All is not well with our club and the Newcastle United fanbase lately.
This season has been a roller coaster ride with peaks of excitement in the cups, contrasting with troughs of despair in the league, culminating in what seems to have become traditional capitulation to our Wearyside neighbours.
There is no way to dress up that loss in any sort of positive terms.
Yes, we lost our world class striker last summer, yes again, Newcastle United have played lots more games than Sunderland this season, and yes once more, we’ve suffered due to injuries to key personnel.
But Newcastle United also spent record sums on player replacements and additions last summer, have a squad that could be rotated more than it was previously in order to rest individual players, while coping with injury is something every team has to put up with. Sunderland were missing some important players themselves at the weekend – none more so, probably, than Dan Ballard.
So, no excuses on the day – but what has gone wrong and what is the explanation for the mood amongst some of our supporters – and their support for both Eddie Howe and the Newcastle United owners – to have soured to such an extent? As Shakespeare almost said, “Something is rotten in the state of Geordieland”!
First and foremost, things have been driven to the extreme for many people by Sunday’s loss.
Yet another defeat to a team hastily augmented for Premier League action last summer with bargain basement signings of, principally, unknown African players.
A team that cost a fraction of our own was once again able to raise its game and show the passion and strength of character necessary to beat us in our own backyard.
How is this possible?
Is it the managers?
Was Reggie Le Cheese able to motivate his players where Nice Guy Eddie wasn’t? I don’t think it’s as simple as that.
I’ve watched Sunderland a fair bit this season and, to me, they didn’t play any differently last Sunday. Their whole game is based around passion and commitment. Every player runs like the Duracell Bunny and gets stuck in. None more so than their beast up top, Mr Brobbey. He must give defenders nightmares with his strength and aggression. I wouldn’t say he has the same class but he does remind me of Didier Drogba in the way he bullies defences.
I’ve obviously watched every one of our games this season and I have to say that we didn’t play any differently on Sunday either. We looked confident in possession in the first half, took the lead (albeit courtesy of a bad mistake by O’Nien and a great finish by Anthony Gordon) and looked odds on to sew things up nicely. However, the second half was underwhelming to say the least and it was no surprise when we not only lost the lead but surrendered the match with some lamentable defending from a set-piece. An all too familiar pattern this season.
For me, the difference isn’t so much what the managers could motivate their players to do on the day but what materials they had to work with and the demands placed upon them. Sunderland had one clear objective this season – stay in the Premier League. Everything else is secondary, background noise. For United, though, things were more complex. We were the Carabao Cup holders, we were in the Champions League again, with its associated riches, and were expected to aim for qualification for that competition at the end of the current season. The FA Cup was another exciting adventure.
So, it was Eddie’s decision to give every cup competition serious consideration. Every game saw a team of senior players that was selected with the serious intention of winning the tie. However, the end result of our determination to give the cups full respect is that our squad has played more games than any other club in the top European leagues and, worse than that, key players have had to play week in and week out.
Yes, we had injuries to cope with but the manager made decisions game after game not to use our young reserves like Neave, Shahar and Murphy. Is this really because they’re not good enough or is it a stubborn reluctance by Eddie to trust youngsters, to insist on Premier League experience above all else? How will young players ever graduate to the first team if that’s the case. I mean, it didn’t work out so badly with Lewis Miley, did it?
It’s not just youngsters that Eddie has been reluctant to use. Our £56 million centre forward has been rather conspicuous by his absence in recent weeks. We lament the fact that we lost our centre forward to Liverpool in the summer yet we handed over a fortune to Brentford for one. Why isn’t he playing? Is he still unfit? Is he, as I’ve seen alleged recently, too limited cerebrally to understand and follow the game plan? Does our lack of a Brobbey-type battering ram mean that his game is just not suited to Eddie’s tactics? Has a lack of training time, due to all the extra cup matches, made it impossible to integrate him into the team?
Whatever the explanation, it looks as though his purchase has been a bit of a waste of money as far as this season is concerned. In fairness, a similar accusation could be levelled at the recruitment of our German Giant, Nick Woltemade. Another player who needs a pre-season to, hopefully, define and refine his role in the team (or find a new club at an acceptable price!).
Whose fault is this situation where we’ve paid record sums for players that don’t fit our system and the manager is struggling to utilise? We’re told that Eddie had total control over recruitment last summer so, presumably, it must be his fault.
As in many situations in life, nothing is so simple. Eddie put forward his wish list (and no doubt has an absolute right to veto, as Rafa did in days gone by) but it is surely then down to the Directors to set the budget and carry out the negotiations. The same must go for the renewal of existing contracts. Last summer’s recruitment/retention landscape was totally overshadowed by the painful and protracted desertion of our Swedish rat to Liverpool and by the constant gazumping we suffered at the hands of the usual septic suspects who don’t need to worry their heads about mundane matters such as PSR.
If Eddie Howe had got his first choices we’d be lining up with the likes of Ekitike and João Pedro up front and – if things had been handled properly the previous year – Mark Guehi at the back. On both sides of the recruitment/retention coin, Eddie has been badly let down by the club hierarchy – again. Don’t forget, he had to watch our two most talented young players, Elliot Anderson and Yakuba Minteh, leave the club due to PSR issues.
Instead of having top quality recruits ready for bedding in with a good pre-season, he was scrabbling around with 5th/6th choices just before the window closed. Not what he wanted and publicly called for at the end of last season. It’s no good saying he should have lowered his sights and gone shopping in the same African bargain basement as Sunderland when he was preparing a Carabao Cup defence and a tilt at the Champions League.
The hierarchy were telling him that they were shopping at Harrods. The negotiation team were either selling pipe dreams to start with or just not up to the job. They ended up paying way over the odds for a man with one great season under his belt and very limited resale value and a young lad who doesn’t know if he’s a 9 or a 10. It was either that or nothing at that stage.
In that context, I don’t think Eddie shows up badly at all. Thiaw has always had the odd mistake in his locker but he’s a genuine contender for Player of the Season.
Ramsey was cruelly hampered by injury (thanks, Mr Longstaff!) but is now showing that he has real quality. Ramsdale is giving Pope a run for his place. Elanga was mustard for Forest last season and was signed when we still had a real centre forward on the books. Wissa had had a great season, scoring the most goals for a non penalty-taker. Woltemade had had an excellent run in the U21 Euros, being one of the candidates for player of the tournament. I don’t recall too many people being very critical of those signings as they happened.
Those lads may come good in the fullness of time, or they may turn out to be duds. All managers and all clubs sign duds but it’s far more likely to happen if they’re desperately playing catch-up ahead of an impending cut-off point.
The real culprits in this scenario are the bean counters at head office who, despite Eddie’s plea for early action in the transfer market allowed us to be without both a CEO and a DOF at a crucial time, dithered over the Isak saga and acted too slowly and decisively to head off the “Big 6” gazumpers.
We now have the relevant execs in place, ready to work with Eddie Howe for the first time in the summer transfer window. I believe that Eddie has earned the right to set us up for another season BUT he has to learn from this season, particularly in terms of rotating players, trusting youth a little more and prioritising competitions. Even more importantly, the Powers That Be need to provide him with the tools and conditions to get on with his work in a timely fashion.