Newcastle United fans preparing for the 2026/27 Premier League season.
Less than three weeks to go now until Liverpool travel to St James’ Park.
An ‘interesting’ summer so far…
So many talking points.
An ideal time to get a snapshot of views from Newcastle United fans on their thoughts.
So we sent out questions to a number of regular/irregular contributors to The Mag, varying to a degree the questions that different fans received to answer.
Next up answering some questions is Mark Jankwski:
Three words to describe how you currently feel as a Newcastle United fan?
Frustrated, dejected, concerned
Three words to describe Newcastle United now?
At a crossroads
How would you rate your optimism for next season at Newcastle United from 0-100?
Currently 10. This may change depending on how they replace Bruno. Up until the confirmation of our captain’s departure, I was actually relatively optimistic about our transfer business this summer. I always expected Tonali to leave, although not to Tottenham, and was expecting Gordon to also depart. We’ve replaced both with some promising young players. I expect Lewis Miley to step into Tonali’s place within the starting lineup but, with no Bruno to lead this team, I fear the pressure will be too much for these young men.
There are only two players that I deem suitable to replace our captain, those are Morgan Gibbs-White and Adam Wharton. Both would be incredibly expensive signings so I am utterly devastated that we let Bruno leave so cheaply. Some people may scoff at Newcastle signing either of those players but as we’ve seen over the past 12 months there are levels of different clubs and regardless of last season’s struggles Newcastle are comfortably bigger and more appealing than Forest and Palace.
Do you see it as good news or bad news that Eddie Howe resigned?
I don’t think it can ever be good news when your manager resigns three weeks from the start of a season.
I was very prepared to see Eddie Howe continuing the role this season, although I would definitely acknowledge he was on his last legs with regards to the patience of many fans. I’m disappointed he’s gone but not devastated as there were some clear deficiencies and downturns in some of his decisions last season.
Hand on heart, what position do you currently believe Newcastle United are most likely to finish in the 2026/27 Premier League season?
Given the news that the club have just agreed to sell Bruno, I really fear for our league performance this season. I would snap your hand off for 10th place right now but fear unless we replace Bruno adequately, we could be fighting to keep ourselves out of the relegation battle.
If Eddie Howe had stayed would your 2026/27 prediction have been different (up or down…)?
My prediction wouldn’t be any different given the fact the new manager has no experience in a top league.
Who do you think would be best choice of NUFC captain?
I’m really not sure who the best choice would be. Logic says someone like Dan Burn who clearly cares a lot about the club. But if the team are playing Dan Burn week in week out this year, we’re in big trouble. Harvey Barnes has spoken well in preseason and is likely to start the season as first choice in his position so he may be a valid contender, but I don’t see him as a long-term choice.
The opening six league games are Liverpool home, Spurs away, Bournemouth home, Leeds away, Hull home and Coventry away. How many points would Newcastle need to take for you to be happy and what would you predict will be the reality?
I’d be happy with 12 but in reality I think we’d do very well to get seven.
With so much change, how do you currently feel when it comes to balancing fears of the end of a relatively successful era and hopes of the dawning of the chance of a new successful different era? (So if you have 100% fears and 0% hopes that would be 100/0, if feeling 60% fear and 40% hope then 60/40)
Until we know who will replace Bruno it’s 70/30
Anthony Gordon leaving, your thoughts?
I wasn’t surprised to see him go. The interview he conducted with Gary Neville a couple of years ago gave an indication into the kind of ambition that he holds. It was clear that he wasn’t going to be able to immediately achieve this at Newcastle United over the past 12 months and it was definitely the right time for the club to cash in and Gordon to seek pastures new.
By say Christmas and with all players fit, what do you predict will be the Newcastle United first choice eleven for the 2026/27 season and please put ‘new signing’ in any position where you think that will turn out to be the case.
Probably a 4-2-3-1
Hornicek
Livramento, Thiaw, Botman, Hall
Miley, New signing
Elanga, Woltemade, Barnes
Wissa
What do you now see as the minimum Newcastle United need to achieve this coming season?
Not getting relegated and trying to stay well clear of any of that business.
Predict the top six in the Premier League (in order) and which three clubs will be relegated in 2026/27.
I’ll do my full breakdown soon but as a quick one.
1 Arsenal
2 Man City
3 Chelsea
4 Liverpool
5 Man U
6 Spurs
18 Coventry
19 Ipswich
20 Hull
I’m not convinced by Spurs or Man U so they could very easily be lower. I think Arsenal will win by some distance. No one is even close to them now they’ve stolen Bruno from us.
Which eight current Newcastle United players (in order) are going to be most important for the 2026/27 season?
Whoever replaces Bruno
Hornicek
Thiaw
Hall
Livramento
Botman
Barnes
Wissa
I’ve gone for mostly defenders because unless they get the top one right we’re going to get battered every game. We’ll probably need Wissa and Barnes to hit double figures if we’re to avoid trouble as they’re our most natural goalscorers.
NUFC CEO David Hopkinson said the intention is that by 2030 the club will be competing to win all competitions. What do you make of what he said?
I was at the supporter event where Hopkinson doubled down on these claims, and for me it is exactly the kind of target the club should be setting itself. However, given the utterly devastating last 12 months from a transfer perspective, it’s difficult to see if this target can be realised.
How important (or not) is a huge new stadium for Newcastle United?
It’s absolutely essential if we ever want to be amongst the top clubs in the country. Spurs’ activity this summer has proven that a revenue generating stadium is an absolute game changer.
When the takeover happened on 7 October 2021, if somebody at that point had told you then what would happen by August 2026, would you have taken it?
Yes because we were sleepwalking to irrelevance. We’re not far from where we started at this point in time but we have two Champions League campaigns and a trophy to show for our efforts so it wasn’t all for nothing.
Did England have a successful 2026 World Cup finals?
Absolutely. There’s obviously a sense of disappointment because we went out to what I felt was a decidedly average Argentina team but, I never imagined we’d make it to the Semi Final this World Cup.
Bruno Guimaraes wanting to leave Newcastle United after four and a half years, has that changed your opinion of him as a person?
No not really. It seems to me that Brazil’s disappointing exit from the World cup gave Bruno a realisation that his time at the top level is fleeting and giving the current state of Newcastle’s squad, he was unlikely to achieve any material success while still at the club.
I don’t begrudge his desire to leave but, I am very disappointed at the club having allowed him to go at this moment as I feel it sets us back significantly. He would have still been a valuable asset in 12 months time. I just don’t understand why we couldn’t have been firm like Forest were with Morgan Gibbs-White last summer. We now have a large number of young highly talented players but no one to lead them.
Claimed back in October 2021 that Newcastle United was simply a ‘Sportswashing’ project for Saudi Arabia, has that proved to be the reality?
If that was ever the intention of the PIF, it certainly hasn’t been the reality.
Who would you have liked to see replace Eddie Howe, Matthias Jaissle or somebody else?
There were an unprecedented number of promising managers available this summer. The very late departure of Eddie Howe has left us in a position where all of those options were off of the table. Newcastle are never going to attract Pep Guardiola so I’m not really sure who else we could have targeted to take over from Eddie Howe. The club seems to have done some homework on Jaissle so we will just have to hope that they have done that well.