We will always be in the debt of the ‘Fella who got Bournemouth relegated’ | OneFootball

It is December 2021 and I’m sitting in the East stand watching Newcastle United in an awful game of football.

Until some Burnley keeper called Pope, drops a cross right onto the feet of Callum Wilson.

Our man puts it away and we go on to win our relegation six pointer 1-0.

It’s been something like eight games since the new Newcastle United owners have taken over but we haven’t won any of them.

Nevertheless, these three points take us off the bottom of the table, to the giddy heights of 19th.

The lad I am with says to me:

“You never know, with a bit of luck, we just might stay up, especially if this new lot are prepared to spend a few bob in January.”

I’m really not convinced and with my ‘glass fully empty’ head on, my answer is that we have no chance of staying up. Not with a squad filled with the likes of Marty, Schar, Willock, Wilson, Krafth, Longstaff and especially, that Billy Goat playing in a black and white shirt, Joelinton.

My mate tells me to stop being so negative and to give it a few more games before giving up.

As it turns out, we don’t win any of our next six games , which includes a home cup defeat to Cambridge.

I rest my case.

As we go to Leeds on January 22nd, we have won one game in 20 in the Premier League and to cap it all, our new owners have replaced the clueless Steve Bruce, with Eddie Howe.

Really?

Apparently the messiah is going to be ‘The Fella who got Bournemouth relegated’ (© Steve Bruce).

Its fair to say that this supporter is not a believer. When my mate suggests that we try and buy a season ticket now, before it becomes completely impossible to do so, I tell him that :

“It is ok John, I will take my chances.”

This is where Newcastle were, just three short years ago.

Just read that sentence again. Three short years ago.

Since then, 4th and 7th , Champions League and two trips to Wembley.

Oh, and a freaking Trophy!

As you are all well aware, a possibly slightly fortunate Shelvey goal wins the game at Leeds and it changes everything. We win 12 and lose only five games in our run in and the rest is history.

Albeit a very short history.

There was so much about Sunday’s game at Wembley that had me scratching my head in disbelief, but the one thing that stood out, was the utter commitment from every one of them to run themselves into the ground for the cause.

This was perfectly encapsulated by the pictures of Jacob Murphy staggering toward the touch line as if he had drunk 12 pints. The man could no longer walk.

It made me cry with pride and it was light years away from the gutless, uninterested players who wore the shirt in 2021.

And yet half of them were the same players.

We all know how and why this has happened and the reason is Eddie Howe.

Yes, of course he now has world class players in Alexander Isak, Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali but you don’t win cups with three players. You need a team and by God do we have a team.

Eddie Howe won the League Cup on Sunday but he did so much more than that.

He has completed a resurrection of this football club that no matter what is to come in the future, should never be forgotten.