Whitley mag

Sobering reality and it doesn’t get any easier. It was schoolboy at times yesterday and if people are honest the defence has been all over the shop this season. The number of times we get caught with the full backs up the pitch, with acres behind beggars belief. The midfield are easy to pass through it’s a fucking mess.

Wanker

Couldn’t have started this run of home games worse. I honestly have no idea where you start fixing this team, the defence is probably becoming the biggest issue and our inability to keep a clean sheet is killing us. I think he looks out of ideas and will be interesting to see if he has the appetite for a complete rebuild in the summer. The likes of Pope, Trippier, Willock and Burn need replacing, that’s before we even consider how to rectify the Wissa and Elanga mistakes. I couldn’t give a fuck about City and Barcelona, this team is winning nothing this season, but similar displays and results against Man U and the mackems will raise further questions about his future. The league position is unacceptable and if this level of performance carries on we’ll be looking over our shoulder shortly.

Think this should represent the best line up for Woltemade if he’s playing up front, surround him with pace and runners going beyond him.

We’ll still have to be in the game by the 2nd leg. They let us shoot our load in the first 20 minutes last time and then proceeded to pass us off the park. They were also without their best player as well, so admire your positivity but it’ll be a huge ask to beat these over 2 matches.

Big game looking at the league table, would be pretty unthinkable to lose and be 4 points behind these cunts and rooted in the bottom half. Barcelona is very nice to have but this is the bread and butter, big improvement on Brentford needed to have any chance of a respectable finish this season.

Disgrace and no excuse for it. We’re heading in a dangerous direction with this approach, which will result in empty seats and even worse atmosphere in the ground in coming seasons.

It would be interesting to see a plan of the ground with just season ticket seats populated. I think you’d find the Strawberry Corner, middle tier of Gallowgate, East Stand and Family enclosure would be the hot spots. Undoubtedly, season ticket holders should be the backbone of the atmosphere, but think it’s more complex when you’re looking at areas of the ground like the Leazes End. Getting the local youth in the ground is the way to improving the atmosphere, young lads having the opportunity to go with their mates. It’s no coincidence if you go down the leagues that’s how atmospheres are generated. The PL isn’t lending itself to this clientele through ticket pricing. To be selling general admission tickets to corporate clientele behind one of the goals is actively killing any chance of atmosphere, especially when they’ve been chomping on steak and chips at 11am in some poncey overpriced restaurant. The games gone and doubt I’ll be back at SJP again. Hopefully the good times continue, as doubt many of these corporate fans will be buying those same general admission seats for Bournemouth at home.

I think this game, Mancs, Mackems and FA Cup all at home will define this season and give us a real indication of where things are at. The Brentford game was a worry and we’ve responded well, but think these games are the real acid test and will set the tone for going forward.

Not sure, Saturday will tell us much more. We look very open defensively and tonight yet again showed a real lack of quality in final third. Brentford at home was shite and needs to be a big improvement on Saturday to get 3 points.

Every major club and concert event is open to attack from bots, it’s a hard one to crack. They absolutely should be doing all they can and Wallsend Mag give them evidence of a purchase he made from a third party site and they weren’t interested. I suspect they’d have been interested had he notified them before using it, probably because they’d have cancelled it and then re-sold it again themselves. I’m more enraged by the fact they’ve taken general admission seats off sale to sell at marked up prices. That is a choice they’ve made at the expense of members and the atmosphere inside the stadium in one of our biggest games of the season. It’s a dreadful precedent to set and will kill the whats left of the SJP atmosphere.

Nail on the head it’s almost as if where happy to let you have access to run of the mill games, but if a big game comes along we’ll reduce the allocation to cash in and fuck your membership. The Trust need to really push them on what’s happening here. At the start of the season in the t&c’s they should publish exactly the minimum number of tickets on sale for each game to members for transparency, irrelevant of the opposition.

All stakeholders on board including the council and Kim McGuinness. The Mayoral Development Zone once up and running will be the vehicle to drive this through and think Edwards article confirms it’s going to be a huge regeneration for that part of the city, which was never going to be a quick process.

They could have filled the place tonight, major own goal for the greedy bastards.

No wonder the place is a morgue. Massively short sighted by the club and coupled with £70 quid tickets in level 7 not selling out tomorrow, shows how out of touch those making these decisions are. Also massively irresponsible in a game like this and could lead to major bother. Who the fuck puts corporate fans paying 700 quid next to general admission fans in a Derby match.

The hospitality tickets available are in the Leazes level 4 block W. This has always been a general admission section, has any of the supporters organisations questioned the club on this? I’ve got no doubt bots will have took some tickets today but how many general admission tickets have been made corporate for this match? Seems like a real money grab by the club in a big game at the expense of normal fans.

Brilliant by the Press Officer, what an arrogant tosser Edwards is.

Most competitive we’ve been down there in a longtime and still in the contest to the end. Looked like same old story when we went one down, but considering we played midweek in Europe can’t have many complaints. Not sure what the possession stats are but thought we controlled the game at times. They probably did have the highlight moments on the break but impressive how we dictated play at times. I thought Thiaw was poor defensively and we get out of shape to easily, teams are undoubtedly targeting the space behind Trippier. I thought Woltemade connected the play well at times but in that role needs to get in the box more. It was noticeable how we didn’t keep the ball as well once Joelinton and subs came on. I like this formation and we need to persist with it in my opinion.

I’m not his biggest fan and it was shit business in a one horse race what we paid. However, not his worst game last night considering the opposition and thought he was a threat with his pace. Murphy was shit when he came on and offered fuck all threat in comparison. The right side is a massive problem, we probably need to sacrifice Murphy in the summer and get a younger player in to provide competition.

Antonio Nusa has been scouted by us don’t give up hope.

Good article from Craig Hope. In June, Eddie Howe hiked around Johnston Canyon in Canada with his wife and three sons. Not long recovered from pneumonia, it was a restorative escape that doubled as a quiet measure of his endurance. Little did he know then, but the true slog lay ahead. The summer and season that followed have been, and remain, the ultimate test of mind, body and soul. And yet, what has played out at Newcastle is no surprise. This season’s script has been in the post ever since the Shakespearean coup to oust co-owners Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi in the summer of 2024. Howe lost two trusted allies, players lost confidants and fixers, while supporters lost the reassurance of a visible and engaged leadership. Faultless? No. And so the conspirators presented those fault lines to the club’s Saudi owners, who mistakenly listened. To some on the inside, Staveley and Ghodoussi were meddling disrupters. To others, they were maverick doers. Either way, their removal unpicked the fabric of the club post takeover. Howe, his staff and his dressing-room felt the void. They became detached from what was left and what arrived in their place. Newcastle was not United. There were various contractual disputes and a feeling that those on the football side were being heard but not listened to. ‘Yeah, we’ll sort that’. And then, nothing. How does this lead to now? For over a year, Howe dealt with the fallout. Harmony gave way to friction. The owners had pulled the pin on a grenade inside their own club. Howe became that confidant, that fixer, all the while robbed of his own. He was needlessly - and negligently on the part of the decision-makers - pitched into battle with his own sporting director, Paul Mitchell. In one story that captures the unrest, it is said, he addressed the club’s youth recruitment team and declared that Peter Beardsley would never be a footballer in the modern game. A controversial take based on physical genetics and discarding genius, but all the more contentious given Beardsley’s son was one of the scouts. Such antagonism was also felt by Howe, his backroom team and the players, who won the Carabao Cup and qualified for the Champions League last season despite some other factions within the club, not because of them. After no first-team signings in three windows and players lost in that time, it was a dual sporting achievement that did not get the wider recognition it deserved. But what is more astonishing, of late, is the failure of a vocal minority far closer to home to recognise what has gone before. There is both a lack of appreciation for the success delivered and understanding of the turbulence endured, which culminated in last summer being navigated, not particularly successfully, without a sporting director or chief executive. This, of course, is the way and the want of the online Anger-ithm, amplifying dissent and elevating above ground some who belong in a sewer. Yet, such amnesia has also crept into pockets of St James’ Park. There was one incident in the Gallowgate End during last weekend’s 3-2 defeat by Brentford when an older fan vowed to drag two younger adults over their seats if they did not get off their phones and back the team, a flashpoint sparked by their half-time booing. This, he told those around him, was the time for supporters to support. None of this is to say Howe gets a free pass, especially not when £250million was spent on six players in the summer. It was not, however, the window they envisaged or needed. There was frustration, indecision and, in the end, panic. Insiders concede Alexander Isak should have been sold at the start of the window, having made it clear he wanted to go. There is also a belief among some that a deal for Brighton’s Joao Pedro was there to be concluded, had a proper transfer structure been in place, or Staveley still been at the club. Mitchell left at the end of June, a month in which Newcastle moved at a glacial pace on incomings. Why was an outgoing sporting director left in charge of negotiations for players when his exit was confirmed weeks earlier? Rival clubs and intermediaries thought it was madness. There was confusion and, amid the carnage, a battlefield promotion for Andy Howe, Eddie’s nephew, to take the lead on signings. It was an inheritance laced with hidden taxes, such as the legacy of Mitchell’s terse negotiations with Burnley for James Trafford the previous summer and ill-feeling towards Newcastle. This, it is thought, cost them the goalkeeper, who ended up at Manchester City. When reports started to emerge of Howe being the de facto chief executive, sporting director and head of recruitment, it did not sit easy with the head coach, and not because he was unwilling to absorb responsibility. He and assistant Jason Tindall were carrying the load of the executive vacuum and joined often daily Zoom calls throughout the close-season. Their commitment was acknowledged by those above and all involved were working towards a common goal, but they knew that key components of a functional football club were missing. Even now, more than four years into their ownership, it baffles some why the Saudis do not have any day-to-day presence on the ground and why their external communication is virtually non-existent, including any updates on a new training ground or stadium, although progress on the former is due in the spring. The infrastructural investment that would help push back on spending rules has, so far, not been as forthcoming as many expected. Too many hierarchal hires have not worked, either. Howe is now working with, in effect, his third chief executive in David Hopkinson and third sporting director in Ross Wilson. Those new relationships are strong and there is a renewed sense of togetherness, but they came too late for a critical summer when Newcastle were at their weakest. One week before the window closed, a PIF delegation and co-owner Jamie Reuben made a failed attempt to persuade Isak to stay at his Northumberland home. The next day, the transfer team, including Howe, faced up to the reality of needing to sign two strikers in six days. They had, all summer, come second in the race for top targets such as Pedro and Hugo Ekitike, likewise with Liam Delap and Benjamin Sesko. Within 48 hours of being made aware of Nick Woltemade’s availability, he was on a private jet to Newcastle at a cost of £69m, the price a penalty of the transfer’s timing. Yoane Wissa followed at an equally inflated £55m, but he suffered a serious knee injury before kicking a ball and looks way short of rhythm and confidence even now. Insiders say that Wissa and Woltemade need a full pre-season under Howe before judgement is returned. Winger Anthony Gordon is currently keeping them out of the team at centre forward, and justifiably so. Howe owns those moves and every signing - just like he does the success of Malick Thiaw and others such as Isak, Bruno Guimaraes, Lewis Hall and Sandro Tonali before that, as well as the more recent travails of his strikers, Jacob Ramsey and Anthony Elanga. No player comes in who he does not want or admire. But nor does he want, from the past five windows, six first-team arrivals in one and none in the other four. That is why this season was always going to be one of transition and the manager, by his own admission, is still trying to work out what his best team looks like in terms of personnel, shape and strategy. When he conceded on Monday that they’re struggling to score goals and keep them out, it had echoes of David Moyes’ infamous quote, when in charge of Manchester United, of his side needing to be better at passing, creating chances and defending. That is on Howe to fix and, 24 hours later at Tottenham, he did. The 2-1 win in north London came on the back of a player-led inquest in the wake of Brentford - a third straight defeat to leave them 12th - when full-time boos prompted even louder debate in the dressing-room. They resolved that they owed the manager and themselves something better, and duly came good on that promise. But that was not before Howe revealing on Monday that he would step aside if he did not think he was the right man for the job. For the first time, it felt like some of the outside noise had permeated his ordinarily robust exterior. For the first time, there were genuine conversations among observers over his future on Tyneside. For the first time, checks were made on what the weeks and months ahead could look like for Howe and the club. The response was unified - he wants Newcastle and Newcastle want him. Even still, there was, and is, a lingering danger that some of the short-sighted opinion polluting various platforms could cloud judgement. Howe knows that Tottenham, as big a win as it was, does not mean a corner turned. Nor does a run of losses mean terminal decline. I pushed him on this on Friday, and it felt like a question he has been waiting to answer. ‘The words patience and understanding - they’re rarely accepted, I think, in football management when you’re talking about your team,’ he began. ‘People want clarity on where you are, they want to know whether you’re good or bad. In the middle isn’t accepted. ‘For me, we were well aware going into this season that it was going to be different for us. For everything that happened in the summer, and we hadn’t recruited in so many windows but then we signed six players. With that comes change. 'Then we go into a new season with no pre-season or training time with them. That is very difficult and it has ended up being inconsistent and a little bit up and down. Don’t get me wrong, we could have done better and there are certainly things that we could improve, but I think longer term we’ll be better for it, if we can work through this season and this period. ‘The biggest thing is to find a clear identity, and then we can see what the future looks like with this team. If it’s positive then that could be a great thing. All we ask from anyone on the outside is that there is some understanding. But we also understand that we are under pressure and that we have to try to win while doing it.’ Perversely, Howe has not helped himself. Finishing fourth, seventh and fifth and winning a first domestic trophy in 70 years, with a wage expenditure still just the eighth-highest in the Premier League, raises expectation and breeds complacency among a section of fans. He won an FA Cup tie at home to Bournemouth last month, on penalties, that his team could have done with losing in 90 minutes. They were jaded by the time they lost 2-0 at home to Manchester City in the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final three days later. In fact, they’ve been fatigued ever since. The concern, earlier in the week, was that Howe had started to wear that exhaustion, after four years of being manager, mediator, spokesman and ambassador, not to mention the one club employee who has consistently performed and overachieved. But then, at Tottenham, came reassurance of a team fighting for him and the badge, and a moment post-match when Bruno Guimaraes and Kieran Trippier pushed their boss towards the away fans. They sang his name and roared in approval when he punched the air, and there you had supporters supporting when someone needed it most. Next up, the FA Cup at Aston Villa today and a Champions League play-off in Azerbaijan on Tuesday. That 6,000-mile round trip in itself is a reminder of how far Newcastle have come. Just like that winding trail in Canada, success is rarely a straight road, and this season has brought some painful detours. But, with Howe, they have the best guide. If they are to reach the summit, as is the club’s stated ambition, it is far more likely with him leading the climb than anyone else.

Undoubtedly his best role at the moment playing behind a striker with pace. Looks like he can make things happen especially when we’re dominating possession. Still think he can play as a lone striker but needs raw pace either side, think alongside Gordon and Elanga he represents our best attack at the moment.

Ossie’s babes promised much, another false dawn at the time unfortunately.