The season 2023/24 will be the same as the seventy that preceded it; Newcastle United will not win a domestic trophy.
The hard truth is they look nowhere near winning one either. Obviously we were outclassed in every department at The Etihad and that isn’t a one-off and bar a blip in the League Cup a decade and more ago, we are consistently shown to be nowhere near the best side in England and arguably still in Europe. We did beat an under-strength Man City at SJP in the League Cup but we have lost the other three meetings between the clubs this season.
A hard light on Newcastle United also shows we finished bottom of our Champions League Group, unable to hold onto leads away at PSG and at home to Milan. We were also knocked out on penalties at Chelsea in the League Cup having conceded a late equaliser and proven ourselves again to be unable to close out a game.
These are not the moments which mark out a club with a winners’ mentality. We lack the winning instinct and I won’t be proven wrong in that sentiment until there is a Newcastle United captain holding a trophy above his head.
The simple truth is we are nowhere near winning a trophy two full seasons into the takeover and perhaps we can reflect ruefully that the League Cup Final of last season versus a far from memorable Man Utd side was the best opportunity to break a seven decades long wait for a piece of domestic silverware. You know how that played out.
The answer for our current position (and we are a mediocre 10th in the PL table going into the international break) is down to the players Howe has at his disposal.
At Man City we began the game with Dubravka, Lascelles, Schar, Murphy, Longstaff and Willock – all players from the Ashley era. Coming on as subs were Almiron and Krafth recruited in the Ashley days with academy products Anderson and Miley.
Hall on loan from Chelsea and barely used this season made a rare appearance with United 2-0 down. I think I may have exhaled a hollow laugh at that. Dummett and Ritchie, also Ashley era players remained, as usual on the bench but are great around the dressing room apparently.
Curiously, Matty Targett, arguably the club’s most senior specialist left-back was also unused despite being rumoured to be the recipient of some lavish wages if the grapevine is to be relied upon. There is no news as to whether he is good around the dressing room.
Currently, we have Hendrick, Hayden, Lewis and Fraser out on loan from the first team pool and again all players from the Ashley era. They are clinging onto some mental contracts doled out courtesy of Ashley, Barnes and Charnley. There is little prospect in selling them.
Ashworth, who appeared to have one of those jobs where he’s not to blame for anything (he appeared to swerve responsibility for the Tonali farrago) but takes credit for everything was unable to get them out of the club and off the payroll. Evidence of his genius at Newcastle United remains well-hidden.
Harrison Ashby, brought in from West Ham with a bit of a cheer is now out on loan at Championship Swansea City. He’s 22.
Of course we cannot ignore the players we have injured – Pope, Joelinton, Trippier, Barnes and Wilson. Add the banned Tonali into the picture and the paucity of options to Howe becomes obvious.
There are whispers too that Botman, Burn, Longstaff, Willock and Isak are not at full throttle. That would be confirmed by the evidence of our own eyes.
Guimarães’ game is restricted by his fear of picking up a yellow card and taking a three game ban. Imagine a Newcastle United at this moment sans Bruno? Shudder.
We have unquestionably had some bad luck with injuries but there are questions in that regard of the medical team. There are numerous examples but seeing Joelinton return for the second half at Sunderland after taking a knock in the first half and then quickly breaking down again raised eye-brows in the away end. Joelinton subsequently declared out for much of the rest of the season raises a further querying of what passes for the medical team. As does Barnes being out with a hamstring injury having only played minutes after his lengthy return from a toe injury. And there’s Murphy shoulder popping out a second time and Botman playing two games with an undiagnosed ankle ligament injury. I’ll stop now.
No I won’t – why do our players return from injury consistently short of sharpness over a lengthy period? What is happening with Botman and indeed Isak?
Apologies I’ve mentioned the last three windows several times previously. Obviously United departed from Amanda Staveley’s commitment to be active in every window by being conspicuously inactive in the January just gone. The previous year only Antony Gordon came in, though that was preceded by the departures of Shelvey and Wood. Only Manquillo left in January 2024.
Last summer’s recruitment has had little discernible impact upon the quality of the squad available to Howe. By common consent, United had its pants pulled down by AC Milan in selling us Tonali, who on reflection, I remain to be convinced wants to be here. Speak to those who listened to his press conference at the San Siro prior to our game v his AC Milan and you’ll be struck by the sense of mourning expressed by the former Rossoneri man at having left his boyhood club.
He has a lot of convincing to do though he’d be forgiven for imagining he has cracked it given the ovations in song he gets from supporters every game. Weird!
The Barnes signing was curious at the time given we had signed Gordon in the previous window and had vacancies on the right and indeed in attack to be filled. Barnes has had a dreadful season curtailed with injuries, making a bit of a joke of replacing ASM in the training ground car park and physio’s room. I don’t think the GUCCI headband and bandages will suit him to be honest.
I was one of many who felt we might have signed potentially England’s full-back pairing in Hall and Livramento (mainly due to a rare moment of optimism) but whilst the latter has shown quality (and rawness), Hall will play fewer games for United this season a year older than he did last season for Chelsea. I have heard reference to his lack of physicality for the PL.
All this was known last summer but we pressed on anyway and brought him in on a pay-later deal that seems a bit uncertain now. We still have a vacancy for an upgraded left-back with Dan Burn hammered at every turn for essentially playing out of position, carrying an injury and frequently exposed, especially with the human wall Joelinton no longer protecting the back-line. We needed a quality left-back to have come in last summer. It didn’t happen but there remain hopes Hall can blossom for us … if he stays here … that isn’t known.
We know the drill with the Profit and Sustainability Rules / Financial Fair Play. We know what has been done to related party transactions that prevent the Saudi Public Investment Fund from levering in the kind of investment in other sports and indeed in the Saudi Pro League into Newcastle United.
We all know this has nothing to do with protecting clubs from overspending and unravelling in the way of Leeds United and Portsmouth and everything to do with protecting the financial interests of Manchester United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea and Tottenham. All of those clubs are owned by US corporate interests bar Spurs.
I omit Man City because they frequently vote against the others. Those five clubs operate as a cartel and stifle competition.
Given the nature of our owners we aren’t going to solicit much sympathy elsewhere in football but if anyone imagines the US cartel is operating in anything other than their own narrow self interest then I have some magic beans to sell. Read across also to TV deals which benefit Man Utd and Liverpool directly and also the co-efficient payment scam within the Champions League and you’ll come to realise these clubs have de-facto achieved their European Super League ambitions.
What impacts us also impacts upon Aston Villa and others with aspirations of being less than the bottom-feeders of the Premier League. I note Crystal Palace directors also making murmurings of discontent but the truth is they have allowed the top 5+1 clubs their own way as it has suited their own financial (as separate from sporting) interests too.
Therefore we have a handy set of bogey-men to hang our discontent upon with good reason.
Will it getter any better?
That’s the million dollar question and in the social media snarling of post Man City disappointment I was exhorted to be patient. I’ll smile ruefully at that after 53 years of clicking through the SJP turnstiles with only various near misses to reflect upon. But I get the point, this is a new ownership and all of that etc.
But patience has to be different to just waiting. We cannot be exhorted to be patient (or just wait) when the tectonic plates of football finance have moved so significantly underneath us. We cannot ignore Eddie Howe and Darren Eales warning us this summer won’t be the big reset we had hoped for or question if one year contract extensions for Jamal Lascelles and Emile Krafth are the actions of an upwardly mobile football club.
We all saw a smiling Yasir Al Rumayyan, Chair of the Public Investment Fund and Newcastle United at Alnwick Castle tell the world via the Amazon documentary the ambition is to be number one. We all heard Amanda Staveley commit to compete with Man City and others for the game’s top honours. We have recently heard her talk in the cold blooded corporate language of Newcastle United as an asset to be managed.
What is the ambition now and what is the plan to achieve it? How will they deal with the Profit and Sustainability Rules which have been brought in specifically to deal with us? How will they deal with future changes because it is inconceivable we will be challenged to jump just the hurdles we know about? We would be naive in the extreme if we didn’t imagine the Americans of Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Man Utd and the weirdly opaque structure at ENIC which pulls the strings at Spurs aren’t planning other stunts to keep us out and protect their own positions.
Where is our level of ambition now? Have we been defeated by the cartel? What are the short and long term objectives for Newcastle United? Is success for Newcastle United (and clubs like us) far-fetched and impossible?
Not that Newcastle United is a rabbit caught in the headlights. So far, I can only admit to being a bit underwhelmed at how the corporate side of the club has been ramped up. Yes, I acknowledge new deals with Adidas, SELA, NOON are positive steps in the right direction.
However, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect more and although there has been reporting there are deals in the works, they have yet to be made public and it is critical progress is made on that front and soon. If we want better players (and this season has demonstrated we need them badly) and to hold onto our best (because we have a clutch of players who can do better than tenth in the PL and going out of the quarter finals of cup competitions) then we’ll need money to buy them and pay them. This is reality.
In the pantomime that passes for football coverage, the slack-jawed talk will be of Howe as being under pressure. Those who object to the ownership model at United (a legitimate opinion to hold) will write overblown nonsense to attempt to set off the chain reaction of other reporting and that is what we will see between now and the rest of the season. Their objective is destabilise Newcastle United. We all know who. The club isn’t short of enemies – in other PL club boardrooms but also within the media.
Howe, as the diligent, committed coach he is will issue versions of concentrating on the league because he has nothing else to say really. To be fair a EL place is possible, though on form far from probable.
Those who have a semblance of understanding will relay the message that Howe is rated highly by the ownership. There will be a minority of hotheads who call for change not realising the circumstances that suffocate the playing side under Howe will await any successor.
I cannot articulate my exasperation at those who sentimentalise a Mourinho coronation on Barrack Road as some kind of succession of Bobby’s Boy.
So the drill right now appears to be wait to see what happens next, counsel ourselves confidently these things take time (without really understanding what “these things” actually are now), hope to cut through the financial barbed wire United has had built around it and hope we can do a bit better than tenth.
Then get to the summer and you know if we sell Bruno et al, kid ourselves it’s all part of some master-plan.
Sounds great eh?
Keep On, Keepin’ On …
Michael Martin, @TFMick1892
Great, sobering piece Mick.
I am a long sufferer too, since the 60s.
I think a lit of the problems with the bed wetting section of the “support” is that they couldn’t see we overachieved last season.
I think the cartel and their conspiratorial antics are underestimated by most and perhaps something we could be spending a lot of money on that doesn’t count against PSR. At the very least some of it is anti competitive and I suspect more than that.
That requies PIF waking up to that as you say.
Perhaps even the threat would be enough to back down.
If we don’t break this glass ceiling we’ll never achieve what we’re dreaming of.
The other clubs need to be courted too, after all there’s 20 in the PL.
We dream on.
But surely the other clubs in the Premier League aren’t going to push for a change that just enables us to become the new Man City… they all know we have much greater financial potential than any other club, so any amendments other clubs push for will also take that into account
For me, Eddie should plan for next season now. With 40 points we have, once again avoided relegation and there’s no chance of any European qualification. So rest all the knackered players (Botman, Longstanding, Tripper, Isaac, etc ) ready for next season. I would be amazed if Tonali doesn’t return to Milan as soon as his ban is over (we were properly stitched up there). That would free up some cash for a player who actually wants to play for us.
I still trust Eddie and Amanda: what’s another year of winning nowt?
HWTL!
There’s Tonali memorabilia in the window of the Back Page, while Longstaff gets it in the neck from a section of (presumably youngish) fans online! I share your bewilderment. I hope Sandro comes good next year, even if he was complicit in Milan’s skulduggery. But blimey, singing his name seems a bit previous.
And I’m annoyed I’m even mentioning Mourinho. We should no longer be a retirement home for players/managers who had their own glory days elsewhere. Traditionally Liverpool.
Stick with Edward. Howay the lads.
It is sobering playing against Citeh – they have a pretty unique way of strangling the opposition into submission and they’ve made better teams than us look very ordinary over the past two or three years by simply not allowing them any meaningful possession of the football. I’m not sure why anyone who’s been paying attention would have expected the game to go any differently on Saturday. They’re simply miles better than us having spent well over a billion quid on top players while we were trying and failing to get Choudray from Leicester on loan. I was personally more disappointed with our performance against probably the worst Chelsea side in the last 20 years last Monday.
I do feel for Howe. It seems to me that anything that could go wrong has duly gone wrong this season. The table we are easily top of is the one showing the number of ‘man days’ lost through injury this season. The number of injuries, the fact that so many were/are so long term, and the fact that so many of them affected key players has really done for us I think. The Tonali situation was a kick in the plums so early in the piece – like you Mick nothing will ever convince me that Milan and the Italian FA stitched us up good & proper. I also find it difficult to believe that Tonali didn’t know the real reason why Milan were so keen to sell him, so in my world he’s got a bit of making up to do when he returns next season.
The other problem we’re seeing is that players returning from long term injuries take a good while to get back up to speed – Botman for example is a shadow of what he was last season. I know many fans of other teams think we’re harping on about the injuries but on Saturday we were without Pope, Big Joe, Trippier, Livramento, Barnes & Wilson through injury & Tonali through suspension. (I suspect Gordon wasn’t fully fit either). We just haven’t got the squad depth to be competitive when we’re missing that many players.
I know there are plenty of people on twitter etc who are advocating that Howe should be replaced but in my opinion that would be very harsh given the hand he’s been dealt this season.
Good piece. The PSG away result was not down to our game plan but the misinterpretation of the handball Law by the VAR. Yes we finished bottom but that one result determined how we went about the game at SJP, we should’ve seen it out differently when ahead I agree.
Think Amanda’s “every window” comment was nieve and the reality of PSR/FFP & now related partners sponsorship has laid open the war the cabal will wage to protect their position.
PIF and the Board need to wise up rapidly in order to address the power imbalance within the PL as to who actually runs it. City have benefited from getting in before the door was shut, they could be an ally going forward. Ramayyan can’t bludgeon his way through this if he wants us to achieve that top team position. Its going to require subtle and effective game playing. We need to get other PL members to open their eyes to the harms they will face under the cabals protectionist moves.
On field changes will be slow now and we may well have to be patient as the proverbial saints while the management move on the Ashley era players. They’ve a fine balance to achieve in also holding onto those better players if European football isn’t readily available. We could see several iterations of our teams before its persistently challenging.
Morinho is NOT the answer his ego would destabalise the dressing room and see a higher turnover of key players. Not what we need when moving forward.
We have waited 7 decades to get into a position that resembles the one we saw last season. We have proven we can be patient, our loyalty is beyond doubt. The tic tok/Youtube generation of fans need to understand that. This was never a 30 minute style fix.
Some canny points and some angry points. I feel you forgot that we were, exceptional against psg at yem and completely robbed at psg away.
Nowts apiece at the san siro in wor first game back with the elite wasn’t a bad result in the hardest group stage the comp has ever seen.
We really are snookered by the cartel and like you pointed out t any change will only benefit the cheaters.
But ya kna what? I was on the coach coming back from citeh on Saturday neet and it was a none stop party. I hope that never changes, we are widely excepted as one of the best fan groups on the planet, with without a shadow of a doubt the best party town in the galaxy, tantuine doesn’t come close.
So, let’s get a bigger spoon and start shovelling the shite that’s heading wor way, knowing every dog has his day,
We finished bottom of our CL group. Glad you had a great time at City but you’d have had a better one if we’d not been completely outclassed by a Man City side barely out of second gear. Ta for reading and your comments – greatly appreciated 👍🏁
“none stop party”.
Like many other ‘old timers’ I bet, I trudged away in the pissing rain back to the City centre on Saturday night demoralised once again (and once again I had prepped myself for it, suprised not at all but it didn’t ease the feeling). Could write a whole book on that scenario alone from my 50 years of travelling away.
Cynical i am, it’s like the ‘parties’ that go on on the concourse during the Match, many would rather do that than support/watch the team and many who do watch cheer a ‘midfield maestro’ who we don’t actually know if he is or not.
There are players on the pitch who by all accounts are playing through injury to try to help their team mates and the club but Tonali gets serenaded more.
Anyway back to the main point, party all the way home ? Never. Coach, plane, train, car, van, Mini bus I wouldn’t swap a minute of it but quite frankly I’ve never felt the urge to party ! Something of a generational gap ?
Gut wrenching on occasion, disappointed far far to many times maybe that’s where I’ve went wrong, maybe I’ve taken it all too seriously all these years.
Spot on as usual Mick, it’s a depressing picture though brutally true. Your point about the same issues awaiting any potential new coaching team should give us all (me included) pause for thought. I do think Howe could have managed his resources better at times this season, and shown a bit more flexibility with his tactics and team selection, but he is playing with fairly tough hand. Thanks for the perspective
Agree with all your comments.
However a Newcastle United captain might very well be lifting a cup over HER head on Saturday and almost certainly will be lifting the league champions trophy in a couple of weeks.
Not everything in Black & White is negative…
Howay the Lasses!
Bloody hell Michael brutal but so true
They say patience is a virtue and we have had 70 years of it , but yeah do think when the owners came in with their financial /corporate savvy might we might be more in the race , was really shocked that no new training facilities had been built or planned yet , with the all the sponsorship we could get for that I would have thought That would be top priority, ah well onwards we go as we say shy bairns get nowt
Perfectly valid points raised, here. Thanks for a typically enjoyable rant
Great read and absolutely on the money.
What should have been the most enjoyable season in recent memory has turned into an all too familiar nightmare.
The most disappointing aspect of it all for me is the change in public relations.
We no longer hear from the senior management in the way we did in the period following the takeover. This has led to ‘in-fighting’ in the ranks, as none of us know, as Mick rightly states, now have a clue what the short, medium, long term plans are.
Off the field, the many justified complaints and concerns regarding memberships, ballots, ticket resales, ‘dud’ away tickets etc have heightened stress and bickering amongst fans.
The Club has to go back to being open and transparent.
Will that happen? Being a cynical old sod of similar age and time following NUFC to Mick, I’m not holding my breath.