by There could be more short-term pain ahead for Newcastle United, with a terrifying run of fixtures in January threatening to push them further from the European places.
The New Year’s Day trip to Liverpool is followed by the FA Cup derby with Sunderland next weekend. And there will be no respite until February, with a home game against champions Manchester City coming before a visit to Aston Villa to take on the teams with the Premier League’s best home record.
Eddie Howe’s side are unlikely to emerge from this spell unbeaten and there will be more external questions about his future as a manager as a result.
But Telegraph Sport has already revealed that Howe’s job is one of the safest in English football and after conversations with key people behind the scenes at St James’ Park over the past few days, there is every reason to be optimistic about the future.
The Saudis will find ways to pump money into the club
When Telegraph columnist Jamie Carragher wrote last week that it is impossible for Newcastle to win the trophies Chelsea and Manchester City have won with their own super-rich owners, he was right to a certain extent. Profit and sustainability rules are largely designed to prevent wealthy owners – none of whom have deeper pockets than Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund – from buying players and fortunes alike. that English club, as well as Paris St-Germain, which is owned by Qatar, they managed to do before.
It is a way of leveling the financial playing field and stopping nations and individuals from dominating European club football by pouring huge sums of money into their football clubs, giving them an unfair advantage.
To that end, PIF may not be able to transform Newcastle at the same pace as others in the past, but that doesn’t mean their objective is any less ambitious. They plan to continue to find ways, through sponsorship and commercial partnerships, to inject money into Newcastle.
It will gradually become more. Newcastle’s progress in this area is slow, but it cannot be completely stopped.
Newcastle’s owners will always have to prove every single deal – as they did with shirt sponsor Sela – represents a fair market value to satisfy the Premier League that they are not artificially inflating the figures, but there is huge scope yet to make more deals. And each will increase Newcastle’s financial muscle until the gap between them and the so-called Big Six becomes minute.
From next season, Newcastle’s new deal with Adidas will bring in around £40 million a year, a big increase on the £8 million a year they were getting from Castore. It is a sign of things to come.
Manchester City are not the richest club in the world because they are the biggest, most popular or most attractive club in the world for sponsors. They are the richest club in the world due to the many partnerships they have signed, over the years, with companies linked to their owners in Abu Dhabi. They have cleverly navigated their way through the rules of profit and sustainability. Newcastle will eventually do the same.
It will take some time, but in the next five to 10 years, Newcastle will emerge as one of the richest clubs in Europe and that will certainly increase their chances of winning silverware significantly.
In the short term, Newcastle do not have too much relief in terms of injury, but the news is that both Barnes, their £45 million summer signing from Leicester City, who has not played since September and Willock, who has only played six games. This season, back at the beginning of February will be a big boost for Howe.
Barnes was signed to add more goals and assists than Allan Saint Maximin, who was sold to Saudi club Al-Ahli in the summer, but he has barely kicked a ball. His absence forced Newcastle to drop wings Anthony Gordon and Miguel Almiron, which ultimately reduced their effectiveness in games and fatigue caught up with them in December.
Howe normally expects his wide players to fill the tank for 60 minutes and then make a change, but he has been able to do this continuously since the autumn with Alexander Isak and Jacob Murphy also out with injuries. Barnes looked like a smart signing in the summer but Newcastle have barely seen him since due to a foot injury
As for Willock, he is highly regarded and his ability to run at lightning speed with the ball at his feet will be greatly missed. The former Arsenal man is also capable of adding much-needed goals from midfield and brings a completely different skill set to the players Howe has had at his disposal for the majority of the campaign.
With centre-half Sven Botman returning to fitness, along with midfielders Sean Longstaff and Joelinton, Newcastle should be in much better shape heading into February and March.
Ease the fixture load
Newcastle always knew that a return to Europe would be challenging for them at home and expected to drop around five to six in their league position as a result. Newcastle finished fourth last year and are ninth at the start of 2024. That is one of the reasons why Howe is not under the pressure that some have tried to suggest he is in recent days.
Nobody at the club wanted to be knocked out of Europe and the Carabao Cup defeat against Chelsea, when they took the lead in the 92nd minute of their quarter-final tie, was a bitter pill to swallow.
Had Kieran Trippier not gifted Chelsea an unearned equaliser, Howe’s side would have been preparing to face Championship club Middlesbrough in a two-legged semi-final next week and would have been in contention for a second League Cup final to achieve.
However, the pain of that defeat is lessened by the fact that Newcastle will now play just four games in 30 days compared to the 10 they suffered in the same period in December. It will be the same sort of schedule, without European football, for the rest of the season.
For the first time since August, Newcastle’s players will have time to recover from games and Howe will get some much-needed time on the training ground to prepare for matches and fix problems in their performances. This season, Newcastle have barely trained and most sessions have been done at walking pace to protect players from further injuries.
In theory, it should all mean Newcastle can resume the high-intensity, high-energy football that was their trademark last season when they finished fourth. The conditions for Newcastle will be similar to last season when they consistently blew teams away at home and they should be more effective on the road too.
