🔗 Share this article

The Newcastle manager is not prone to histrionics or grand media pronouncements. Based on his standards, his media briefing after the weekend's 3-1 defeat counts as a angry tirade. Newcastle took an early lead but West Ham took the lead by half-time, while also striking the woodwork and having a penalty overturned by VAR, leading Howe to make a three substitutions at the half-time.

“That was the frustrating thing about the first half,” Howe said. “Virtually any player could have been substituted and I believe that was a reflection of where we were in that moment in the game and it's extremely uncommon for me to have that impression. In fact, I cannot recall having done so since I’ve been head coach of the club, therefore I believed the team needed a significant change at half-time. This explains why I made what I did.”

Three key players were substituted at the interval and the team managed to steady somewhat in the latter period, but never appearing like they might fight back into the contest against an opponent that had won only one of their previous nine league matches. Considering how packed the middle of the table currently is, with just three points dividing third from 11th, and a nine-point margin between the upper and lower ranks, a run of twelve points from 10 games has not left the Magpies stranded but, similarly, they must not finish the season in thirteenth place.

The Problem of Expectations

The challenge partially is one of perception. In the Saudi Public Investment Fund, the club possess the wealthiest backers in the world. The assumption when the PIF acquired a majority stake of the team in recent years was that it would have a transformative effect, similar to the former Chelsea owner had at Chelsea or Sheikh Mansour had at Manchester City. The distinction is that both of those owners took over prior to the introduction of FFP regulations (while the ongoing allegations against Manchester City relate to whether they violated those guidelines after they were implemented).

Financial regulations limit the capacity of owners, however rich, to spend money on their squads and therefore probably would have slowed every Middle Eastern effort to raise Newcastle to the level of Manchester City. However it wasn't necessary for the club's expenditure to have been quite as cautious as it has been; they might have spent more and remained within the threshold – or just accepted a fairly minor European fine given their big problem is more with the European than the Premier League rules.

Stadium Investment and PSR Rules

Besides which, infrastructure spending is exempted from PSR assessments; the simplest way to increase revenue to create more PSR headroom would be to extend or renovate the stadium. Given the site of St James’ Park, with listed buildings on multiple sides, in reality that probably means building an entirely new stadium. Rumors circulated in March of potentially making the short move to a local park – resistance from community organizations could surely have been surmounted with a commitment to build a new park on the current stadium site – but there has not been no movement on that proposal. There has been significant cutbacks from the Saudi fund on a range of initiatives as it shifts focus on local investments; the attitude to Newcastle seems completely in keeping with that change of approach.

The Alexander Isak Situation

The star striker episode was arose from that conflict. A more confident management might have framed his transfer as necessary to free up funds for further spending; instead there was a unsuccessful attempt to retain him. This resulted in Newcastle started the campaign amidst a sense of disappointment despite the signings of several new players. The opening was mixed: one win in their initial six fixtures.

Yet it seemed a corner had been turned. They secured five victories in six matches before the weekend, a run that featured demolitions of Union Saint-Gilloise and Benfica in the European competition. This explains the display against West Ham was such a shock. The issue maybe is that the team's style is very aggressive, high-energy; a minor decrease in intensity can have significant consequences. Maybe the strain of domestic, Champions League and cup matches, five games in a fortnight, had taken its toll. The German forward started all five matches and appeared particularly weary.

The Nature of Modern Soccer

This is the reality of modern the sport. Managers have to be ready to make changes. Howe has been unfortunate that Wissa’s injury has meant he is short of attacking options but, no matter how reasonable the explanations, the weekend's performance was unacceptable –particularly following scoring first at a stadium primed to turn on its own side.

Howe will hope it was just a blip, one of those days when everybody is off-colour simultaneously, but if Newcastle are to qualify for the Champions League next season, let alone one day launch an actual title challenge, they must not be as inconsistent as they have been.