NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 25: Eddie Howe the head coach / manager of Newcastle United during the Premier League match between Newcastle United FC and West Ham United FC at St James' Park on November 25, 2024 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images)
Winds of change now set to blow through St James’ Park.
Opinion
Winds of change now set to blow through St James’ Park
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I had been left almost shellshocked by the abject Newcastle Unitedefensive performance against Thomas Frank’s busy Bees Brentford at the GTech Stadium on Saturday.
How Eddie Howe’s team could follow up their encouraging and entertaining draw at St James’ Park against title chasing Liverpool only days earlier, with a showing as inept as what we witnessed against Brentford, was really disappointing.
On Sunday morning I decided to go for a walk along the coastline before heading back to Tynemouth Club for a few pre-lunch refreshments.
I had earlier heard that former Newcastle Sporting Director come defector, Dan Ashworth, had been relieved of his duties at Manchester United after only five months.
This had somewhat lightened my mood because I had never been a fan of Ashworth from well before he had initially taken up his role at NUFC.
I had often warned friends and acquaintances that I thought he was an overrated pretentious charlatan.
After dastardly Dan’s messy and drawn out switch to Man U this summer, I would like to think that Newcastle have now got one over on Man Utd and Sir Jim Ratcliffe here.
In the Premier League this weekend, Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest did the business at Old Trafford, with the irrepressible Chris Wood netting yet again, what a superb twilight to his career this big and likeable Kiwi is having. whilst Elliot Anderson got an assist for the opening Forest goal after only two minutes.
Yankub Minteh scored a stunning goal to put Brighton 2-0 up, only for a dramatic late collapse that allowed Leicester to grab a draw, thanks to goals on 86 and 90+1 minutes.
At Selhurst Park, Pep’s faltering Manchester City ground out a draw against Crystal Palace, which put our own draw down there a week earlier into better perspective.
Man City had their young protege Rico Lewis sent off in the second half after he had scored the visitors’ second equaliser. I was trying to think who Lewis reminded me of and then it came to me. He’s the spit and dabs of the aerosol-toting character Rembrandt from cult late 1970s movie The Warriors.
Chelsea continued their resurgence under Enzo Maresca with a win over Spurs at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
I always like like it when Arteta’s Arsenal fail to win and so this proved to be the case again, as they were held by Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Unai Emery’s Aston Villa seem to have got back to winning ways after their second home win in a few days, a 1-0 over Southampton.
For what it’s worth, I have given up on Newcastle United having any aspirations of finishing in this season’s Premier League top four.
We are far too inconsistent and more than a few of the senior players in our first team squad are past their best.
Our next league game against Leicester City at St James’ Park is going to be vitally important for Eddie Howe nonetheless.
The vultures will well and truly be circling if the Foxes pull off any kind of a result.
I’ve went on record as saying I haven’t got a clue who could replace Eddie Howe but that doesn’t mean that United’s owners wouldn’t be prepared to look elsewhere if results don’t dramatically improve.
I’ll be attending only my second game at Gallowgate in the last 16 years when we take on Brentford in the quarter-final of the Carabao Cup on the 18th December.
This game is now beginning to look like ‘Eartha Kitt or bust’ as far as Eddie and the Hotrods are now concerned.
I did manage to get to talk to my brother and some of my mates about what they think is going to be the best way forward now for Newcastle United.
Most of the lads were open to the club getting what little we can for Trippier, Wilson, Almiron etc in January, which will help with PSR.
We need a shake-up and the reset button needs to quickly be reactivated, as the team is stagnating and the coaching methods look stale.
Newcastle need to be getting back down to basics, signing value for money young up and coming British and foreign talent, that can come in and immediately challenge for the first team.
We are continually getting left behind by some of our EPL rivals on this score.
It is the only way forward as we hopefully continue to grow the club so that we can get ourselves in a position to eventually commercially compete with the cartel.
We are now very much heading into phase two of our project under the ownership of the Saudi Arabia PIF and the Reuben Brothers.
After the spate of storms to hit Britain recently, I think I’m definitely now more than prepared for the winds of change that are inevitably going to sweep through St James’ Park.
I’m also expecting some noise to come out of our club early in the New Year that will finally signal the building of a state of the art bigger and better stadium, that hopefully stays in the confines of the city centre.
