With the vast majority of Newcastle United fans glued to the transfer window speculation rumour mill to see what kind of business manager Eddie Howe does before the 2025/26 campaign kicks off for real, the release of the fixtures calendar for the coming campaign is always a summer milestone as tensions and anticipation builds for August.
We are well over a month away from the return of real football and even though the fixture lists are now out, as is now usual, fans up and down the country know that they cannot yet make firm plans as games have already begun being shifted for the multitude of television broadcasters that we have these days, and with Howe leading us back to Champions League football for the coming year, that too will see plenty of games shoehorned forwards and backwards in an effort to fit them all in.
Fans juggle the fixture calendar as manager’s and physio’s juggle injuries and debate the best ankle brace for soccer rehabilitation, but it is part of the game and everybody just gets on with it. We know roughly know when the prime fixtures of the season will take place though and with local rivals Sunderland returning to the top flight this season, the opening Tyne-Wear derby will be on Stadium of Light soil on the weekend of 13/14 December, with the St James Park leg set for the end of March.
Howe will again be aiming for a top four finish despite the additional rigours of European football, and we will meet the reigning champions on the weekend of August 23/24 and then at the end of the January New Year.
Fans always look for the key fixtures at this point of year, and our domestic league campaign kicks off in the midday slot of 12.30pm as we travel to Villa Park to take Unai Emery’s Aston Villa side, and we will bring our next campaign to a close on Sunday May 24 for a 4pm kick off at Craven Cottage as we face off against Fulham.
The other key fixtures are always the Christmas and New Year schedule, and it is highly likely that it will be as packed as ever with six games set for the month of December. We open against Tottenham Hotspur before then facing Burnley, Sunderland, Chelsea, Manchester United and Burnley again as things stand.
The 2026 portion of the season opens with us hosting Crystal Palace, but again, there is no Boxing Day or New Year’s Day fixtures for the fans to enjoy. For those fans who want to make plans, as ever they will be looking for broadcast window announcements to at least limit the chances of wasting money by booking up tickets and travel too early, but sadly that is now the modern game and fans are always in last place when it comes to forethought and convenience.
So for now, it is all eyes back to the rumour mill to see how we improve the squad for the challenges that now lie ahead of us and Howe will undoubtedly prefer to get his business done early so players have longer to bed into the club and strike up understandings with their new colleagues. With it believed that we are focusing on the right wing, centre half, striker and goalkeeping positions those rumours will certainly be of interest as the next few weeks pass.
