It’s fair to say that there is renewed positivity amongst Newcastle fans following our magnificent 4-0 drubbing of Spurs the weekend before last. As our immediate rivals drop points, we head to Palace in fine fettle.
What has been a challenging, and at times frustrating season, now has a genuine chance of ending on a high, and more importantly, European football next season is now a real possibility.
Whether that makes the season successful, is still very much a matter of opinion. Some Newcastle fans have the blanket view that this season is a failure because we haven’t made the Champions League again. Others view either qualification to the Europa League or the Europa Conference as a realistic chance of a trophy, and a chance to continue building the club’s profile, not to mention the exciting prospect of the European away days. Given all the injury and off field upheaval, it would be a brilliant achievement.
Over the last couple of weeks, the season long belief amongst fans of the top teams, in the PL gaining an extra place has proved somewhat arrogant, and all the various (and tedious) possible outcomes and permutations of coefficients, and the European and/or domestic cup winners have disappeared. As it stands, if we manage to finish in 6th place, we will qualify for the Europa Conference. However, if Man City win the all Manchester FA cup final, then 6th place will get Europa League. Given the current form and upcoming fixtures, it’s certainly doable from our end, and you’d hope Man City can beat their bang average rivals.
Whether or not European football is needed, is a debate with varying opinions, all having their validity. Of course no European football has its benefits on physical condition and fitness levels, so without it, we simply strengthen the first team with two to three top class additions, and then challenge for the top four again. Easy right?
Except for Newcastle as a club, and indeed Eddie Howe as a coach, competing in Europe is imperative to making that next step. Being able to manage their resources to compete in four competitions is an absolute must for any manager of any top club, which is what we all want Newcastle, and Eddie to consistently be.
Whilst being dealt horrendous hands with freak injuries, Ashworth’s gardening leave, Tonali’s suspension and cup draws that frankly defy belief, could he have handled aspects of this season differently?
Possibly. Maybe. Certainly some local journalists close to him have indicated recently that Howe himself feels he could. That brutal run of 11 games in 34 days with only 12/13 first team players has ultimately defined the season. It saw us go out of Europe and the Carabao Cup to gut wrenching late goals, as well as listless performances and league defeats to Bournemouth, Luton and Forest.
It was during this spell that pockets of criticism started to appear on social media, with the main narrative being his loyalty to certain players, and tactical inflexibility.
Talksport and Sky Sports rubbed their grubby hands together, rival fans mocked his elite pedigree, and all and sundry pushed boring narratives that he’ll eventually be replaced by a bigger name, like Jose Mourinho.
Rival fans mocked Howe’s European debut season, but let’s not forget, it was his debut season, There are plenty of examples of top managers wo take their time to It genuinely has been shown to be the group of death with PSG and Borussia Dortmund making the semi finals. We hammered PSG at St James’ Park and would’ve beaten them in Paris had it not been for a shambolic VAR call. Without that, we may have made it to the last 16 at the French giants’ expense, but we also showed naivety in losing at home to Milan from a winning position. That’s another lesson to learn and another reason why another season of European football would be huge for Howe’s development as a manager.
Those dissenting voices appear to have been silenced, we can only hope for the long term. 10 points from the last four games, (which was a Paul Dummett brain fart away from being a deserved 12) using four different approaches have reminded us all that Eddie is simply top drawer. Time on the training pitch was something he was denied by the number of games and injuries, he now needs to be able to show this tactical acumen consistently with a quicker turnaround of games, and hopefully a higher quality and less injury ravaged squad.
He is intelligent, humble, hard working and most importantly talented enough to come out of the season a better manager, in which the best word to describe certain choices would be naive.
He is still a relatively young manager, who started his first managerial role 17 points adrift at the bottom of League 2. The notion that a manager who then took the same club to the Premier League, and took us into the Champions League, can’t adapt and change is frankly nonsense. He’s literally done and seen it all. The next step is regular European competition, and maybe a trophy to boot.
In Eddie we trust.
HTL.
