Let’s show our class tonight – On AND off the pitch | OneFootball

Before the first game of the season, the Premier League decided that every ground should observe a minute’s silence in memory of Diogo Jota, who tragically died along with his brother in à motoring accident on 3 July 2025.

This summer has also seen of course the ongoing Alexander Isak transfer window situation.

I don’t want to rake over old ground regarding that, enough has been said elsewhere about Liverpool FC’s shenanigans and Isak’s badly advised conduct.

However, what I did want to talk about was Newcastle United fans and the bad feeling engendered by Liverpool’s role in unsettling our striker.

Demonstrated by some of the vitriol aimed at the Merseyside club and their fans via social media and even pm the comments section of sites like The Mag.

My worry being that this might indicate that some of our fans could be so disgusted and frustrated by the whole transfer window nonsense, that they may have been tempted to show their displeasure by disrupting any tribute to Diego Jota.

I sincerely hoped that this wouldn’t be the case. Surely people can differentiate between a club’s ownership playing games and a deserved tribute to a well liked player.

One comment I saw and replied to recently was along the lines of why should the EPL do this for Diogo Jota but not for Cheick Tiote or Christian Atsu? The simple answer is that our two lads were not EPL players when they sadly passed away but Diogo Jota was. He would have been either lining up in the middle or sitting ready on the bench for the opening games of the season.

I needn’t have worried about our away game at Aston Villa – the minute’s silence was impeccably observed by every fan within the ground and that was commented upon by Darren Fletcher on the TNT coverage.

There’s a time for tribalism in football – to a certain extent it’s what we as fans are all about – but that time is definitely not during a show of respect for a deceased rival and of solidarity with their family, loved ones and colleagues. Happily, our traveling fans agreed with that sentiment. Well done to them!

However, since that opening game, relationships seem to have become even more acrimonious, whichever permutation of ‘Alexander Isak, Newcastle United, Liverpool, fanbases’ you care to look at.

Isak’s poorly judged and badly timed personal statement seems to have spectacularly misfired, resulting in a counter statement by our club, a massive upsurge in negativity towards him from our own fans and, reportedly, a hardening of resolve by the Newcastle United owners that he will not get his way.

This all serves to promise possibly the most charged and potentially toxic atmosphere at St James’ Park in living memory tonight, with Newcastle United fans maybe divided as to who is the greater villain in this tragedy – Alexander Isak or Liverpool.

The NUFC away fans sent Isak their own message at the end of Saturday’s match and I’m sure at home the NUFC fans will want to do the same. I really hope though, that they show the same restraint by supporting the lads 100% during play and saving that jibe for after the final whistle.

In an article I read on The Mag last week, Matthew Robson referred to the bad feelings around tonight’s game and the fact that our fans will be massively motivated to show their displeasure at Liverpool’s sneaky disruption of our pre-season but goes on to say,

“It is up to the Newcastle United players to harness this in the right way. To take the occasion and that atmosphere, then use it as a massive positive.”

I would say the same for the Newcastle United fans.

Harness your feelings, your energy and emotions, your rage even, in the RIGHT way. As a poster on The Mag comments section said to me in a reply to my own comment about this issue, “I meant …… for us to create a raucous, intimidating atmosphere to get our players really up for it – similar to what we did against PSG.”

We want St James’ Park to be a red hot cauldron but not of hate. The eyes of the footballing world will be on this game like never before. At the moment, the consensus of “expert’ opinion is overwhelmingly in our favour (we know which club the exceptions are aligned with!) but we all know how quickly that worm can turn. Our fans have to express their emotions in such a way that the players are buoyed by it and Liverpool are rattled as a result. Focus on us rather than them.

The slightest sign of boorish, tasteless or loutish behaviour by our fans will be latched upon by the media, expanded exponentially and used to show how we deserve the trials and tribulations we have faced (largely due to PSR issues) during this transfer window.

For example, there has been talk of Liverpool fans marking Jota’s passing with a minute’s applause on the 20 minute mark during their own games this season – something sadly reminiscent of our own tribute to Liam and John following the MH17 outrage.

If this happens, then hopefully the fans at SJP will show respect at that 20 minute point, just as I remember other fans doing for Liam and John.

Come on lads and lasses. Give Liverpool Hell tonight but do it by supercharging our own players and, if their fans do make that tribute, then show the respect that the deceased deserve.

Please show the world that in this issue we have the class that Liverpool FC lack.