It has to be Premier League top four over a cup – Finances continuing to grow and competitive in future | OneFootball

Now we are in between seasons, we wanted to get a Newcastle United fans snapshot of opinion.

The idea is to get a range of views of what various Mag writers (Newcastle United fans) think about what has happened and the current position.

Then most importantly, what is going to happen at Newcastle United moving forward.

So we have sent various regular and irregular contributors sets of questions, including some the same as others and some different.

Next up we have Billy Miller:

Scale of 1-10, how interested in England at the Euros?

10 because I’m here.

How interesting am I finding England at the Euros? That would be a 1!

Scale of 1-10, how interested in the Euros generally?

10 again. Same reason.

A lot of the other games have been entertaining.

Three words to describe Newcastle United now?

Restricted by nonsense (specifically PSR)

A must win game and the whole current squad fit (not banned) and available, which 11 would you select?

Pope Trippier Schar Botman Burn Gordon Tonali Bruno Joelinton Barnes Isak

I prefer Gordon on the left but I think he’s still mega-effective off the right and I wanted to get Barnes into my team. Livramento and Hall are right on the heels of Trippier and Burn.

Your thoughts on each of the signings made in 2023 and how you see their role (if any), their importance (or not) for the 2024/25 season – Gordon, Minteh, Livramento, Hall, Tonali, Barnes

Gordon – super signing. Anyone that had doubts him when he walked through the door must have seen them quelled. He has been superb and I am chuffed to bits that he’s turned out to be such a superstar both on and off the pitch.

Minteh – great season out on loan. Looked like he could be the future of the right hand side of the pitch but all the headlines are about him departing so that we can meet our PSR obligations. What a world we live in where we have to sell young talent to balance the books despite the books being made of gold. I’d like to think in the next few years we’ll get some more commonsense filtering through on these rules but I’m not holding my breath.

Livramento – a lot of money for a lad who’d spent nearly all the previous campaign injured. A lot of money well spent by the looks of it. Could be our first choice right back for a decade if he fulfils his potential.

Hall – see Livramento. I have a friend whose nephew came through the Chelsea academy. When we signed Hall, he rang me up to say that he was the best player in that academy and a future England star for sure. Let’s hope he proves to be correct.

Tonali – We’ll soon be seeing Tonali in a Newcastle shirt once more and he has a lot of work to do to repay us for what occurred last season. I think he’ll pay us back and some, I can’t wait to see how he fares. The fact he took a voluntary pay cut and has remained amongst the team in training and completing community projects has been ideal. Some players may have cried off, saying they were homesick and vowed to follow a personal routine back in their home country. It speaks volumes about his character that he’s caused no problems behind the scenes and has appeared both committed and remorseful. Look how naff Italy have looked in the Euros without him as well.

Barnes – frustrating that he picked up so many injuries last season. He’s only played less than 30 league games once for Leicester over the last four years. He’s only played as few league games as last season once in his professional career and that was his first season, out on loan at Milton Keynes. I’m sure we’ll see a lot more of him next time out. His goal return was excellent when he was on the pitch and his double against West Ham was one of my moments of the season.

Hand on heart, where do you think Newcastle will finish in the 2024/25 Premier League?

Last season, I felt like top six was most likely and we finished a whisker below that. I think top six will probably be the most likely outcome again. I think Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool (despite the loss of Klopp) will finish above us and then all the other teams that finished in the top eight last season are so unpredictable it’s impossible to call.

Chelsea were starting to gel but have hit the self-destruct button. Tottenham fell away last season and Villa have a lot to do with top level European football to contend with. Hopefully, Man United continue playing the way they did last season, but this time have a league position that reflects those performances. That would see them somewhere in the bottom six.

The three most improved NUFC players as we look forward to the 2024/25 season?

Gordon has to be number one. It took him that first half season to get up to speed but he’s now hit top speed and never slowed down.

Hall, I don’t know if he falls into a most improved as he just wasn’t playing too much at the start of the season as Eddie managed his minutes and nurtured him through. I do think that in those early cameos he always seemed to pick a backwards pass and not push on. When he was playing regularly late in the season he looked a lot more forward thinking and confident.

Krafth is a player that I would have happily seen sold over the last couple of seasons. If we got a decent offer, I still wouldn’t say no. However, whenever he’s been needed, he has acquitted himself admirably and with his ability to play across the defence he’s quite a valuable player to have when the injuries bite.

Special mention for Longstaff’s goal return. He scored more goals last season than in his previous five Newcastle seasons combined!

I still feel he’s probably behind Bruno, Joey, Tonali and Willock when all are available. Anderson and Miley are pushing him close too. He was fit all of last season so played a huge part in keeping us respectable but I wouldn’t be averse to accepting a decent offer for him to help with PSR.

Is it still a Premier League big six, or is it seven (incl NUFC), or is it an eight (incl NUFC and Villa)?

The only way you can call the big six, the big six, is in terms of revenue.

The last few seasons have shown that other teams can penetrate the top six positions with us and Villa doing it most impressively. Brighton, West Ham and Leicester have been up there too in the last four seasons. Financially everything is tilted against those of us trying to break into the elite but on the pitch it’s very different. It will take a bit more time before Villa or us can get anywhere near the greedy six for revenue but we can certainly remain in the conversation for the top six.

What do you think should happen with VAR, what changes or get rid of altogether? Maybe just sack all of PGMOL and bring in a foreign contingent.

Half the controversial (and all the extensively delayed) decisions from the Euros have come from the guff that we have provided for the tournament. We have brought in foreign players and managers for years to improve the standard of our game. Should we consider trying the same with match officials? Surely the ‘best league in the world’ should have (and be able to attract) the best officials?

Press a magic button and have a 62,000 capacity enlarged St James’ Park in place, or a brand new 80,000 capacity stadium just up the road at Castle Leazes?

Can’t we just combine the two???

We need that 80,000 but I am one of those sentimental suckers that wants us to stay where we are. I love the location, love the stadium and the history. Gun to my head, I would choose the new stadium.

If we can do something with St James’ Park to ensure it isn’t demolished and then create a gargantuan, sparkly, maximum revenue generating powerhouse of a stadium that most of us can get into, it’d be hard to turn that down.

The way I will try to be positive about moving is to think of St James’ Park as our history and our heritage but then look at a new stadium as the beacon of our bright future.

Next three seasons, would you rather finish top four all three seasons BUT win nothing, or finish mid-table all three seasons AND win the League Cup in one of the three?

It’s got to be top four surely?

We’ve waited 55 years for a trophy. Of course, I would love to see one.

However, if we finish mid-table the next three seasons but win the League Cup, we will also see our best players steadily being traded out as we no longer appear able to match their ambitions.

If we finish top four, three seasons in a row, our finances will continue to grow, our squad will continue to strengthen and come the end of those three years we’ll probably be in a position to win trophies over the following seasons.

With the summer business you are anticipating, what could NUFC be capable of next season?

More than the signings themselves, I think the most important thing is keeping our core group together and not having such an injury-impacted campaign. If that happens, we should be right up in the top six and banging on the Champions League door once more.

Our squad is stronger than the one that originally qualified for the Champions League so I have faith that we can be pushing for that again.

Would you like to draw Sunderland again in one of the cups this coming season?

I wouldn’t mind that at all. Practically a bye to the next round.