Newsletter

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

Opinion

Kevin Keegan proved absolutely right on Newcastle United takeover

1 year ago
Share

What a difference a year makes, Friday teatime marked the one year anniversary of the Newcastle United takeover being exclusively announced by Newcastle friendly journalist Keith Downie live on Sky Sports News.

Fair to say the club has been transformed in these 12 short months, both on and off the field.

I toyed with the idea of writing an article to coincide with the Friday milestone but held off as I wanted conditions to be perfect, to make it a decent read and be more in sync with the mood.

This was a risk as, with a match against Brentford the day after, the mood could be downbeat despite the progress made at the club. The team could have faltered, they didn’t. The result could have ended up the one we all didn’t want, it didn’t. And the performance could have been flat and uninspiring, I needn’t have worried.

The leaps and bounds not as obvious to those who aren’t of a black and white persuasion that can be seen now in October 2022, directly mirrors the sliding backwards nature of the club a year ago and many aspects of the club have changed and all of them are for the better and the good of the club.

Gone is the self pity, loathing and embarrassment and in have come pride, respect and enjoyment. This was all on display and encapsulated in the impressive 5-1 performance against Brentford.

Results and performances aside, where have we seen great strides this last year with Newcastle United?

Fans

From the moment the Newcastle United takeover was announced, you can’t deny the mood of the fanbase changed.

Many people predicted that fans would be dancing round St James’ Park the second Mike Ashley sold the club and cleared off back to Buckinghamshire and indeed they did. It barely took half an hour for fans to descend on the ground and start singing songs, chanting about their football club and asking themselves where the club could now go.

Special mention to Wor Flags for their excellent work in ramping up the pre-match atmosphere and epitomising the epic sea change in enthusiasm and emotion. The orchestration of their displays are quite something, highlighted in their most recent display on Saturday.

It’s easy to poke fun at the merciless nature of outsiders who insist on not getting what this club is all about and Wor Flags continue to amaze and inspire crowd, players, management and ownership. Imagine those displays on show in a European competition. Keep on doing what you do.

Players

This is where the real test is.

Forget all the background stuff and training ground upgrades for now, results were what mattered this time last year as the club were careering into the Championship under the disastrous management of Steve Bruce.

After a period of getting to know his players, newly installed manager Eddie Howe oversaw a run of form that only Liverpool and Manchester City could better in the second half of last season. This was largely with the same group of players that his predecessor mismanaged so badly and even some of the new signings who picked up injuries and were unavailable.

And what about the love for the players. Joelinton is a prime example, derided and mocked a year ago, deadly and a colossus now. Then there’s Bruno. My word there’s Bruno. In Bruno Guimaraes we have a special player. If ever a player has been a poster boy for the new era and a bench mark for what may be to come, then we witness it whenever he takes to the field.

Others have been a step up in quality. Nick Pope has been assured and confident in goal and Sven Botman hasn’t even been given much chance to show his class but he most certainly will. Then there’s the man who started the revolution, Kieran Trippier. The Brian Kilcline of the Eddie Howe era. You know what you’re getting when you get an out and out top England international.

Management

Professionalism is the overriding aspect that leaps out at me when you look at and listen to Eddie Howe.

When you recall Steve Bruce’s haphazard attitude to training and gambling on player fitness, to have a manager with simple professionalism doesn’t half put the team on an instantly better footing than what went before. He speaks well, doesn’t throw his players under a bus and seems to know how to improve them rather than take them backwards. Sure, I sometimes disagree with his selections but that’s life, the results speak for themselves and how good does it feel to be top six this Monday morning?

Training Facilities

This is more of a slow burner. Work has been done to improve what is already there at the club’s base in Benton but it’s telling that the owners came in and said pretty much straight away that the place wasn’t fit for purpose.

I seem to recall false promises from various Mike Ashley stooges down the years that they wanted to improve the Academy and training ground and after he left with the same promises unfulfilled, Rafa Benitez came out with the damning line of “After three years they painted the walls”. The new owners are planning to move on and start afresh.

The training ground will get there in time but the other area that has shown immediate progress is bringing the women’s side to the fore and allowing them the stage at St James’ Park to play and receive appreciation. Another area that seems to get no mention in the national press, both in criticism of what went previously or praise for what’s happening moving forward.

Stadium

Come on, nobody can seriously look at the ground, be it on TV or in person, and not notice the aesthetical improvement the removal of S****s D****t signage has made. Tacky didn’t begin to describe it and as for the lost revenue over his ownership, you can guarantee that whoever comes in as sponsor / commercial partner in future, they’ll be paying their way.

The stadium looks better but the link with supporter, team and the product on the pitch has made St James’ a far nicer, happier and exciting place to be.

And finally . .

Amalgamating all of the above and even if the average fan of opposing clubs can’t see the difference, then that doesn’t matter to me. The change in attitude across the fanbase is stark and nobody can be in any doubt that where we’re heading is a far better place than where we’ve came from 12 months ago.

The players get the club, the fans and above all else, the project that has been sold to them. No longer is the club a stepping stone to another one, a gateway to the Premier League for overseas players.

The advert for the club is now good. Be that for future investors and sponsors, players and crucially, a new generation of fans. The Newcastle United takeover achieved that in the blink of an eye. It didn’t take twelve months. It literally happened overnight and now it’s bearing real fruit.

It will naturally take a little longer to get some sort of tangible success and heaven forbid some silverware, witness a club captain and manager lift a trophy, but thanks to the people involved, PIF, The Reubens, Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi, the state of the club and the progress already made in such a short space of time has given me great pleasure, but more importantly, the reassurance that things are going in the right direction both on and off the pitch.

The city and the club go hand in hand.

Gone is the downtrodden shell of a club that went before and the knock on effect that has on the public that inhabit the area. We now have a vibrant club and a happier vibrant city with people looking forward to the match, rather than dreading it as some sort of chore to get through week in week out. Fans are now lauding the very players they put their hopes in on a match day and said players reciprocating and enjoying the ride as much as we are.

And two things to finish off.

Cast your minds back to that banner that fans unfurled at the height of the gloom under the Ashley era, “We don’t demand a team that wins, we demand a club that tries”.

We now have both.

“One day you will get your club back and it will be everything you wanted it to be” Kevin Keegan.

No matter what happens in the coming months and years, we’re already there..

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