Newcastle’s wild title dreams
The most bizarre relegation candidate in Europe
By Tobias Nordman
01/18/2022, 06:34 p.m
Newcastle United may soon be bottom of the Premier League table. But this view does not spoil the mood. Because soon it will be about titles again. The new bosses rely on a tough, calculated transfer policy.
The (fever) dreams are rampant at the richest club in the world. 95 years after the last championship and 67 years after the last national trophy (FA Cup), it shouldn’t be too long before Newcastle United are finally back at the top of the English football league. Nobody knows when that will be. But what you do know: This season there will be nothing more with the attack on the great powers of Manchester (City), Liverpool and London (Chelsea FC). This season, the Magpies are all about one thing: surviving in the Premier League.
And it’s likely to be a hell of a long battle before the world’s richest club can address the issues that the new Saudi Arabian owners are claiming. A reordering of the English and European football world. The attack will presumably be announced in the summer on the transfer market. Of course, it will already be rampant this winter. Must also, because the club is sporting damn bad.
In the FA Cup, the team has just made a fool of themselves at a third division team, in the league they are in 19th place, so they are penultimate. The team has only managed to win one (!) in 20 attempts so far. This is, I have to say, pathetic. Only bottom side, Burnley FC, are just as bad but have three games behind to correct that record a bit. The fact that two other clubs, Norwich City and Watford FC, are also hardly able to do anything is currently the best news for United. Three clubs are relegated.
It’s pretty crazy what’s happening in Newcastle right now, because reality doesn’t eat up the dreams of the loyal supporters. The frustration about the current situation is being swallowed up by the euphoria of the future for what is perhaps the most loyal fans in the league. That’s not a matter of course. The takeover of multi-million to billion-dollar investors does not always find only love. On the island, however, reservations about new wealth are now far less pronounced than in Germany and the Bundesliga, for example. When it became known in October last year that a consortium with Saudi participation was taking over the club, thousands of fans celebrated a wild party. It doesn’t matter that the investors are also brutally concerned with image, economic and power politics! Just like the escalated dispute with the league about the takeover.
Spectacular intermediate step necessary
Now the thing is done, the dreams are big. Even greater, however, is the mountain of (transfer) work that the club has to carry out. With the squad from the first half of the season, this realization quickly caught on, there is more of a threat of cruelty (relegation) than glory (attack on title and Europe) in summer 2022. The threatening situation in the league forces the sporting builders to perform a mighty balancing act. Before the top transfer shelf is to be accessed in the summer, class fighters are needed, preferably with perspective. The busy right-back Kieran Trippier is one of those (he came from Atlético Madrid for around 14 million euros), and the busy DFB promoted Robin Gosens from Atalanta Bergamo is said to be one of them. Even if his club defends itself against the rumors and negates a change plan by Gosens.
In fact, the Magpies have identified the defensive as an urgent area to work on. In view of 43 goals conceded in 20 games, a very understandable analysis. The team often messed up games in the last few minutes. However, the offensive with only 20 goals has not yet escalated profitably. Trippier is a man for both construction sites, a terrier in a duel, a man with dangerous crosses and set pieces. Gosens is a constant driver, not necessarily the man for walls, but always dangerous with his energetic runs on the left wing.
Trippier and Gosens are those players who could make sense for Newcastle to continue next season. Does that also apply to center forward Chris Wood? Rather questionable. The New Zealander has just been signed for a staggering €30m from Burnley FC, where he was a key player for years. In previous seasons he had always scored from two goals that he only scored three goals this season, well. But in fact, United were not only concerned with weakening an opponent, but also with compensating for Callum Wilson’s prolonged absence.
First big transfer frenzy in winter
Now these obligations (or at Gosens the implied ones) should only be the first big excesses of behavior on the transfer market. In any case, the association does not have to take any financial considerations into account. That’s why the rumors about the Brazilian central defender Diego Carlos (for around 50 million from FC Sevilla, where he is a regular player) and Leipzig’s midfielder Amadou Haidara (for well over 20 million) seem quite credible. You can buy what you want (and what is available).
And because footballers and consultants know about this brave new world of salaries and ambitions, half of Europe is in the shop window (according to the relevant rumours) posing for the gorgeous bride. Connections are launched across all leagues. Which, however, is anything but unusual. As early as this winter, a top ensemble of dissatisfied people could gather in Newcastle.
From the Champions League winners Keylor Navas (Paris St. Germain) and Isco (Real Madrid) to the Dutch international Donny van de Beek (Manchester United, probably rather averse). Sounds spectacular, but probably doesn’t make much sense at the moment. It still needs fighters, not finesse and strategists. This is the step after next and is already being prepared (in the media).
And so the names for the future Gloria already tolerate (wildly) in the background. Marc-André ter Stegen is traded, as are Niklas Süle, Toni Kroos, Florian Wirtz and Timo Werner. Apparently there are also dreams of the return of Georginio Wijnaldum, who knows the club and inspired them in the 2015/16 season before moving to Liverpool and who is now dissatisfied in Paris.
Ousmane Dembélé should not be averse to the lush prospects, and Philippe Coutinho is also a candidate. He proved on his Aston Villa debut at the weekend that he can still be an exceptional footballer despite his ongoing career hiatus. Wild (fever) dreams are rampant at the richest club in the world. No matter how threatening the reality is right now.