I have noticed the odd Newcastle United fan saying they can’t wait for this season to end.
I also saw a journalist last week had written; ‘Can Newcastle United salvage something from this season?’
I find both of these…interesting.
Clearly others are seeing this 2025/26 season through very different eyes to mine.
As a Newcastle United fan, it has of course been frustrating at times these past six months. However, at the same time, there have been so many highs.
I think ‘rollercoaster’ would be a decent description of what we have experienced so far, these 43 NUFC matches.
I believe that for some other fans, when Newcastle United are playing well and/or winning matches this season, they aren’t feeling the same high that myself and others are experiencing. Whereas when United haven’t played well and/or losing games, the lows they are feeling are far more extreme than myself.
Yes kids, if you are going to do drugs, be very careful when your drug of choice is Newcastle United.
In these last 12 months I stood inside Wembley alongside tens of thousands of you and saw our club/team win a trophy, then followed that Carabao Cup final up by winning the next five Premier League matches in a row (six if you include the win at West Ham before Wembley) that effectively delivered Eddie Howe and his players a second Champions League qualification in three years.
After a couple of tough years of PSR meaning not a single new first team contender was signed and indeed forced to sell two of NUFC’s most promising young players (plus the likes of Almiron and Kelly also leaving), summer 2025 was the point where Newcastle United had recovered to a far better position with regards to PSR and could sign first team contenders once again. So many positions in the team desperately needing to be strengthened, due to that (lack of) incoming transfer activity of recent windows.
I won’t bore you by going over the same old stuff but we all know summer 2025 went anything but smoothly. Eddie Howe did eventually get six signings, five of them permanent, but only one of the six had a pre-season with their new Newcastle United teammates. Indeed, it was September before the two strikers were finally in place to fill the boots of Wilson and Isak AND then the Premier League ready one of the pair got a long-term injury before kicking a ball for United.
With no chance for the newly formed Newcastle United squad to properly prepare for the new season, Eddie Howe and everybody else of a black and white persuasion had to then jump on that rollercoaster of matches every midweek as well as weekends, without being able to get off, apart from ‘breaks’ for internationals.
I think that after those highs, still within the last 12 months, of a trophy won and Champions League qualification once again, for many a Newcastle United fan it appears to be that every defeat is seen as a disaster and any win not really appreciated properly. In the heads of some supporters, I believe they think that having reached those levels Eddie Howe has taken us to in recent years, then falling below those levels is totally unacceptable and impossible to comprehend.
The fact is that Newcastle United still only have the eighth highest wage bill in the Premier League and that is a far better guide to the pecking order of which clubs are financially the strongest when it comes to competing in the transfer market.
Liverpool paying Alexander Isak £16m+ a year (£300,000 a week), Man City paying Marc Guehi £16m+ and so on, these players desperate to get double the wages of what any Newcastle United player gets. Taking a step back and forgetting you are a Newcastle United fan for a moment, if you heard of anybody offered double their current wages then you wouldn’t be surprised if they moved jobs….
For those Newcastle United fans who only see disappointment this season so far, or at least that as their overwhelming feeling, I think it is a case of that they now view NUFC as an elite boxer who should never lose a fight.
Whereas I still see us very much as a streetfighter, where every major victory is pretty much against the odds and can only be achieved by cunning and stealth, against more powerful opponents. It is inevitable for me that Newcastle United are not going to win every fight. However, I am confident that we go into every match still swinging, Eddie Howe and his players doing everything they can to get yet another knockout.
We haven’t even reached March and Newcastle United have already won 20 football matches this season. They have also lost 15 of the 43 played so far. Who knows what could have happened otherwise, if Isak hadn’t decided to force his way out, if the summer 2025 signings had been made as quickly as possible as Eddie Howe had asked the club to do, if Newcastle United hadn’t lost more days to injury than any other Premier League club.
What I would guess is that if last summer had gone smoothly, then instead of won 20 and lost 15, it is fair to think we could well have at least seen 25 wins so far and 10 defeats, as a minimum.
However, Eddie Howe got the hand he was dealt and he has just cracked on with it.
Following up that trophy win and Champions League qualification, these last 12 months have now also brought another Carabao Cup semi-final (a third in four years), all but guaranteed a place in the last 16 of he Champions League, whilst win at home against Manchester City (as NUFC did three month ago at SJP) and we are one win from a Wembley FA Cup semi-final. Yes, the league position is disappointing, I hear you, however, with that 6-1 Qarabag first leg scoreline, that means Eddie Howe can far better attack these next two Premier League games within a few days of each other, six point against Everton and Man U and the beginnings of a late run can be in place.
Regardless, I have already seen my team win 20 matches, I have seen them score 76 goals this season so far. These last 12 months as a Newcastle United fan I have seen my team defeat at least once: Liverpool, Manchester City, Spurs, Chelsea, Manchester United (and Arsenal if you extend that by a few weeks…), Benfica, PSV, Union S-G, Qarabag FK, Athletic Club.
We are still in there fighting and I tell you…this season could yet be a spectacular one.
Whatever happens, just enjoy and appreciate this journey we are on with Eddie Howe and this group of players.