Richard Keys on wind up with Newcastle United yet again – No surprise he messes up once more | OneFootball

With Richard Keys, you can be absolutely sure of one thing.

He will say absolutely anything to wind people up and get attention.

This is especially so with Richard Keys and Newcastle United fans, he absolutely loves it.

His mission in life is to irritate as many people as he can.

Which to be fair he is pretty good at!

No surprises that he messes up yet again when trying to be clever about Newcastle United, though I do admit to having some sympathy with his viewpoint on what Tottenham player Romero said after their defeat to Arsenal.

Richard Keys via his personal blog – 16 September 2024:

“How much do we hear about ‘small margins’ these days? I thought it was interesting to see Christian Romero appearing to criticise Tottenham’s travel arrangements for players who were on international duty.

“The Mail report he reposted a message by an Argentinian journalist that claimed Spurs ‘gave an advantage’ to Arsenal because they were ‘the only PL club that made their players come back from their national teams without their own logistics’.

“In English, the journo and Romero were saying Spurs should’ve organised private flights for players – not rely on national federations to book scheduled flights. Arsenal’s players arrived back in England Thursday – Spurs’ Argentinian contingent on Friday.

“Perhaps Romero has got a point? Maybe there is something in his argument. If there is, I wonder if he thought about organising his own travel? Players can certainly afford such luxuries these days and I’m certain he would’ve done for a shopping trip!

“Well played Newcastle.

“What a start they’ve had.

“Perhaps the Saudi’s were right to stop spending after all?

“Of course I’m being a little facetious.

“It’s a great ‘start’, but the Toon are way short on numbers if they’re to mount a sustained challenge for honours.”

This idea/lie of Newcastle United not having a very strong squad, is something that is a follow-on from last season. The 2023/24 season saw Newcastle United experience the worst ever season in their history, when it came to the number of first team squad players getting injured and how many matches they missed. Then on top of all that, summer 2023 star signing Sandro Tonali only started a handful of games before the out of the blue suspension hit Eddie Howe on top of everything else. Any club would have struggled with so regularly an entire team’s worth of players unavailable, sometimes more! Then layered on top of that, were all the extra Champions League matches and decent domestic cup runs, that saw a small number of available players having to contend with week after week, midweek after midweek.

Obviously there are limitations on just how big and deep the Newcastle United squad can be, with PSR limiting how much can be spent on wages and transfer fees compared to certain other clubs.

However, it is very amusing that Richard Keys chooses the aftermath of the win at Wolves to claim Newcastle United ‘are way short of numbers’, when you take into account what was the reality.

The win at Molineux was actually very much to do with Newcastle United having the ‘numbers’, key to the victory was Eddie Howe having been able to bring off the bench the quality of Trippier, Tonali, Barnes, Kelly and Willock.

How many other Premier League clubs had that kind of quality to call on off their benches at the weekend?

The other four unused subs at Wolves were also very good back up, in Krafth, Osula, Almiron and Dubravka. Whilst Matt Targett was dropped from the bench due to the competition, as more and more players become available to Eddie Howe.

This is despite the likes of Sven Botman, Jamaal Lascelles, Lewis Miley and Callum Wilson having still been unavailable.

There is always room for improvement and an even stronger Newcastle United first team squad. However, only the likes of Richard Keys would still be claiming this is an NUFC squad that is ‘way short of numbers.’