Stockholm Syndrome, Newcastle United and reaching Premier League safety…possibly | OneFootball

The term Stockholm Syndrome originated back in the seventies, from a bank siege in the Swedish capital.

There have been many incidents of it over the years but a good example was an aid worker who was captured by the Taliban .

When the marines stormed the compound to rescue her, they shot dead her guard.

Which set the woman off in a blind rage and she started to try and kick lumps out of the bemused soldier.

Why? Because “he had killed a lovely family man.”

Stockholm Syndrome is an emotional response and happens to some abuse and hostage victims when they have positive feelings toward an abuser or captor.

Well it could be argued that 14+ years of abuse had turned us into willing hostages, 50,000 zombies waiting for the next kicking.

However, not any more.

No longer the turgid 90 mins of Bruce ball. No longer the fat man. Now our club is heading for world domination.

Except that’s not going to happen any time soon. In fact, it’s not going to happen for some time.

For me, recent results have been just what I expected.

Why would they have been any different?

We could have Pep, Conte and Klopp as our management team, but it is still the same squad.

For a little while longer.

So I’m on the Eddie Howe bus, until the man is given some players who are actually Premier League standard.

As a kid, I was rubbish at school, with the only subject I was any good at being Maths. Probably from spending my lunch time studying the horse odds and putting my dinner money on a treble at Kempton (via a mate’s older brother). It has stuck with me and I’m still obsessed by statistics.

Which is why I have real doubts about whether, even with four new signings in January, we can turn this around.

Our only hope is for another season like the last, with three other truly rubbish teams. It would mean just 29 points being enough needed to stay up.

I don’t see how we can get 37 or more points. Its simply mathematics.

With 20 games remaining, if we accept that we are not beating any of the top six, we would need to win at least 7 or 8 of the remaining 14. Its a big ask.

So we must beat the likes of Watford, Leeds, Brighton, Palace, Southampton, Brentford, Norwich and Burnley. No gallant draws, we have to beat those around us. In addition, we need one or two points from the likes of Leicester, Villa, Everton and Wolves.

However, we know football isn’t played on a spreadsheet, so we may just go and beat Man Utd. Maybe.

The next five months are going to be seriously stressful and you know that our survival is going to come down to Burnley away on the last day, with the entire country and the Ref, being Burnley fans.

So bring it on.

Who would have thought this time last year, that we would be in this position? Fair enough, being bottom of the league was very very predictable, but having the resource to build our club back into something really special, is something that I for one just didn’t see it happening 12 months ago.

I’ve just read Michael Bennett’s piece about Leicester staying up in 2014/15, so we know it can be done. We are no longer hostages to that Stockholm Syndrome attitude.

Just accept the stuffings that will happen along the way…but let’s just get the lads over the line in these cup finals coming up.

This time next year Rodney…