So, what’s gone wrong at Newcastle United? Why are we once again lounging around in mid-table, capable of good results against Sky’s so-called “big” teams but apparently unable to buy a result against the so-called “lesser” sides? Has Eddie Howe taken us as far as he can? What other factors are affecting our progress? Here, our regular writer GhostfaceKillah gives his take on this. Feel free to add your own comments below.
It’s the ultimate mid-table team mentality. We can go through every season we have watched football and find one or two teams who are capable of beating anyone on a given day, playing well and leading you into believing they are capable of going on a run, only to not turn up the following two games against sides far inferior.
I think it’s a combination of player mentality, momentum and motivation.
Look back to the season we came 4th, we had the momentum of staying up and the whole furore over how the Saudi’s were pushing us all the way to the top, we had hungry, experienced players making sure that no one let their standards drop, and then there was Howe and the coaching team who were clearly motivating them to perform week in and week out, playing a fresh style of football, a far cry from the drab and soul destroying days of “dust worselves down”.
We peaked the season we qualified, but since then we have had the following:
PSR preventing larger scale investment
Inability to move players on at the right time, impacting spending capabilities
Our star summer signing being banned for 10 months
Dan Ashworth leaving
Lost our best defender for what will be the best part of a year
Missing out on Europe
Amanda and Mehrdad leaving
Trippier’s alleged problems with his private life
Howe to England
Gordon to Liverpool
Bruno to Man City
Isak to Arsenal
Howe vs Mitchell
Tonali can’t play with Bruno
Wilson completely broken
Multiple failed transfer windows
In fact, since beating PSG at home, it’s actually difficult to think of any real highs on or off the pitch, yet there has been quite a lot of negativity surrounding the club. You have to keep things fresh and as a club we have failed so badly to keep the momentum going. I think we, and by we I mean the ownership, just hoped we would somehow keep progressing, with no investment, and so many failings have contributed to why we are now languishing mid-table with a group of players who look completely devoid of ideas and equally a head coach who looks like he doesn’t know what to do next.
Man City did it with Mark Hughes, which seemed harsh at the time (and also during a very different PSR climate), but ultimately they were ruthless in moving him on and bringing in Mancini. Maybe, just maybe this is Howe’s limit, maybe the whole Howe and Tindall thing has just run its natural course and similar to the way we have failed to move on expensive crocks or players who have their eyes on other clubs, the club might be hanging onto a coach who has reached his peak with this group of players.
Do any of us really believe that Howe will leave here and go on to bigger and better things? I don’t get that feeling, more so as time goes on. I don’t see him kicking on with another club, I also don’t think you’d get one of the elite clubs remotely interested in taking him, despite what Craig Hope and others in the main stream media think. He is a good coach, he has done an amazing job in stabilising this club and giving us a memorable season finishing 4th, but there has been no evidence since then to suggest he is capable of getting us back to that place, and had England come calling in the summer, he would have left tyre marks in the car park.
It might just be time for the owners to show the same level of ruthlessness to avoid this steady decline we have been watching unfold for quite some time now. We keep hoping things are going to change, but this might just be us under Howe, there is an awful lot of evidence to suggest it is just that.
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