Settling Down

I’ve been tempted to write about Newcastle United’s start to life in The Championship for about a month now, but I kept putting it off as so many things were happening at the club, any opinions I expressed ran the risk of being out of date within the day. Hence why I’ve waited until now, as the combination of the international break and the closing of the transfer window affords the thoughtful scribe some kind of respite from the breakneck pace of events, at least until the Derby County game on Saturday 10^th at 5.30.

The season started early; Friday 5^th August is a crazy time to be playing competitively. Expectations were at fever pitch before the Fulham game, which is probably why the defeat, courtesy of a scruffy goal, where Citizen Smith was afforded the freedom of Tooting and Mitcham to score at the back post, and two penalties not awarded, resulted in such an outpouring of dramatic, excessive breast-beating on social media. Aside from the deflation of a hubristic balloon of arrogance, the defeat was a useful reminder that Newcastle won’t get 120 points this season and won’t win 15-0 away to Rotherham United. Just because you don’t know who the opposition players are, doesn’t mean they aren’t any good, which is precisely what Huddersfield Town proved in the second game.

I didn’t make it to The Terriers defeat, as Benfield were at home that day, but I followed the fall-out with interest. With a 50k crowd and the impressive Gallowgate Flags display before kick-off, the scene was set for a triumphant declaration of intent. However, Huddersfield hadn’t read the script and a Wagnerian tragicomedy was rounded off by the mass theft of over 80 flags, reduced to about 75 after a very public amnesty. What a vile bunch some of our supporters are; what amoral yobs they can be.

So, two games; two defeats and for some it was already time to hit the panic button. I’m absolutely convinced that a load of the self-appointed super fans on Twitter don’t actually believe their prophecies of doom; suggesting that the squad was “inadequate” or that Benitez was “completely out of his depth” or “totally unsuited” to the Championship after 2 games is knee-jerking quicker than even Usain Bolt manages. These lonely and inadequate people who seem to genuinely believe their opinions count for anything in the greater scheme of things simply to feed off the conflict their nonsensical utterances provokes; we should pity them. The clear facts are these; the players need time to gel and adapt to the system Rafa wants from them, while the support needs to be educated about the kind of play we should expect. Think about our last 2 campaigns at this level; Keegan’s glorious gung-ho approach in 92/93 that culminated in the incredible blitzing of Leicester’s defence on a sunny Sunday afternoon in May, then 17 years later, Comrade Chris Hughton’s management by sub-committee, when the work ethic, esprit de corps and shared sense of common purpose among both players and fans saw an almost untroubled procession to the title. We’re not going to have either of those shoo-in coronations this time around; there are too many other decent teams in this division to allow that to happen.

That said, I remain quietly confident we will go up, as Rafa has built a squad with the sole purpose of gaining promotion and he will utilise the players at his disposal accordingly, as he sees fit. Additionally, he knows exactly how he wants his teams to play and we ought to let him get on with that, because he understands the game at a slightly higher level than most of us do. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying he’s infallible, as a couple of the games last season showed he can select the wrong people and play them in the wrong positions, but a few points from the Reading game are worth recalling. Having obtained a freebie in the top of the Gallowgate on the Milburn side, I was far further from the pitch than I would like, so found it initially difficult to assess the impact of many of the new players, probably because I couldn’t recognise them. However, the pattern of play was easily discernible from that lofty perch. I heard my first moan after about 11 minutes; something along the lines of an exasperated “get on with it man,” which shows that instinctively our crowd yearns for high-tempo play;. While under Keegan that meant glorious, expansive attacking; under Pardew and Carver it was a long ball laced aimlessly forward to surrender possession. Patient, passing football is probably what McClaren fondly expected his side would produce, rather than the impotent, sluggish bollocks that we actually endured. Rafa Benitez wants ball retention, zonal marking and incisive passing from his players, as a bare minimum level of performance. Being honest, we didn’t get that in the first half against Reading; our goal came from a scramble in the box and their equaliser was caused by hesitancy and a lack of communication at the back.

However, the second half showed the first indications that the Benitez trademark philosophy was being internalised by our team. Admittedly this wasn’t totally the case as an attacking unit, whereby a penalty and a magnificent free kick set us on the road to victory, though the final goal saw some nice interchange passing. It was in defence where I was more impressed, not specifically by the players as individuals, but by the collective attention to duty and sheer hard work that meant Reading couldn’t get anywhere near our penalty area in the last 20 minutes. Now you can be churlish and point out this was Reading, not Barcelona or Bayern Munich, but we are where we are. Instead of harking back to the good times of a decade and more back, or imagining a mythical future of trophy-laden success, let’s just concentrate on getting out of the Championship at the first attempt. If we can do this by playing zonal defence, then so much the better.

Being honest, the Reading win wasn’t a glorious renaissance in 90 minutes; it was a single step on a journey of a thousand miles. The Bristol City game was another step; three points and a clean sheet. I returned to SJP for the Cheltenham game to see a sideways step; progress in the Cup, an untroubled victory and a clean sheet. Again though, some of the support just doesn’t get it; a podgy, elderly couple with whiney voices and a pair of thick as bulls’ excrement Hartlepool Mags with allough Bearny accents, pierced ears and Sports Direct wardrobes, hemmed us in and droned incessantly all game. They complained about slow play, negative tactics and every single player at one time or another. What did they expect? What precisely did they want? We beat a lower division team without breaking sweat, dealing with 3 injuries on the way. Incidentally, we weren’t in Level 7 listening to this cack; it was the Platinum club, where you expect a better class of gobshite, rather than the vulgarity of new money.

Then, last time out, we moved on to the visit of Brighton and the return of Chris Hughton. I’m delighted this decent and honourable man received a great reception, but I’m even more delighted that Newcastle coasted to a win with the season’s most effective performance thus far. Despite the absence of Gayle and Mitrovic, goals were scored, a clean sheet was kept and the style of play impressed almost all who saw it. Crucially, this was against one of the sides who are viewed as being potential challengers for promotion at the end of the season. Ironically, the two teams currently occupying the promotion slots are the very sides who’ve beaten Newcastle thus far, which should tell us something. Indeed, it’s probably time to reflect fully on events so far.

Really it’s only when everything stops for a minute that you can sit back and reflect on the scarcely believable state of affairs that sees Rafa Benitez as the permanent manager at SJP. You can give your head a shake all you want; the truth is we have one of the finest coaches in world football in charge of our recently relegated club. Bonkers isn’t it? Almost as crazy as Rafa being El Mister on Tyne is the fact we’ve persuaded Palace, Liverpool and Spurs to cough up nigh on £70 million for a midfield trio that got us relegated last season. Just how mad is that? Additionally Rafa has somehow managed to remove over two dozen liabilities, non-entities and vaguely promising youngsters from the club, albeit some of them temporarily, with only really the sale of Andros Townsend being anywhere near a source of regret for the overwhelming majority of fans.

Let’s have a look at those departures in detail; a grand total of 26 players have left Newcastle United since relegation was confirmed on May 11^th. Of those, 8 are ones who I’d describe as young or emergent players, primarily farmed out to gain competitive experience as part of what may be a make or break season for most of them: Adam Armstrong (Barnsley), Kyle Cameron (Newport), Macaulay Gillesphey (Carlisle), Alex Gilliead (Luton),Tom Heardman (Hartlepool), Kevin Mbabu (Young Boys Berne), Jamie Sterry (Coventry) and Ivan Toney (Shrewsbury) were very unlikely to get anything other than bench time with the first team or League Cup cameos, so it makes sense for them to have a spell elsewhere.

Another 7 loanees are allegedly senior professionals, who are hopefully embarking on a fresh start, initially on a temporary basis, though looking at a list that comprises: Ameobi (Bolton), De Jong (PSV), Krul (Ajax), Riviere (Osasuna), Saivet (St Etienne), Thauvin (Marseilles) and Vuckic (Bradford), it’s fair to say only the Dutch keeper looks in any way a potentially saleable asset, with the other half a dozen having done the square root of jack shit for us in their entire time at NUFC. Ameobi is less effective as a footballer than his midwife sister, never mind his brothers. De Jong may be the more talented one in his family, but he boasts the fitness record of a Victorian consumptive. Vuckic may well be entitled to a testimonial by now, but he’s never played more than 3 games a season for more than half a decade, while Riviere and Thauvin are exponents of Gallic incompetence par excellence and should never have been allowed to darken our doors in the first place. A few weeks ago, I would have said Saivet at least deserved a chance, but such is the trust and respect I have for Senor Benitez that I would no longer contemplate questioning his decisions about who needs to leave SJP.

After the August deforestation of dead wood, a dozen and a half no-hopers have bid us a fond farewell. The very fact that Vurnon Anita and Yoan Gouffran, two of the most reviled and denigrated players of the Pardew-Carver-McClaren eras, are not only still with us, but integral parts of the first team, performing at their highest level since joining, tells us everything we need to know about Rafa’s coaching abilities, not to mention the level of football comprehension displayed by large sections of the support. I simply can’t begin to express my delight at the rehabilitation of two of the most intelligent, nuanced players at the club.

So, let’s look at the 11 permanent departures; Gael Bigirimana (returning to Coventry after 6 months of potential and 4 years of inactivity),Fabricio Coloccini (back to Argentina at last after a life threatening calf strain kept him hors de combat for the last 3 months of the season), Sylvain Marveaux (whereabouts unknown, but no doubt gaining a higher reputation the less often he plays), Gabriel Obertan (banished to some Siberian wilderness after 3 decent games in 4 seasons) and Steven Taylor (no longer required in the village idiot role, so currently scoring own goals for Portland Timbers reserve side and presumably out canvassing for Donald Trump) were all given freebies or had their contracts paid up. There’s always a possibility that Haidara and Tiote will do the same, but the erratic Ivorian who could be the Championship’s greatest midfielder if he fancied it, which I doubt he does, is more likely to find a lucrative sinecure somewhere in Asia. Meanwhile, we actually got proper cash money for Remy Cabella, Papiss Cisse, Daryl Janmaat, Moussa Sissoko, Andros Townsend and Gini Wijnaldum.

While Cabella was a loss making deal and Cisse could only have left for buttons, the rest of the deals show NUFC turning in a very healthy profit. Janmaat was a definite upgrade on Debuchy as a player, but not as an individual; in a like for like deal, we were saddled with another multi-millionaire in his early 20s whose personal agenda is dominated by ego and avarice. Watford indeed! As I only do home games, I thought Wijnaldum was pretty damn fine, though his non-existent away form infuriated many; £10m profit after a single season is good business though. Townsend was great for us, but not good enough for Spurs, which is why Palace is probably about his level; however if the Rinus Michels of the Home Counties holds fast to the reins of power at Selhurst Park, Andros will find himself at centre half or operating as a lone striker before the clocks go back.

Finally, there is the mind-blowing Sissoko deal. Let’s be honest about this, never has Ashley and Charnley’s wrongheaded business strategy of buying cheap, foreign talent in the hope of using the club as a glorified shop window to sell players on for a massive profit been more clearly discredited than with Moussa Sissoko, nor has it been so lucrative. Arriving in a blaze of glory at Villa and home to Chelsea in February 2013, he failed to show what he was actually capable of on a regular basis again until appearing for France in this summer’s European Championship. Three years of mundane, disinterested performances of low intensity and peripheral involvement, augmented by atrocious technical skills and woeful passing for Newcastle United, swept away by half a dozen examples of taking the game by the throat for Les Bleus once relegation had blighted his CV, not out of patriotic duty, but selfish self-aggrandisement in trying to engineer a move to his beloved Arsenal. After a hilarious flirtation with Everton, Moussa did find a new home in North London, not at the Emirates, but the well-worn path to glory at White Hart Lane, following in the footsteps of Kevin Acott and Ruel Fox, with hopefully the same level of success.  

Let’s turn now to look at the arrivals, of which there are 12; 7 I’d heard of and 5 I hadn’t. I knew absolutely nothing of Matz Sels, other than his arrival hinted that Krul would be leaving and Elliott wasn’t close to a return. While I’d have been happy with Darlow to be first choice, it’s good to have 2 decent keepers about the place and Sels is starting to look more assured by the game. Jesus Gamez has a track record of success at the highest level; if Rafa rates him, then that’ll do for me. He looked good against Cheltenham, though you’d expect him to, wouldn’t you?  I don’t know anything about Achraf Lazaar or Christian Atsu, but the former has got to be an upgrade on Dummett and the latter is spoken of highly; I’ll give them a chance. Yedlin had a decent season for the Mackems last time and should be a success at this level.

Four of the new signings look ideally equipped to do the business for us this season; Diame, Gayle, Hayden and Ritchie are a class above what most other teams have at their disposal in this division. I’m not going to make rash pronouncements, but Hayden could be the best bit of business between English clubs this summer. Ritchie and Diame are creative and dangerous, while Gayle looks likely to score plenty this season. Certainly, I’d be looking to this quartet, along with the hopefully rejuvenated Shelvey, to be the ones to fire us to promotion. I will admit to being a little more sceptical about the 3 remaining newbies, though I don’t imagine Clark, Hanley or our legitimate target man Daryl “Slab” Murphy will be anything other than bit part players in the main. That said, not one of them is worse than those they’ve allegedly replaced. Remember again though, this squad is being assembled with one aim only; to get us back into the top flight, so don’t lose any sleep about what’ll happen next season. No doubt El Mister already has a plan.

One thing is for certain, Rafa’s interview after the conclusion of transfer business has provided quotes that will be remembered as fondly as Keegan’s love it outburst or Sir Bobby’s ruminations as to what is a club. When Benitez explained;  we are only interested in bringing players to Newcastle who want to work hard for the club and the team, not players who want to be at another club maybe next year or the year after. We are not a stepping stone, we are Newcastle United, not only did he draw a clear line in the sand regarding future transfer dealings, he instinctively and intuitively aligned himself with every single person who has the best interests of Newcastle United at heart. Of course there are those whose love for the club has been eroded by years of toxic mismanagement by Ashley, tactical incompetence by the buffoons in the dugout and the under motivated shamblings of preening non-entities on the pitch. They may require more tangible evidence of a sea change at the club than Rafa’s words, especially as NUFC ended the transfer window more than £30 million up on the various deals. Will this money be spent? Will the players we get in be adequate replacements? The only answer I have is to trust Rafa Benitez, rather some of the idiots who watch us.