A big match for Newcastle United boss Matthias Jaissle at Crystal Palace today.
There again, it feels like every game is a huge one for the Head Coach.
If Matthias Jaissle had been wondering how intense it is to manager in the Premier League, especially at a club such as Newcastle United, then he certainly knows by now!
As well as insisting on United paying the full £9.5m release clause compensation, Al-Ahli then further delayed the impending NUFC appointment by not providing the necessary paperwork in a timely fashion.
As a result Matthias Jaissle started work with Newcastle United on Wednesday 5 August 2026, precisely 18 days before the new Premier League season kicked off for us against Liverpool.
All of the other 19 Premier League clubs already had their Head Coach/Manager in place, almost all of the rest having a full pre-season to prepare their squads for the 2026-27 campaign. Looking back, the 19th Premier League club to appoint their manager for this season was Fulham, when on 7 July 2026 they put Alvaro Arbeloa in charge at Craven Cottage, more than four weeks before Newcastle United made their appointment.
Newcastle United have so far played nine matches and won four, drawn two and lost three.
I know this might sound a totally radical suggestion to some Newcastle United fans but…what about giving Matthias Jaissle a bit of a chance?
Whilst you are on, maybe give the likes of Matias Fernandez-Pardo a bit of a chance as well?
I think for some Newcastle United fans it has become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy when it comes to the new Head Coach and many of the summer signings. Unwilling to give them a chance, these Newcastle United fans now desperate to have themselves proved correct with their snap judgements.
Matias Fernandez-Pardo and other young inexperienced signings need to be given time. MFP has been thrown in at the deep end, due to so many injuries he has had to start a recent run of matches rather than Matthias Jaissle able to phase him in gradually. For MFP the 2025-26 season was his big breakthrough one where he excelled in Ligue 1 and that also led to him getting called up just in time to be at the 2026 World Cup finals with Belgium. Ligue 1 though is the weakest of the five major European leagues and a huge step up to the Premier League, especially for such a young and inexperienced attacking player. He needs time to adjust and with such electric pace and skill set (if you watch what he did last season in France), MFP can come good, even great maybe, if we give him the chance!
Some Newcastle United fans would have happily seen Matthias Jaissle sacked before this Crystal Palace match today. Honestly, we’d be an absolute laughing stock. The media and rival fans would have got exactly what they wanted. Newcastle United sacking a Head Coach before giving him a proper chance and set to become a Spurs or Forest with three or four managers in a season.
You look back at when Kevin Keegan came back to save us for a third time on 16 January 2008. That night he watched from the Milburn Stand as Newcastle won 4-1 in an FA Cup third round replay against Stoke.
The next day he started work and under KK, Newcastle United won none of his first nine games, six defeats and three losses. Kevin Keegan ended up getting things sorted and a seven match unbeaten run of four wins and three draws. We stayed behind him because we trusted him.
When Eddie Howe took over on 8 November 2021, his first ten matches only brought one win. We trusted him because he’d done an unbelievable job taking Bournemouth from the brink of non-league all the way through to the Premier League, plus we understood he needed time with the situation he had inherited, most of all he was the choice of the new Newcastle United owners and so were more than prepared to give him our support as we looked to move on from the miserable existence under Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce.
Matthias Jaissle was the choice of these same Newcastle United owners but times have changed.
Eddie Howe delivered staggering success against all odds and now that era is over. A tough, maybe impossible act to follow, though let’s hope not.
Matthias Jaissle did wonders in such a short space of time, excellent performances against Liverpool and Tottenham in the opening week of the season. Alex Scott was outstanding as Bournemouth high pressed and suffocated United in the first half, fortunate to only go in 2-1 down at the break, though the Cherries couldn’t sustain that and by the end of the second half Newcastle deserved their 2-2 draw.
Photo by The Mag
Two hard fought wins as well in the Carabao Cup against a couple of Championship teams to take us into the last 16.
The Leeds match was where things got tough, the worrying injury list became a nightmare one as ahead of kick-off we found out that Elanga and Ramsey had been added, then Gonzalez concussed in the opening minutes. A physical Leeds side overwhelmed Newcastle that night in the first half as small NUFC squad hit by so many injuries and with so many young inexperienced new signings, Jaissle’s side were well beaten.
With Schar the only one of the eight outfield subs to have ever started an NUFC Premier League match and five of them never having played a single minute of first team football, despite nine injured players missing Newcastle became the first team to take all three Premier League points off Hull. United dominated for just over an hour, 2-0 up and should have been more, the likes of Steur and then MFP got cramp and had to be subbed and Newcastle had to battle to hang on to an eventual 2-1 win.
In the international break Newcastle United fans have said Matthias Jaissle had the time to sort his team and squad out. Reality was that all but a handful of his first team squad were injured or on international duty and only the Friday before Coventry was he able to have the full squad training that would be on duty for that Monday match. Only Gonzalez of the nine injured was able to start and Newcastle didn’t play that well, but still dominated the match and created many more chances than the opposition, only poor finishing and gifting Coventry goals with individual mistakes shaped that defeat.
Last weekend Villa gave a similar first half run around as Bournemouth did at St James’ Park and then despite edging the second half, United didn’t have enough quality and composure to get the equaliser. Only a half fit Joelinton had recovered enough to start and couldn’t really do himself justice. After the win at Newcastle, Villa have gone on to make it three wins out of three in the Champions League and then defeated Manchester City.
Matthias Jaissle had had to do without the physical presence and leadership of Burn and Joelinton this season, then look back at the opening games and the likes of Osula, Dedic and Elanga excelled before very quickly picking up injuries. Then you had the other injuries on top of that, likes of Ramsey, Tino and so on. It is only now that hopefully United are getting a matchday squad together that offers some options for the starting eleven and will give us a credible bench to call on.
Give Matthias Jaissle the chance to get players on the pitch and a run of matches, that should be the bare minimum he deserves.