Ridiculous comments made on Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett | OneFootball

Wednesday we found out that Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett were definitely leaving Newcastle United this summer.

Both long-term fixtures at the club.

Paul Dummett at St James’ Park as man and boy, Matt Ritchie signed by Rafa Benitez in summer 2016 as he rebuilt the squad for a promotion push after Mike Ashley’s second relegation in the space of seven Premier League campaigns.

Whilst some comments from Newcastle United fans went predictably and laughably way over the top in eulogising one or both players’ contributions to the Newcastle United cause, it was the ones at the other end of the spectrum that really grabbed my intention.

Not a new thing of course, we have had at year of this, or maybe more.

These Newcastle United fans wanting to once again tell us how shocking it was that Eddie Howe kept Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett this past season.

This supposedly an appalling error of judgement by Howe and the club that seriously impacted the 2023/24 season.

These kind of comments on both Paul Dummett and Matt Ritchie are something that I had been intending to write about for some time but never got round to it. So now they are finally leaving I thought I had better be cracking on with it!

When Paul Dummett and Matt Ritchie were given one year extensions in summer 2023, it was NOT a case of this being at the expense of buying a couple of £30m/£40m first team contenders.

If Dummett and/or Ritchie had turned down the extra year’s contract, then almost certainly no extra replacements would have been drafted in. Eddie Howe would have simply had one or two less players available throughout the season.

Plus, Eddie Howe has been at pains to repeatedly say that both Ritchie and Dummett have been great characters behind the scenes, both on and off the training ground.

The quite obvious great spirit and togetherness of this Eddie Howe Newcastle United squad doesn’t happen by accident. There is a senior leadership group of older players including the likes of Jamaal Lascelles and Dan Burn that helps foster that unity and spirit, both Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett were also part of that senior group.

If you think so what, this will automatically happen regardless of who is at a club… well just look at the way Man U and Chelsea have carried on this season, both in public and private. Both clubs with players clearly not trying at times, picking and choosing when they wanted to give their ‘all’, can you imagine that being tolerated at Newcastle United these days??? Bruno Fernandes is not only one of the senior leadership group at Man U, he is the actual captain!!! Imagine having a character like him as your main man and representing your club?

Due to the qualifying criteria in terms of who can play for you in European competition, the balance in the squad between homegrown and those not, Eddie Howe also made it known that this was also another reason for keeping Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett last season, extra bodies just in case.

Which of course all it ever was overall.

Having a couple of experienced players on low wages, no transfer fee needing to be paid, who were on call if Newcastle United experienced a ridiculous number of injuries…

If last season’s unprecedented injury crisis hadn’t happened, we would never have seen Matt Ritchie and/or Paul Dummett in a single Premier League matchday squad I fancy.

As for how low down in the Newcastle United squad they actually were in reality, in terms of Eddie Howe intending them to be used, despite the massive injury problems, Dummett and Ritchie actually still only played 131 Premier League minutes between them in total last season.

The thing is as well, when called on, both Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett contributed to the black and white clause last season.

They weren’t useless or a liability, overall they did well.

Matt Ritchie

Matt Ritchie played 116 minutes of 2023/24 Premier League football, spread thinly across 13 matches. Basically in the main, brought on with others to help close games out when so many other squad players missing.

His biggest PL contribution last season saw him come on with Newcastle trailing Bournemouth 2-1 at St James’ Park, Ritchie scoring two minutes into added time to grab a point.

He also played cameos in the cups off the bench, the FA Cup wins at Fulham and Sunderland, the defeat at Chelsea in the League Cup.

The undoubted highlight overall though last season, was when Matt Ritchie started in a much changed Eddie Howe eleven at Old Trafford and battered Man U 3-0 in the League Cup.

Paul Dummett

The Geordie defender only had 15 minutes of Premier League football across five cameos off the bench.

His critics absolutely loving it when Lewis Hall couldn’t carry on against Everton late on. Newcastle missed chance after chance in a game they should have easily won, only for a cross late in the game seeing Dummett give away a penalty on Ashley Young. VAR made the penalty happen and when I watched the replays when I got home, I definitely think it could have been a case Young ‘cleverly’ winning this spot-kick, as he had hold of the NUFC defender as well and to me, made it so Dummett fell along with him.

Even though if it was a Dummett error, that doesn’t then mean he was useless last season and a massive error of judgement to keep him around. At worst it was a mistake made late in a match which proved costly.

Anyway, even the harshest critic surely needs to look at the full picture.

In the cup competitions, Paul Dummett came on in the final stages of the ever so easy win at Sunderland.

However, that isn’t what I want to focus on.

Against Manchester City in the League Cup, Eddie Howe made the brave (reckless…?) decision to change all ten outfield players. Surely an invitation to get hammered and just look, Paul Dummett at centre-half…

As it happened, Dummett was one of those key to the brilliant win, a superb individual display that saw he and the rest of the NUFC defence restrict Man City to zero goals and only two efforts on target.

Then a month later he repeated that, along with Matt Ritchie the defender started at Old Trafford and helped NUFC keep another clean sheet and also restrict Man U to only two efforts on target, as United humiliated Man U on home turf.

Their time on the pitch may have been limited in the final Newcastle United season for both BUT I think both they and Eddie Howe can look on it as the right decision and a job well done.

Paul Dummett and Matt Ritchie positively contributing off AND on the pitch in the 2023/24 season for Newcastle United.