Why Expectations Will Define Newcastle United’s Biggest Season In 25 Years

The outlook was bleak when Newcastle United became the so-called richest club in the world last November following a takeover by the Public Investment Fund [PIF] of Saudi Arabia.

Despite suddenly having almost limitless resources at its fingertips, the grim prospect of relegation from the PremierPINC
League was a pressing concern.

The new owners were quick to act, bringing in internationals Kieran Trippier, Chris Wood and Bruno Guimaraes for over $100 million as soon as they could. But one of Newcastle United’s greatest ever players, Alan Shearer, was unconvinced.

“There’s every chance we will be relegated, but that’s where they are,” Shearer said, “Newcastle’s spend at the minute is great because we haven’t seen that for such a long time but the harsh reality is they need a lot more, let’s see.”

It wasn’t just Shearer who had doubts, many pundits questioned the suitability of the regime’s choice of new manager; ex-Bournemouth coach Eddie Howe.

“Is Eddie Howe the right man for survival? I’ll take some convincing,” said former England defender Danny Mills

“They [Bournemouth] went down because they didn’t have a solid defense. His last job was relegation. Are you going to put the job of staying up on someone who’s just been relegated?”

It didn’t help that it was widely known Newcastle had attempted to recruit Villarreal coach Unai Emery, only for the Spaniard to turn them down.

But in the months that followed, Eddie Howe proved commentators like Mills wrong he built a robust Newcastle United side that not only survived, they did so with ease.

Unlike previous iterations of the Magpies where securing another season in the world’s richest league appeared to be the height of the hierarchy’s ambitions, the expectation is, following this achievement, sights will be shifted significantly higher.

How much time will Eddie Howe get?

“Newcastle United deserves to be top of the Premier League. We want to get there. It will take time, but we will get there,” director and front-person of the takeover Amanda Staveley stated after the deal was approved.

“We want to see it get those trophies, obviously. At top of the Premier League, in Europe, but to get trophies means patience, investment, time. We want everybody to work with us to build the club towards what it needs to be.”

The crucial question is what her timeline looks like and how much patience the club’s owners will have in getting there?

Swiftly dispatching with manager Steve Bruce after the takeover was completed and making five transfers in the January window showed the new owners were not afraid to act swiftly and decisively.

Whether those acts were the start of a trend or just a necessary first step, however, remains to be seen.

To his credit, Eddie Howe is embracing the suggestion that more will be expected from him this term. While other managers might have preached caution, he’s been open in embracing it.

“It doesn’t intimidate me, but it is potentially a challenge for us – how we adapt to that pressure. We’re not scared of that, we know it comes with the territory,” he told Mail+.

“I think expectations have gone up. I don’t intently follow what is being written and said, but I do get the feeling we’re being talked about in [higher] areas of the league.

“There’s nothing you can do about that. I won’t sit here and challenge it. I will look back to last year and say that we went on an incredible run in a short space of time, but if you look at us statistically as a team, we underperformed in several key markers.

“To change that and become a stronger team, we have to perform better, that is what I’m looking at.”

Unsurprisingly, for a club with the resources that Newcastle now has, Howe will be bolstered in his attempts to improve with new signings.

The services of Lille defender Sven Botman and England goalkeeper Nick Pope have been added to the permanent signing of on-loan full-back Matt Targett. More new faces will undoubtedly be added to Howe’s squad which already contains players with significant pedigree.

Recruiting better players has raised expectations internally and, while Howe has been coy about setting any specific targets for next season, star midfield Bruno Guimaraes has laid out what he wants.

“I’m hoping next season we can look at the Europa League and I want to play in the Champions League here, but we’ll take things step by step,” he told local paper the Shields Gazette.

A lesson from Manchester City

The most obvious comparison people have drawn is to the way Manchester City dragged themselves from midtable mediocrity to the champions of England within four years of being taken over by the Abu Dhabi United Group.

The first season after the deal went through club finished 10th, but the following summer it bought 10 new players, including world-class talents like Carlos Tevez and Gareth Barry, for a total of $210 million.

City’s new signings had an instant impact and it narrowly missed out on the Champions League that season. The following year it reached Europe’s top competition and won the FA Cup.

Newcastle is operating in a different landscape to Manchester City, however. Driven by the fears of established elite clubs and a desire to have a more sustainable game, Financial Fair Play rules have been introduced which make a similar splurge by the club less possible.

But in the North East, you have to go back around 25 years to find a time when the club was approaching a new season realistically targeting European soccer and a trophy in the cabinet.

The anticipation and excitement will continue to build if the club does get off to a strong start and it will be interesting to see whether that is the driver for further investment or change.

When he was sacked midseason by Manchester City, manager Mark Hughes accused the owners of altering the ambitions of the club after a run of good results.

“At the beginning of the season I sat down with the owners and it was agreed that a realistic target for the season would be sixth place in the Barclays Premier League, or in the region of 70 points,” Hughes said after losing his job.

“All of this was communicated to the players and we all knew where we stood. Whilst everyone at the club would obviously have wanted to see more wins, we were absolutely on target at the time of my dismissal. Only recently we had terrific victories against both Arsenal and Chelsea.”

How things play out for Eddie Howe at Newcastle United will be fascinating to watch.