It is now eleven days since the Newcastle United players and Eddie Howe signed off the end of the 2025/26 Premier League season.
All 58 games of it.
A 2025/26 season that had so many talking points but so few easy answers.
Unless that is you are one of the Newcastle United fans who is happy to put the whole thing down to Eddie Howe losing the plot, or solely down to the summer 2025 signings, or a combination of these two things.
I actually think that when it comes to the other competitions, the Champions League and two domestic cups, Newcastle United performed well overall. You always hope to win things but I find it strange how anybody would look at getting to the knockout stages of the Champions League, reaching the semi-final of the Carabao Cup, plus the fifth round of the FA Cup (defeating two clubs that would end the season top six in the league) and not see this as credible at the very least.
The Premier League was of course a different matter. To pick up 17 points less than the 2024/25 season and fall seven places in the table, you absolutely need to look at what has gone wrong.
Eddie Howe and the six signings made in summer 2025 have to be a significant part of that conversation BUT far more than was another factor, in my opinion. The Newcastle United players who had been responsible for the 2024/25 campaign, what the majority of Newcastle United fans seemed to think was the greatest season they had ever lived through. A trophy at long last AND a second Champions League qualification in three seasons.
In my opinion, by far the biggest factor that led to Newcastle United falling away so badly in the Premier League in the 2025/26 season was the fact that we got so much less from those who had been on the club’s books the previous season.
The most obvious one of course is Alexander Isak. NUFC have got nothing out of him in the last 12 months other than a huge headache and £130m. Other 2024/25 Newcastle United players also left in summer 2025. Martin Dubravka had made 10 Premier League starts in 24/25, Sean Longstaff eight PL starts, Callum Wilson two PL starts and no goals, Matt Targett zero PL starts.
I wanted though to focus on the Newcastle United players who still remained at St James’ Park after the end of that excellent 2024/25 season.
The case for the defence
I think a lot of the problems Newcastle United experienced in 2025/26 had been coming for a while. I think it was a miracle what was achieved in the 2024/25 season. Quite incredible that Champions League qualification and a trophy were achieved when you take into account three transfer windows in a row (January 2024, summer 2024, January 2025) saw not a single first team contender signed AND on top of that the PSR forced sales of Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh.
Somehow, the Newcastle United players who we were left with for the 2024/25 season, they came together and as a group performed that miracle we all witnessed. I think Eddie Howe got the proverbial 110% of that squad of players and it was always going to be impossible to get the same again out of many of them as individuals, or as a group.
I mention ‘The case for the defence’, the pinnacle of this was back in 2022/23 for these five players I am thinking of.
Back in 2022/23, Newcastle United only conceded 33 Premier League goals, the same as champions Manchester City. Our back five were immaculate. Of the 38 Premier League matches, Pope started 37, Trippier 38, Schar 36, Botman 35 and Burn 35.
The truth is that by 2025/26 we had seen age and/or injuries take their toll.
I am a big fan of Nick Pope but even I have to admit he isn’t as good as he was, Trippier turns 36 this year and ended up getting asked to play twice a week for far too long as injuries demanded it, Schar ended up missing half the season through injury, Burn had injuries, Botman had injuries. Certainly none of the five were capable of giving what they gave in 2022/23, nor indeed in 2024/25. Sven Botman late last season showed something like his best form for a number of games and gives hope he might be able to do so consistently again, hopefully. However, reality is that Burn, Schar and Pope won’t be able to, they all had their moments last season but they aren’t the levels they once were.
In 2024/25 Jacob Murphy had his ‘Miguel Almiron’ season and was never going to be able to reproduce that in 2025/26. Easy as well to forget that young Murphy is now in his 30s.
Tino Livramento only managed 14 Premier League starts in 2025/26 due to injuries. On the other side of the pitch Lewis Hall had some injury issues as well and started 24 PL matches, though in the end I think far too many matches across all competitions saw him not able to perform quite as consistently as 2024/25.
Bruno Guimaraes was probably the stand out who WAS able to perform as well in 2025/26 as 2024/25. However, he did pick up his first ever bad injury of his NUFC career.
I think Sandro Tonali had a good 2024/25 but probably like Lewis Hall had far too much asked of him, especially when Bruno was missing.
Joelinton is capable of doing what he previously did BUT just not as consistently, as we found out in 2024/25. Injuries have taken their toll on him.
Anthony Gordon and Harvey Barnes registered 17 and 16 goals respectively in 2025/26 across all competitions. Reality though that overall Gordon not as effective as in 2024/25 in the Premier League. For Barnes the feeling remains that maybe you get more out of him off the bench and that reflected in 19 PL starts in 2025/26 and 18 PL appearances off the bench (in 2024/25 that was 17+16).
Joe Willock maybe gave a little more in 2025/26 than 2024/25 in the Premier League but it still wasn’t a great deal.
Indeed, the one player who gave significantly more in 2025/26 compared to 2024/25 was William Osula. Can his late season form and goals continue…?
In summary, I think by the end of the 2024/25 season the writing was on the wall. That Newcastle United team and squad was always going to be going into some kind of decline compared to that stellar season.
Other factors have then also contributed to that 12th place position of the 2025/26 season but last season was always going to be a huge challenge, maybe an impossible one in the circumstances.