Amanda Staveley and Eddie Howe
Amanda Staveley and Eddie Howe
Eddie Howe has challenged his Newcastle United side to 'upset people' by disrupting the established order again.
Howe once memorably declared that Newcastle were not here to be popular - they were here to compete. Newcastle certainly backed those words up a couple of seasons ago when the Magpies qualified for the Champions League for the first time in more than two decades.
Newcastle slipped to seventh last year, following an injury-ravaged campaign, but the black-and-whites are now just five points off fourth after back-to-back wins in the top-flight. Newcastle have looked more like their old selves of late and, knowing how a further run of results could catapult his side up the table, Howe reiterated that the Champions League is 'the one that everyone wants more than anything else'.
"I never see anything as a closed shop," the Newcastle boss told reporters. "It's our job to try and achieve the most that we can and put no barriers on our levels or our expectations of ourselves internally and see what happens."
It is an open race. For context, Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth currently sit in fourth and fifth, faltering champions Manchester City lie in seventh and Spurs and Manchester United are languishing in 11th and 13th as we approach the halfway point of the season.
Newcastle sit in eighth ahead of facing fellow European contenders Aston Villa and this Boxing Day clash feels like another timely test of these sides' credentials after Unai Emery's team followed in the Magpies' footsteps by finishing in the top four last season. Although Aston Villa are fresh from an impressive win against Manchester City, the Villains have faced challenges to fight on multiple fronts - just as Newcastle did last year.
Should that come as a surprise? After all, these upstarts have also been restricted by PSR rules. Aston Villa failed in a bid to raise the PSR limit to £135m at the Premier League's annual general meeting last summer and Damian Vidagany, the club's director of football operations, has said that the 'system' is preventing upwardly mobile clubs from 'breaking' up the so-called big six because their revenues pale in comparison.
One way to boost revenues is through sponsorship deals and Aston Villa joined Newcastle, Manchester City and Nottingham Forest in voting against changes to associated party transaction (APT) regulations last month. These rules, which ensure all commercial deals with companies linked to a club's owners are independently assessed to establish they are of fair market value, were first introduced in the aftermath of Newcastle's takeover, which left former owner Amanda Staveley raging.
Staveley later went as far as to suggest that clubs do 'everything they can to make sure' the Champions League places are 'available to as few people as possible'. It goes without saying that the usual suspects won't want to see Newcastle or Aston Villa taking a seat at Europe's top table again.
"I'm sure there are people that don't want that to happen again," Howe admitted. "But the beauty of the Premier League this year is that you never quite know what's going to happen.
"Teams find it difficult to string consistent runs of results together - not just us. We have seen Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth and loads of teams have really strong seasons. The level of the Premier League has been really tight this year between all teams.
"I don't think there's a lot of difference between the top and bottom sides, and that's testament to the quality of every team in the league. There are no easy games and that makes a great spectacle.
"It makes a great league because you never know what's going to happen. You never know what twists and turns are ahead, and it's up to all of us to try and break into whatever group of teams, try and upset people and achieve success."