It was 8th of October 2021 when the consortium led by Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia bought Newcastle United football club. On 20th of October, manager Steve Bruce was sacked. On 9th of November, Eddie Howe was appointed as the new coach. On 20th of November, Newcastle was officially the last placed club in the Premier League and on 4th of December they recorded their first win of the season (1-0 against Burnley). On April 20th, they recorded their 10th win of the season, thus placing themselves into the European football battle. Newcastle are essentially the only team in Premier League history who survived relegation after failing to win their first 14 games of the season. On top of that, they have five remaining games in which they can even challenge Manchester United for the place in the Conference League. But how?Amazing as always. pic.twitter.com/CWDIXzrjz8— Wallsend Ranger (@WallsendRanger) April 20, 2022 Ok, let’s start from the end. This Conference League thing is only possible on paper. There are 5 games and 15 points to play for, and Manchester United currently occupy that sixth spot with 54 points. That would essentially mean that the Red Devils would have to lose every game until the end (and even they are not that bad!) and the Magpies should win all of them (which means Norwich, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Burnley) in order to play in Europe. And even in the fairytale scenario it won’t happen. But even the mere fact that Newcastle managed to get into the mathematical battle for Europe after being at the bottom of the league just 5 months ago is a great accomplishment.#nufc owners having a kick about after the game pic.twitter.com/JbbjCpMrOt— Lee Ryder (@lee_ryder) April 20, 2022 It all started with a takeover. A new owner doesn’t necessarily means a good deal – just look at Burnley, who were bought by American investment company in December 2020 and made zero progress since, But the Saudi owners were clever enough to take things the right way. They were fully prepared before the takeover took place, and made the right moves: sacked the unpopular manager, brought not a fancy one, but the one who knows how to manage English clubs in trouble, and then had a great January transfer window, which is rarely a common thing, even with more popular clubs.Newcastle sign a great Brazilian from Lyon and are pushing for another – but Arsenal want him tooEddie Howe has worked wonders in Bournemouth years ago, but was relegated and ultimately sacked. And that experience made him even stronger when he took over the Magpies as the third options (Unai Emery and Erik ten Hag refused).“That was the first big failure for me and it was very, very painful. But sometimes through those experiences you learn so much and I certainly did a lot of self-reflection in my time out. That period out of the game was hugely important for me. In hindsight, I might look back in 10 years’ time and say it was the best thing that happened to me personally” said Howe ahead of the game with Norwich.🇧🇷 Bruno Guimarães among all the Premier League midfielders since becoming a Newcastle starter: 🥇 1st in goals (3) 🥇 1st in direct participations (4) 🥇 1st in dribbling (11) 🥇 1st in tackles (15) 🥇 1st in the Footstats Index (83.1) pic.twitter.com/cF3cxpp37J— 🇧🇷 (@GuimaraesZone) April 20, 2022 Newcastle then approached the January transfer window without a recognized sports director and ended up strengthening the team with experienced players who are all starters in the team. They also tried to sign their ‘marquee’ player, just like Manchester United signed Robinho when new owners arrived, but a few big players refused, and the Magpies had to settle with ‘only’ Bruno Guimaraes, who turned out to be a fantastic signing and cornerstone of the future great squad.📊 – Most home points won since Eddie Howe took over [‘Top 5 leagues’]:33 – Liverpool28 – Man City & PSG26 – Real Madrid26 – Florentina 25 – Newcastle United Wow. 📈 | #NUFC pic.twitter.com/IEhHUnZYUs— Planet Sport (@PlanetSportcom) April 21, 2022 Howe also worked tirelessly on the team spirit in the locker room and invented team photo after every game, which soon turned viral and added to the positive atmosphere. And finally, the famous Geordies, Newcastle faithful fans helped a lot with their massive turnout at home games. The Magpies are currently 7th in the league in average attendance (51.394), only because other 6 teams have bigger stadiums than them and they’ve been a massive support to Newcastle players. Eddie Howe is the first Newcastle manager since the famous Sir Bobby Robson who led his team to 6 consecutive home wins. That chain is soon to be broken as Liverpool and Arsenal are coming to St. James Park, but nevertheless, the turnaround has been just short of remarkable. And you can only imagine what will happen in the June transfer window, when Newcastle unleash their transfer kitty…
