A certain phrase keeps popping into my head.
It is triggered by what I am hearing more and more from a certain section of Newcastle United fans.
Those who are saying they can’t wait for the season to end, going on like this has been the worst season they have ever experienced.
The phrase that keeps popping into my head is…what if this is as good as it gets?
With the Newcastle United fans that I am talking about, my understanding is that they have an absolute belief that things couldn’t possibly get worse than this. A belief that Newcastle United are suddenly an all powerful club and that this season has been an inexplicable failure, that this is rock bottom and things can only get better.
The truth is, Eddie Howe has warped their brains.
The success he has delivered in these last four and a half years has been astonishing, it has been against all odds.
The six entrenched richest and most powerful Premier League clubs have so many advantages over Newcastle United, built up over so many years.
They can pay far bigger wages (Newcastle United still only eighth highest behind Villa and the usual half dozen), they have more expensively assembled squads (both transfer fees and in terms of wages), long established successful youth recruitment, own other clubs and so on.
For Eddie Howe to have done what he has, to outperform Newcastle United’s true status, has been incredible. If United had regularly ended up eighth in the Premier League in recent seasons and got to a couple of domestic cup quarter-finals, maybe a run in the Europa Conference League, that would have been hitting expectations.
Yes, I know Newcastle United are currently in mid-table but as we all know, there are significant mitigating factors feeding into that, having played more matches than any other club in the five big European Leagues and NUFC hit the most of any Premier League club by injuries this campaign.
Yet…
Yet despite all of this, I have already seen Newcastle United win 22 matches this season and there are at least another 11 games to go. How many seasons in the past have I seen United win so many times?
I am of course not claiming this season has been perfect but as detailed above, there are huge factors that have impacted. That is without even going into the shambles of last summer, thanks to Alexander Isak and the Newcastle United owners.
I have even seen people on The Mag saying that they can’t wait for the season to end, this is at a point when we are set to play Barcelona for a place in the last eight of the Champions League. Yet these Newcastle United fans going on like the season is all a disaster, talk about entitlement!
Only once before have Newcastle United ever reached the last 16 of the Champions League, that was 23 years ago (2003).
Before Eddie Howe came along, Newcastle United had only ever reached the semi-finals of the League Cup on one occasion (1976). Yet this season Eddie Howe made it three League Cup semis in four seasons, including then proceeding to two finals (and winning one!).
Like the League Cup this season, Man City have also ended our hopes in the FA Cup. Even then though, how many times in the last couple of decades before Eddie Howe, did we even reach the fifth round of this competition???
There is a lot to be said about enjoying the journey, it is not just about the destination.
If you can’t enjoy Newcastle United winning more games than they lose, maybe you should just give it all up.
As well as the frustrations in other games, I have loved loads of the matches this season, including six victories in the Champions League…so far.
It is also very fresh in my mind that within these last 12 months I was inside Wembley on 16 March 2025, as well as the Premier League run that followed which carried NUFC to a second Champions League qualification in three seasons AND of course is why we can now be facing Barcelona for a place in the Champions League quarter-finals!!
Enjoy it while it is here, you don’t know what is around the corner.