January 11, 2024. A dark and damp Thursday. The day that dreams turned to reality for Newcastle United. The music did not die, but the record changed.
‘Every player has their price’ screamed the headlines, and the horror was felt as much in the dressing-room as it was the terraces. The mood has not been the same since at St James’ Park.
Senior players were ‘p****d off’ by the admission of chief executive Darren Eales that, if the money was right, any one of them could be sold. Eales, on reflection, was being honest. It was intended to soften the landing of a summer scramble to sell stars and so avoid a points deduction which, privately, the club knew was down the track.
But it was not meant to be like that, or so we thought. The hierarchal declarations of ambition, Champions League football and club-record signings had us believe otherwise. This was a journey in the fast lane and no one was wearing a seatbelt. So, when Eales applied the handbrake, it hurt.
From nowhere, Newcastle were a selling club once more. Spend made way for spent and, in two transfer windows since, they have not bought a single first-team starter. Why? Profit and Sustainability Rules were offered as the reason on that fateful January afternoon, when Eales addressed journalists from the boardroom.
PSR is one factor – a very big one – but there is also a shortcoming on the club’s part to sell the right players at the right time, as well as generate more sponsorship and commercial revenue. There is still no training ground or training kit partner, for example.
The mood this year at Newcastle has not been the same as it was when they were taken over
There were declarations of ambition, Champions League football and club-record signings
But the Magpies became a selling club once more, largely due to Profit and Sustainability Rules
No matter the cause, the effect has been a destabilising of squad morale and doubt over the speed and direction of the project, at least in the short-term. A player’s career is precious and fleeting and up to half a dozen now see their future away from Tyneside, if personal ambitions are to be achieved.
The summer removal of co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi has robbed the dressing room of its comfort blanket and connection to the hierarchy, while sections of the squad did not take kindly to the introductory gambits of new sporting director Paul Mitchell.
They were not impressed, either, by the travel conditions and itinerary during a week-long post-season trip to Australia. To them, it felt like a lack of care, especially as Tottenham flew in and out for one game on a luxury liner. A subsequent pre-season camp in Japan was described by some as, ‘too hot, a waste of time’.
And nor has it helped that, in recent months, communication from above has gone quiet – the players feel that speaks volumes. All of this picks at the threads of a club that had seemed so unbreakably woven.
That is the reality, suspended until this year by the fever dream of the Saudi takeover, Eddie Howe’s magic, Alexander Isak’s goals, a Carabao Cup final, smashing Paris Saint-Germain, glitzy documentaries and £450million invested in new players.
Newcastle were shooting for the Moon and fuelling the rocket still further was talk of a new stadium and training ground. Today, those developments seem lightyears away, at least in the context of the current squad’s lifespan. As Kevin Keegan once said: ‘It’s not how it looked in the brochure.’
The likes of Isak, Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimaraes will almost certainly never play in a new stadium or revamped St James’, or kick a ball at a new training ground. They know that now.
We revealed last month that the current training complex is again set to be extended, but it is still sub-standard in the extreme compared to their rivals. As one observer quipped: ‘It’s starting to feel like Legoland!’
CEO Darren Eales ‘p****d off’ senior players when he said that any of them could be sold
The likes of Bruno Guimaraes will almost certainly never play in a new or revamped stadium
Howe is dealing with the fallout of all of that. If confidence and the feeling of being part of an era-defining adventure can inspire a group to outperform the sum of their parts, the opposite is true when you realise it was not a pot of gold on the horizon, but a mirage. This is what we are seeing at Newcastle this season.
Well-placed sources are convinced that the players are still giving everything they did previously, and the method and means remain the same as those upon which the success of recent seasons has been built. There has been no erosion of faith in each other or the manager. But when marginal gains drift towards marginal losses, the difference in results is vast.
It was Howe who used the word ‘stale’ in response to my question last week, which had put to him that he and the team needed and were owed some help by the club in the form of new faces. It was a big word to introduce to the room – he did it twice – but it absolutely lies at the heart of the issues that see this talented side with England’s best coach stuck in 12th position.
There is little surprise they look like the Newcastle who stormed through the Premier League when they face the bigger teams, when the occasion inspires and demands a performance. At St James’ this season, they have beaten Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal and drawn with Manchester City and Liverpool. They have lost to Brighton and West Ham.
During a recent podcast with Mail Sport columnist Simon Jordan, Howe said: ‘There was a desire to make history, to change the club’s fortunes forever. That really did drive the players. It was an unbelievable time. We surprised ourselves with what we were doing. The players were performing above the level really of what they were capable of playing.’
He was, in fact, talking about Bournemouth. Yet his words rang so true for the motivation during his first two years on Tyneside. But as Alan Shearer said this week: ‘the adrenaline rush has given way to a hangover.’
Howe did talk specifically about Newcastle when I asked him on Friday what impact all of the above has had on his group. He paused and gave an insightful answer.
‘Players are very astute human beings,’ he began. ‘I always say players feel everything at a football club. They are the most perceptive people because they are on the frontline. They are the ones delivering for us. So whatever is going on at a club, they’re the ones absorbing it.’
And what of Howe and his future? He is the right manager but must navigate what feels increasingly like the wrong moment no matter who was in charge. Replace him and you do not change the situation with regards PSR or the misgivings of some players. He should have the support of those above him.
Club legend Alan Shearer called a number of players’ attitudes into questions post-Brentford
Howe is now left to pick up the mess – he is the right man for the job, but that job is now harder
But for all of the mitigation outlined here, there will be very few excuses if the next week leaves Newcastle stuffed before Christmas. It is Leicester at home on Saturday, followed by Brentford in a Carabao Cup quarter-final on Wednesday and then a trip to Ipswich – without a home win this season – next Saturday. Three winnable games. Three must-win games, if hope is to replace fear heading into the festivities.
It has, though, been a bruising week. A 4-2 defeat at Brentford saw Shearer question the attitude of the team and, as revealed by Mail Sport, there were injuries to goalkeeper Nick Pope and striker Callum Wilson, sidelined for one month and two months respectively. It all has the feel of a snowball rolling downhill.
That is why Howe and his players have to halt the negative momentum this week, to pick up and start throwing a few snowballs of their own. They should still be good enough to challenge for a European place and a domestic cup, and that would represent history after 56 years without silverware.
The dream is not dead, it’s just not as dreamy as once was imagined, at least not yet.
