Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

Champions League Needed To Ensure NUFC Stars Stay

12 years ago
Share

I’m sitting writing this hours after Everton’s stunning 4-4 draw with Man Utd served to rubber stamp our return to Europe. It’s provided the welcome cherry on top of a tremendous weekend of results and quite frankly, giddy is not the word.

I’m sure no one would argue that this is beyond expectation. This season has been magnificent, stupendous and consistently exhilarating and there isn’t enough credit in the pubs of Tyneside to do Alan Pardew justice. So it feels all the more weird then, that I am so very desperate for the season to end as quick as possible.

I just want the season to wrap up with Newcastle in fourth place and the Champions League to become a reality. Yesterday’s elevation to fourth spot has seen journalists parrot the opinion I’ve carried for weeks: that qualifying for the big one would insure our whole squad against the desire to depart, while expanding our capacity to recruit considerably.

Providing the backing is there from above, the team we have in place could doubtless excel themselves yet again in the transfer stakes and the sky is the effing jeffing limit next season and no mistake. Fall short and the Europa league is a very welcome consolation and again one that we would have torn from the hand that offered it, if mooted pre-season.

However, is it enough to stem the attentions of potential suitors who might suggest that Newcastle’s narrowly missing out on the Champions League doesn’t mean that Tim Krul/Cheik Tiote necessarily have to as well.

As such, these next four (tough) fixtures could influence our future immeasurably. This is driving me up the wall. I have studied the fixtures and there isn’t a scenario where I don’t see us being affected. Wolves v Man City? We need City to be chasing the title still when they come here, so they don’t play with the freedom of relieved pressure but still far behind enough that they will be cracking.

Aston Villa v Bolton? Away win. Villa need something to play for when they host Spurs on 6th May. The next night Barcelona MUST beat Chelsea to end the horrific spectre of us claiming fourth only for it to be snatched away by these loathsome s***s actually winning the whole thing.

Then on Saturday, with my season’s travelling curtailed by a recent new arrival capturing my attention, I will endure the agony of trying to follow the Wigan game on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday. I might tell you about that later, if I don’t decide to lock myself under the stairs until this agonising 21 days have elapsed and we can finally see the back of the best season in recent memory.

 

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks