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Eddie Howe is not a manager given to histrionics or grand public pronouncements. So by his standards, his press conference after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to lowly West Ham counts as a furious tirade. His side took an early lead but West Ham were ahead by half-time, as well as hitting the post and having a penalty overturned by VAR, leading Howe to make a triple change at the break.
“That was the frustrating thing about the first half,” Howe said. “I almost could have taken anyone off and I think that was a reflection of where we were in that moment in the game and it’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. In fact, I don’t think I have since I’ve been manager of Newcastle, so I felt the team needed some shaking up at half-time. That’s why I did what I did.”
Anthony Gordon, Nick Woltemade and Emil Krafth all came off at half-time and Newcastle did stabilise to an extent in the second half, without ever really looking like they might get back into the game against a side that had won only one of their previous nine league matches. Given how packed the centre of the table is, with just three points separating third from 11th, and nine points between second and 17th, a run of 12 points from 10 games has not left Newcastle adrift but, equally, they cannot finish the season 13th.
The problem to an extent is one of perception. In the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Newcastle have the richest owners in the world. The expectation when the PIF bought 80% of the club in 2021 was that it would have a transformative effect, as Roman Abramovich had at Chelsea or Sheikh Mansour had at Manchester City. The difference is that both of those owners took over before the advent of financial fair play regulations (and the ongoing charges against City relate to whether they breached those regulations once they were in place).
Profit and sustainability regulations restrict the capacity of owners, however rich, to spend money on their teams and so in that sense probably would have slowed any Saudi attempt to raise Newcastle to the level of City. But there is no need for Newcastle’s spending to have been quite as cautious as it has been; they could have spent more and remained within the threshold – or just accepted a relatively meagre Uefa fine given their big problem is more with the European than the Premier League regulation.
Besides which, infrastructure spending is exempted from PSR calculations; the easiest way to raise income to create more PSR headroom would be to extend or redevelop the stadium. Given the location of St James’ Park, with listed buildings on two sides, in reality that probably means building an entirely new stadium. There was talk in March of potentially making the short move to Leazes Park – opposition from local groups could surely have been overcome with a promise to build a new park on the current stadium site – but there has been no movement on that proposal. There has been significant retrenchment from the PIF on a range of projects as it refocuses on domestic affairs; the attitude to Newcastle seems entirely in keeping with that change of approach.
The Alexander Isak saga was born of that tension. A more confident management could have portrayed his sale as necessary to release capital for further investment; instead there was a vain attempt to keep him. That meant that Newcastle began the season amid a sense of frustration despite the signings of Woltemade, Yoane Wissa, Jacob Ramsey, Malick Thiaw and Anthony Elanga. The start was indifferent: one win in their first six games.
But it seemed a corner had been turned. They had won five in six before Sunday, a run that included demolitions of Union Saint-Gilloise and Benfica in the Champions League. That’s why the performance against West Ham was such a shock. The problem perhaps is that Newcastle’s style is very aggressive, very high-octane; a slight drop-off in energy can have profound consequences. Perhaps the strain of Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup, five games in 15 days, had got to them. Woltemade started all five of those games and looked particularly weary.
That’s the nature of modern football. Managers have to be prepared to rotate. Howe has been unfortunate that Wissa’s injury has left him short of attacking options but, no matter how valid the explanations, Sunday’s performance was inexcusable –especially after taking the lead at a ground primed to turn on its own side.
Howe will hope it was just a blip, one of those days when everybody is off-colour simultaneously, but if Newcastle are to qualify for the Champions League next season, let alone one day mount an actual title challenge, they cannot be as inconsistent as this.
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On this day …
Rangers had suffered a terrible start to the 1971-72 season, losing four of their first five league games while being beaten by Celtic in the League Cup. They got through the first round of the Cup Winners’ Cup with a grim 2-1 aggregate victory over Stade Rennais, but in the second round, it all seemed to have gone wrong. They led Sporting 3-0 at half-time of the home leg, but conceded twice in the second half and won only 3-2.
A strike meant it took them two days to fly to Lisbon for the second leg on 3 November 1971. Colin Stein twice cancelled out Portuguese goals and with three minutes remaining Rangers led 5-4 on aggregate. But they then conceded to Pedro Gomes. Ronnie McKinnon broke his leg but Willie Henderson’s strike in extra-time restored the Rangers lead. With five minutes remaining, though, Fernando Peres struck for Sporting: 6-6. Rangers collapsed in the shoot-out, missing four penalties out of four.
Sporting were through. Or so it seemed, until a journalist pointed out that the Dutch referee, Lau van Ravens, had failed to apply the away goals rule, which had been introduced in the competition that season. Rangers had won. Reprieved, they went on to lift their only European title, beating Dinamo Moscow in Barcelona in a game that ended in rioting.
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This is an extract from Soccer with Jonathan Wilson, a weekly look from the Guardian US at the game in Europe and beyond. Subscribe for free here. Have a question for Jonathan? Email [email protected], and he’ll answer the best in a future edition.
