You couldn’t make this up – Newcastle United in 2023/24

What a chaotic season it’s been at Newcastle United.

There’s no doubt that our performance levels have dipped. There’s been mistakes from Eddie Howe, too many errors on the pitch, signs of us losing that all-action identity and a reality check that we struggled to compete on several fronts when the fixtures piled up.

However, there’s also been an unprecedented number of things go against us since the 2023/24 campaign kicked off last August. I’ve never known anything quite like it at Newcastle.

First off, our opening set of fixtures in the Premier League were about as tough as it gets. You have to play everyone twice, so some would argue it’s better to get the hard ones out of the way early, but it can also impact momentum early on; which it did. Our 5-1 win over Aston Villa made for a stunning start, but three defeats on the spin followed against Man City, Liverpool and Brighton.

In the midst of that came the Champions League draw, as Group F – the ‘group of death’ – saw us placed with PSG, AC Milan and Borussia Dortmund. Exciting ties to come, but it was a nightmare draw as far as our hopes of qualifying for the last 16 were concerned. If that wasn’t enough, we were let down by one of the worst VAR decisions we’ve seen at PSG. Sadly, these errors are part of modern day football now, but that was a shocker that cost us dearly.

Then to the cup draws. Our route to the Carabao Cup quarter-finals involved Man City, Man Utd (away) and Chelsea (away), with the latter ending in tears after a costly error from Kieran Trippier with us just minutes from a semi-final meeting with Middlesbrough. Had we beaten them, it could’ve been ‘Liverpool’s kids’ in the final.

The FA Cup has then featured FOUR-straight away ties. Fulham away, Sunderland away, Blackburn away and our opponents in the quarter final after our midweek win at Ewood Park? Man City…away. Of course.

Mixed in with that has been a host of freak injuries you couldn’t make up. As far as I’m aware, these are all of the major issues we’ve had to deal with this season:

• Nick Pope and Jacob Murphy facing months out after falling awkwardly on their shoulders.
• Elliot Anderson and Dan Burn suffering long-term back injuries from more awkward falls.
• Joe Willock suffering a sudden Achilles injury no sooner had he returned from a long-term hamstring issue.
• Joelinton needing potentially season-ending thigh surgery from a cross-field pass attempted at Sunderland.
• Sven Botman missing months after an innocuous knee problem proved to be serious.
• Harvey Barnes’ freak toe injury at Sheffield United that kept him out over four months.
• Callum Wilson injuring his pectoral muscle in the final seconds at Forest. Surgery needed and out for 10-12 weeks.
• Alexander Isak’s reoccurring groin issues.
• Matt Targett feeling his hamstring go just five minutes into our cup win at Old Trafford. Out since November.

It doesn’t end there, as our statement summer signing Sandro Tonali was found guilty of breaching betting rules in October and banned from football until August 2024. Eight games into the season, we lost our £55m midfielder signed to make the difference, just a few weeks after Harvey Barnes – our second most expensive summer addition – would be ruled out for the remainder of 2023 from a freak toe injury.

Injuries then lead to more of less the same 11 having to play week in week out. This came just as crucial fixtures arrived in December; a month where our European and Carabao Cup fate was decided. We were awful in that spell and it’s not all down to the mitigating factors mentioned above, but injuries limited Howe’s ability to rotate and our inability to rotate lead to fatigue…which lead to more injuries, poor form and the understandable disappearance of that high-intensity style that made us tick last season. There’s an argument to be had around Howe’s management of that situation, as some feel he should’ve changed our system or approach to cope with the fatigue and fixture pile-up, but that’s another debate.

I feel the January window is also worth mentioning. We were desperate for reinforcements, especially in midfield after ongoing issues with Joelinton, Willock, Anderson and Bruno (who is one yellow away from a two-match ban), but it was clear that FFP completely restricted our ability to spend. If there was ever a month we needed a mid-season boost it was then, yet our hands were tied in fear of breaching PSR rules.

As a result of all of all that, we’ve been forced to play a 17-year-old in midfield just about every week for the past three months. Lewis Miley has done incredibly and it’s been an unbelievable experience for him, but there’s been tough periods that have thrown him into deeper waters that Howe would’ve liked at this stage of his career. Individually, he’s shone, but he’s had to play regularly in a midfield three that hasn’t worked.

Last but not least, the Dan Ashworth saga. Howe insists it has not impacted us, with the boss seeming fairly nonplussed about the situation when speaking to the media, but losing one of our key cogs behind the scenes is far from ideal so early into a long-term project he supposedly signed up to. Not only that, losing him to top six rivals Man Utd leaves a bitter taste and could impact us this summer if he shares some of our secrets or encourages them to target certain players – young or old – we’d eyed up ahead of the coming window.

With all of that in mind, it’s no surprise that it’s been a messy, chaotic and ultimately frustrating season where it feels like there’s been more downs than ups. We’ve been dealt a poor hand and we haven’t recovered.

There’s still plenty to play for – we’re one win from Wembley and could still secure European football for next season – but it’s important to not lose sight of the extenuating circumstances that have made what was always going to be a tough transitional season even tougher.