Eeyore, Tigger and the expectations of this Newcastle United fan | OneFootball

If you remember reading Winnie the Pooh, one of the characters in the books is a very morose donkey called Eeyore.

He spends his life hiding away, in a very gloomy place, because he believes that the sky is going to fall in on his head.

As a Newcastle United fan, that’s me, that is.

Eeyore, the gloomy donkey.

To be honest, Newcastle United have probably contributed to making me the grumpy donkey I am today, but I have decided that I need snap out of my Eeyoreness.

Yep, things have not been brilliant, but Wednesday night showed us that this club are not dead and buried and the subsequent cup draw hasn’t done us any harm either.

I’m old enough to have known much worse than this and if you can remember Winnie the Pooh, then so are you.

For me, 1980 was our club’s nadir.

In the January, I watched Ian Rush put us out of the FA Cup. Hardly surprising I hear you say, except that he was not playing for European Cup winning Liverpool, he was playing for Chester. That’s Fourth Division Chester, beating us at home.

Later that year, in August 1980 I witnessed Newcastle United manage to stumble to win 3-2 at St James’ Park in the first leg (back then you played home and away in Round Two) of a League Cup tie against the mighty Bury. The weather that night was truly hideous. There were 10,000 like-minded fools, huddled together on exposed terraces, looking like Penguins in the Antarctic as we tried to shelter from a biblical storm.

With callous disregard to their fate, the young kids amongst us were pushed to the outside of the circle, left to perish.

They were probably the lucky ones because it meant no more Shinton and Rafferty for them. Oh and we lost 1-0 in the second leg and went out of the cup on away goals. What a miserable time.

Believe me, things were a lot worse back then than they are in 2024.

Now I can imagine that comment has wound up a lot of you, who will quite rightly be shouting at your laptop…

“Jinky, you really are an old fart. This is not bleeding nineteen eighty anymore.”

Well dear reader, you would be right on both counts. With the date and the old fartyness.

You simply cannot judge 1980 against 2024.

Why is that?

One word. Expectation.

And it’s a very very dangerous word, expectation.

When I was a kid watching Top of the Pops in 1973, my Dad would go off on a rant shouting “Why are those men dressed as women and the women dressed as men?”

If you google The Sweet and/or Suzi Quatro, then you will see that my old man had a point.

People’s opinions, attitudes and expectations are based upon what they have been previously exposed to. Therefore, because my dad had been brought up on Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, watching blokes sing while wearing more eye shadow and bigger heels than his wife, didn’t best suit him.

He expected his pop stars in a suit, not dressed like a Rocky Horror Show extra .

Likewise, our expectations are no longer to finish top of the Second Division and maybe get to a cup quarter final.

Not anymore. We expect far more than that.

However, what exactly are our expectations for this season ?

That’s not what we WANT to happen! What is a realistic expectation for this squad of players and this manager?

Despite what certain parts of the media would like to portray, I don’t believe the vast majority of us expect miracles. As a Newcastle United fan, you are very well aware (or should be) of our current limitations and I think most of us would accept ending this season in the same place as last year.

Is that progress? Well I guess it isn’t, as standing still is not to progress.

Is finishing top eight good enough after three seasons (of this Newcastle United ownership)? Well maybe it is… but probably it isn’t. It really depends if you are an Eeyore or a Tigger.

For me, the crucial question to ask is , where should a squad that still has a significant amount of Mike Ashley signings in it, end up?

I would argue that this squad is where it should be. Mid-table.

You could argue that our best eleven may be top five material but the squad certainly is not.

When we have upgraded these players, then my expectations will change, but here and now, a first team squad that has Miggy, Jacob, Marty, Emil and Jamaal, is not strong enough to challenge the elite.

I fully accept that if we were to continue to slip down the table, then come Christmas this becomes a different conversation to what I am having now.

As harsh business reality will kick in and we know that will mean change.

However, Wednesday night, particularly first half, showed we still have it in us to be competitive. The question is, can we do it regularly?

So at this moment in time as a Newcastle United fan, I am completely certain that this season will work out fine.

Well I’m pretty confident.

Probably.

If we are lucky.

The truth is, I haven’t got a clue.

If you want an in-depth professional opinion on our club, you are probably better off asking miserable Eeyore and hyper active Tigger.