Walking out of St James’ Park there was a tangible buzz in the air, a jubilance that hadn’t be emitting from the iconic stadium for over a decade. There was a sense that at long last, a sleeping giant was awaking and under Rafa Benítez Newcastle United were entering a new golden age.
On the 7th May 2017 Newcastle United were crowned champions of the English second tier, a return to the riches of the Premier League at the first time of asking, the mood on Tyneside was riotous. A mere four months later, and the anger, frustration and resentment that has dominated the Mike Ashley era has returned with alarming speed.
It’s odd, in a way, that fans are as down trodden as they are. Newcastle United are back in the top flight of English football and with a world class manager at the helm to boot. Things shouldn’t feel as ominous as they do, yet sucking the joy out being a football fan is Ashley’s speciality.
What’s most depressing for the Toon Army however is that things could have been so different. Not even a week after lifting the Championship trophy and Ashley was publicly promising that “Rafa can have every last penny the club generates.” Talks of a £100m war chest were reported by media outlets such as the BBC, yet with the windowing slamming shut last week Newcastle’s net spend for the summer stands at a relatively paltry sum of £11.5m.
While this ranks Newcastle fifteenth out of the twenty PL clubs, ahead of the likes of Arsenal, Spurs and Stoke, what is most concerning is that both fellow promoted clubs, Brighton and Huddersfield, spent more and arguable spent better as well. Rafa wanted ten players in this window, essentially giving the squad a new spine and a healthy amount of depth, he managed to bring in only six.
Over the summer Newcastle were linked with well over two hundred players, ranging from the ridiculous such as William Carvalho to the expected such as Andy Carroll, but the transfer window has been a largely frustrating experience for the club. Ashley’s penchant for haggling down to the penny caused friction with Rafa and the return to the old, and largely failed, policy of targeting young players with sell on value has resulted in a squad seriously short on Premier League experience.
The weaknesses in the squad were glaringly obvious for all to see. Dwight Gayle may have torn the second tier up but his PL record at Crystal Palace isn’t inspiring and his injury record is a concern, a solid fifteen goals a season forward was a must. For three seasons now Newcastle have lacked a creative number ten, again such a signing was a requirement. Left back was another position that clearly required work, Paul Dummett is a mainstay on Tyneside but his capabilities as a first choice PL left back has long been questioned, giving him competition was another no brainer.
None of these areas were adequately address. Lucas Perez was a rumoured target and the fans craved the deal but the players clearly longed for a return to Spain, which he eventually got, and Newcastle had to settle for Stoke’s third choice striker in Joselu. As for the creative midfielder to sit behind the striker in Rafa’s preferred 4-2-3-1 system none such a player arrived. The same was true of the desired left back signing which also failed to materialise. The fact that Dummett was injured in the first game of the season and will be on the treatment table till November, leaving the club with no recognised senior left back, makes this fact only more depressingly hilarious. Rafa’s desire to sign a senior experienced goalkeeper was a nonstarter.
The signings the club have made are risky at best and downright poor if being critical. Signing Jacob Murphy for £12.5m, Newcastle’s biggest single spend of the summer, from Championship side Norwich City seems like a ludicrous purchase in hindsight. Newcastle desperately needed talent that could walk straight into the first eleven, Murphy has potential but the club are not in a position to be spending their clearly limited resources on potential. Questions can be asked of Rafa’s judgement though it’s likely that he wouldn’t have struck the deal, which was completed with a month and a half of the window left, had he know just how little cash he was going to be left to play with.
That’s not to say that Newcastle haven’t appeared to have unearthed a few gems this summer. Florian Lejeune, signed from SD Eibar for nearly £9m, seems like an impressive steal though his injury at the hands of a reckless Harry Kane scissor-challenge has unfortunately left him on the side line for the last three weeks. Mikel Merino, on loan from Dortmund with an obligation to buy should he play enough, looks like a future star in the making putting on a display in the club’s first victory of the season against West Ham that has the Toon Army already chanting his name.
The club’s failure to land Rafa’s transfer targets was previously thought to be because of the overly bloated squad draining the club’s budget, but the Spaniard managed to address even this and yet the signings didn’t flow. Unwanted high earners, on long contracts, Siem De Jong, Emmanuel Riviere and Tim Krul were shipped out, among several others, yet Rafa still wasn’t backed. Armchair accountants have done the maths and it doesn’t add up, the simple fact is that if Rafa was being given “every penny” there should have been more to spend.
The first two games of the season didn’t make for pleasant viewing for Newcastle United fans, with an opening day defeat to Spurs followed by a woefully poor loss away to fellow promoted club Huddersfield. While the defeat to Spurs could be blamed on Jonjo Shelvey seeing red and a convincing win against West Ham before the international break have given the fan some hope to cling onto it’s clear that even at this early stage it’s going to be long slog of a season for the only top-flight club in the North East.
Not for the first time, and certainly not for the last, Mike Ashley has badly let down the fans of Newcastle United. A summer that should have been filled with anticipation and excitement has instead became one of the most miserable in the club’s recent history. Newcastle United are a historic and well-known club but Rafa Benítez could walk into a European cup competing side tomorrow, right now he’s doing them a favour by being their manager not the other way around. Yet bizarrely Ashley appears to be doing everything in his power to destroy one of the best thing to happen to Newcastle United since Alan Shearer’s world record signing.
Newcastle United are not consigned to relegation this season, far from it, but the task of survival has been made far tougher than it ever needed to be, for little reason as well which only salts the wound. Newcastle may well retain their Premier League status this season but Rafa’s long term future as the man in charge appears unlikely and should he walk then this season will be viewed solely as a failure regards of the club’s league position come next May.
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