A team in name only that stands between Newcastle United and Europe | OneFootball

The Battle of Midway was a naval confrontation in the Second World War, fought between the United States and Japan from June 4-7, 1942.

At stake, nearly six months after the attack on Pearl Harbor, was military supremacy in the Pacific. The outcome proved pivotal to the wider conflict between the Allies and the Axis powers.

And what, you might reasonably ask, is the relevance of these musings?

Well, for the past few weeks I’ve been contemplating the Battle of Mid-May, the climax of a conflict that has been gripping fans of Newcastle United since last August.

Events at Old Trafford on Wednesday night may in hindsight be judged as a turning point in the long-running war between the one true United and our bitter rivals in the North West. I see us as the good guys, obviously, while our opponents are an Axis power.

The media, predictably, are majoring on the Salfords, especially since their humiliation at Crystal Palace last week. Ten Hag seems to be a dead man walking at Manchester United, with the realistic prospect of his team losing every remaining match under his tenuous tenure filling acres of newsprint.

As so often, the pundits and commentators can’t see the wood for the trees. A win for the visitors would be our fourth consecutive success against the Mancunian misfits and should secure European fixtures for next season, more nights under the lights of St James’ Park. Europa League or Conference League, bring it on! The burden of two games a week is a small price to pay as we assemble our resources for greater challenges.

However, Wednesday’s match needs to be seen in an even wider context, in which we are the growing force while the opposition continue to slip slide away, just another bunch of mid-table scufflers hamstrung by bizarre recruitment on and off the pitch.

By all accounts, they will soon be appointing their seventh manager / head coach since Auld Purple Nose retired in May 2013.  And that’s not including two stand-ins, Giggs and Carrick.

Sometimes the task of differentiating between a stand-in and a “permanent” gaffer is tricky: Rangnick seemed to be neither one nor the other. They’ve been at sixes and sevens for quite some time. Before kick-off against on Sunday, they were 13/2 to win (at home!). Against Arsenal, who can’t be that good. After all, we beat the small club from Woolwich fair and square this season. The bookies were right again, basing their odds on what had happened since August.

Here are a few facts:

Ten Hag has guided his lot to 19 defeats in 49 matches this season.

They have not lost as often since 1977-78.

They have not finished outside the top seven since 1989-90.

If the bookies are right again, this season they will be eighth. Or, perish the thought, ninth or tenth.

The goal Trossard scored yesterday was the 82nd they have conceded in all competitions. You have to go back to the 1970-71 campaign to match that total. And with two league matches plus an FA Cup final ahead, they are no more likely than Tesco to shut up shop. Clean sheets and a central defence featuring Casemiro and Evans? You’re having a laugh!

History gives context, while having little bearing on the future, but what of the present?

They have amassed only 10 points from their past 11 Premier League matches, losing five. Their current form is not exactly impressive. Yet, almost incredibly, they are still only three points behind Newcastle United after 36 matches.

Even if we do lose at their leaking eyesore on Wednesday, we will still be above them in the table with one game to play because of our vastly superior goal difference. Plus 22 is a lot better than minus four.

Talking of vastly superior, I would back our best 16 players to beat their best 16 any day of the week. And if we do emerge victorious in game 37, we will finish higher than the club formerly known as Newton Heath for the first time since the 1976-77 campaign.

Twelve months after that questionable achievement, we were relegated to the second tier at the end of a chaotic season. This time, the stars seemed to be aligned differently. We are on the up, guided by owners and management with limitless ambition. A team in the true sense of the word.

And Manchester United? A team in name only.

They have certainly splashed the cash. Last September the Football Observatory of CIES (the International Centre for Sports Studies, based in Switzerland) reported they had spent £991.7m assembling their current squad, more than any other club in the world.

Here are a few highlights: Onana £43.8m (rising to £47.2m), Maguire £80m, Wan-Bissaka £50m, Martinez £48m (rising to £56.7m), Varane £34m (rising to £41m), Casemiro £60m (could rise to £70m), Mount £55m (could rise to £60m), Van de Beek £34.6m (could rise to £39m), Fernandes £46.4m, Diallo £19m (could rise to £37m), Antony £85m, Martial £36m (could rise to £58m), Sancho £73m, Hojlund £64m (could rise to £72m).

Not exactly the class of 92, eh?

Incidentally, or perhaps not, the CIES report listed Chelsea, now our closest rivals for sixth place, as the second-biggest spenders on £977.9m. We were ninth on £570m, also behind Man City, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool.

No prizes for noticing the correlation between transfer fees and Premier League position. And the predictable coincidence that the six biggest spenders have one thing in common; the desire to form a European Super League.

If we do finish sixth, ahead of the Salfords and Chelsea, we will be there, relatively speaking, on the cheap. Though we are no longer the bargain basement merchants we were when building the team that finished fourth 12 months ago. With the benefit of hindsight, that achievement was nothing short of incredible.

An honourable mention here for Aston Villa, the Premier League’s cartel busters this season, who were the ninth Premier League club in the CIES report, on £419.1m. The team between us and them? Those loveable Cockerneys who call their ground The London Stadium.

Football at the highest level in this country has been mainly about money for as long as I can remember. There have been some exceptions but from Liverpool in the mid-Seventies, when their dominance began, to Manchester City in the past decade, those with the deepest pockets tend to collect the biggest prizes.

The good news for Newcastle United fans is that our 80% owners have deeper pockets than any rivals. The tide is turning.

Honestly, I can hardly wait to see how all this plays out.