Defining Newcastle United success… and failure | OneFootball

How do you define Newcastle United success?

We all play the game don’t we.

Ahead of each season, all Newcastle United fans will have their own ideas of what will constitute success in the next 10 months or so.

On The Mag, we see some regular contributors asked a pre-season set of questions and amongst them is always a ‘what would you see as success this season?’

The responses are always a combination of Premier League aspirations and Cup dreams.

Newcastle United have now played 18 matches in the opening four months of this 2024/25 season, so has it been a success so far, or failure?

Stripping everything back, these are the 2024/25 Newcastle United results so far, in order:

Wins:

Southampton, Forest, Spurs, Wolves, AFC Wimbledon, Chelsea, Arsenal, Forest

Bournemouth, Man City, Everton, Palace, Liverpool

Losses:

Fulham, Brighton, Chelsea, West Ham, Brentford

So that gives us so far – Played 18 Won 8 Drawn 5 Lost 5

Back in the dark days, the claimed expectation was ‘We don’t demand a team that wins, we demand a club that tries…’

Quite clearly, that has proved purely of its time.

We now have a club that tries AND a team that wins more than it loses.

Yet fair to say that this season you have a very vocal minority of Newcastle United fans who see the current position and the form so far, as disastrous.

The more rational overwhelming majority of Newcastle United fans seeing those season’s form as something between disappointing and half decent, in the circumstances.

Those circumstances being that Newcastle United was a team and club on its knees three years ago and it was always going to be a huge LONG-term project to turn it completely around. A process that did reach a disastrous point this summer, when PSR limits were going to be breached, so young exciting players Anderson and Minteh had to be sacrificed, whilst there was no money (PSR flex) to bring in first team contenders (it has now become clear that if Marc Guehi had been signed, then one or more other sales would have been needed to help balance things on the PSR side).

For those Newcastle United fans determined to see the current position after 18 games as a disaster, I have zero doubt that they will now be shouting ‘yes but if you take away the three wins in the Carabao Cup…’

The thing is though, I can absolutely guarantee you that these same people would be 100 percent including defeat in any cup match(es) amongst a ‘catalogue of disastrous results.’ You can’t have it all ways.

As things currently stand, Newcastle United are averaging 1.33 points per Premier League game, which if continued would get us 50 points by the end of the season. Only fair to point out that before Eddie Howe and the current owners came along, only one season since 2005/06 had Newcastle United managed 50 points or more.

It isn’t a case of thinking any improvement on the Mike Ashley era can be called a success, far from it, but that does show the very low base NUFC were coming from. The scale of the rebuild and recovery needed.

Going back to what would equal success this season.

A comment made pretty much across the board, every summer, every pre-season, is that if a trophy was at last delivered in a cup competition, then that would make any league position all but meaningless, in terms of potentially being seen as a failure.

This is where I see it as particularly sheer stupidity for any Newcastle United fan who is shouting for Eddie Howe to be sacked now.

For me, well-run clubs don’t end up giving the mid-season sack, especially to a manager who has been at that club a while, unless it is a disastrous situation.

Which for me is if you are staring relegation in the face.

NOT when you are currently on course for 50 points by the end of the season, looking forward to a home quarter-final in one cup and a home third round tie in another cup against League Two opposition.

Any sensible club will always choose to wait until the close season if they want to look at changing managers, things can then be done properly and you have far more chance of getting the right person, as a bigger pool to fish from. As any club is going to fight tooth and nail to keep a talented manager mid-season, as it would cause chaos and potential disaster, plus who could they then attract in mid-season themselves.

In nine days time, Newcastle United could find themselves only one (two-legged) tie away from a return to Wembley.

I think Eddie Howe definitely deserves as a minimum to be given the rest of this season to see what he can achieve by the end of May 2025.

To my mind, there is everything to potentially lose and nothing to be gained, by sacking Eddie Howe any time during this season.

Newcastle United are just one of many inconsistent clubs this season and as things stand, only five points off fifth place which very very likely would give Champions League football next season, as England and Portugal are currently the countries in line to get an extra place for the 2025/26 season.

I am not saying that NUFC will get top five BUT at the same time I don’t think it is impossible, as our results are very much the same as all of those other clubs outside the top four.

If some astute business can be done in January, with sales of some non-essential players finally achieved to help allow a couple of first team contenders to come in, then that could help United at last find a bit of consistency this season. Any team putting a run of wins together, could quickly transform their situation.

Whilst as importantly (more importantly?), wins over Brentford and Bromley at St James’ Park, would see Newcastle United then guaranteed to be still in both cups into February 2025 at least, as the second leg of a Carabao Cup semi-final would be played in the first midweek of February 2025, followed by a fourth round FA Cup match on the weekend of Saturday 8 February 2025.

This is not a happy clapper everything is great article.

It is simply an attempt to argue that getting rid of Eddie Howe would be senseless during this season and the only route as I see it for Newcastle United fans, is to get/stay fully behind the manager and players.