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Tyne Talk

The longest ever Newcastle United season for so many reasons – 350 days later

4 years ago
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Whilst most of the football was instantly forgettable, nobody will forget the 2019/20 Newcastle United season in a hurry.

Kicking off on Sunday 11 August 2019, 350 days later it ends on Sunday 26 July 2020.

Details of the 2020/21 Premier League season have now been made public, with kick-off on Saturday 12 September 2020 and the final round of games scheduled for Sunday 23 May 2021.

Instead of 350 days, next season scheduled to end only 253 days after kicking off, as those running football attempt to get the various domestic, European and international football calendar back in sync.

The Bundesliga showed the way it could be done safely and professionally and all credit to the Premier League for also doing a great job in restarting and finishing the 2019/20 season.

Nobody enjoyed the fact that it was football without fans but it was a necessary evil to ensure that countless other problems weren’t added to those already with us, due to the interrupted / extended season.

Back inside St James Park

After football without fans, we are now set for football with some fans.

The plan is that provided trials at various sporting stadia prove successful, in October we will see supporters back inside Premier League grounds.

Initial reports talk of around a third of capacity at St James Park and other stadiums being able to be used. Everything crossed that this goes ahead and then steps up quickly from there, in terms of numbers allowed.

What are the odds on that?

As detailed above, the intention is to see the 2020/21 Premier League season end 253 days after kicking off.

Wonder what odds the bookies would give on that successfully happening?

After this 2019/20 season, none of us should take anything for granted.

Who would ever have predicted that the simple pleasures of a few pints before and after watching 90 minutes of football inside St James Park, would be made illegal…?

We all hope that everything will rapidly improve inside and outside of football, so that words such as lockdown, social distancing and furloughing are one day soon looked back on as a period in history we lived through, rather than it still being our living history.

Did somebody mention a takeover?

For selfish reasons of course, we make no apology for desperately wanting / needing this Newcastle United takeover to happen, as well as the virus situation to be brought under lasting control.

During this 351 day season, 109 of those days have also seen the Premier League process ongoing on ticking boxes for the NUFC takeover.

This has added insult to injury for Newcastle fans, an insulting farce from Premier League chiefs to endure, on top of the virus situation.

As well as hopefully the positive outcome that the vast majority of us crave, it will be intriguing to see what if anything is made public as to why the Premier League took so long about it.

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