that. We need to invest, but who to bring in, how much we spend? Who do we sell? How much for?
We change formation, which system do we go to? Who gets dropped? Who plays instead?
All these things will take time, that we have had and will have setbacks in places. Runs like at the moment where we struggle to score, get results needed.
Most of us are under no illusions that we have a task to get back into europe, to finally win a trophy.
But i think we can stay positive, continue to support our club, players to help them achieve where we want to be. but also let them know where they are falling, when we feel they didn’t get it right etc.
‘but in the areas reserved for fans you would hope for some better systems in place’
Especially after we were just about threatened with being burnt at the stake if we weren’t the person named on the ticket!!
That turned out to be an idle threat unless someone knows better
I thought the organisation on Sunday was dire. From having to drive away from the stadium to reach the Newcastle allocated car park because they had closed the roads leading to it and also said car park was right next to their end so you had to walk through their lovely charming fans to get back to the car
Disinterested stewards standing with their hands in their pockets, shouting at people too use the stairs not the escalators. Expensive and scant memorabilia if you wanted it. Add to that the result, it did not lead to a grand day out!
I personally don’t know of anyone who passed on their ticket, but you can bet your bottom dollar that some did.
Have to agree with you re organisation.
Got to Wembley Park at about half 2, I hadn’t booked into Box Park , I didn’t know what time I’d get there (we decided on a long weekend in Dorset being as I have family there and travelled up on Sunday morning) so couldn’t get in there, went to the fan zone at the back of the Arena, queue massive, hardly anyone in there, shambolic, so I decided not to enter the ground at my allocated time, got up to level 5 thinking I might take the hit on a £8 or £9 pint, but decided not to bother getting in the queues when I saw then 14 deep and 20 wide, I thought it was difficult getting served in the Beehive on match day!!
I ended up just going to my seat at 3pm, I now understand why we stay in the pub till 20 minutes to kick off, pre match entertainment is shite.
Getting out was a nightmare but thankfully we got to the bridge before we had to join a queue for the tube.
We’re disappointed at the result. We’re niggled that yet again our fans are being praised for their fervour whilst the players picked up their losers medals – again.
It hurts. It hurts more now than it did in 98 & 99 because back then Man U & Arsenal were light years better than us. Man U aren’t light years better than us now – they’re eight points ahead of us & we have a game in hand. So, we all thought we had a real chance in this one and to be fair I think we did.
Unfortunately, and crucially, they are the form team right now & our form has dipped significantly since the turn of the year. We just can’t score goals can we? Wilson’s form has dropped off a cliff & Miggy’s early season goal scoring heroics are a distant memory. Even Trippier (who I love) has suffered a downturn in form. His delivery into the danger areas has been nowhere near as effective in the last six weeks or so.
The brutal truth I guess is that our forwards are not quite good enough consistently to threaten the top teams. When Wilson is ‘on it’ he looks like a very good striker. Unfortunately, he just misses too many games through illness & injury and for the last few games he’s looked like he’s been running through treacle. I’m not really sure what I think about St. Max. He’s a baffling conundrum. The one player we have who is capable of doing something which takes your breath away yet he simply doesn’t affect the game enough in terms of end product. And like Wilson, he misses far too many games.
I think we look a bit tired to be honest. That may be because of the ‘high press’ football we’ve played for much of the season which must take it out of you physically. Unfortunately, we haven’t got a squad full of quality like Citeh or Liverpool etc. so we’ve had to rely on the same fifteen or so players & the intensity levels have definitely dropped.
I’m starting to ‘gan on a bit noo’ but after the disappointment about Sunday dies down a bit we need to remember just how thoroughly twatful we were eighteen months ago, and acknowledge how much better we’ve been under Eddie’s stewardship. If you compare our squad to the other ‘top teams’ we have undoubtedly massively over performed to be where we are and the manager/coaches & players should take huge credit for that
Can’t disagree with any of this, especially the inverted winger’s (like that term). Forwards need crosses now & again !
Spot on