The rebirth of Newcastle (?)

The year is 2012. We are in Turf Moor. Newcastle has played their 38th and final Premier League game of the 2011/12 season. With an Arsenal and Tottenham loss, and a win of their own, they will secure Champions League football. They are even expected to beat the Toffees.

In the dying moments, Australian legend Tim Cahill, an Evertonian, gets sent off for provoking a fight between him and Yohan Cabaye. It doesn't affect the game. Newcastle flies back home 3-1 losers. On the bright side, the result would not have mattered anyway, as Arsenal and Tottenham both won their respective games.

However, if you were a fan of the Magpies, you had reason to stay optimistic. This was a relatively young squad, featuring stars like Demba Ba.

Fast forward 4 years, Newcastle were relegated back to England's second tier, for the first time in 7 years. What had gone wrong?

There are many reasons. Mike Ashley had lost interest in the club, not splashing bog money on big names, rather choosing to leave the 2011-12 squad as is. Furthermore, the club never stuck with one manager, choosing to sack one following a run of bad results. The core players of the 2011-12 season moved onto bigger clubs, such as Demba Ba moving onto Liverpool.

5 years later, Newcastle was a factory of sadness. Their highest finish since 2016 was the 10th place finish in the 2017-18 season, with the club always languishing in mid-table. If Ashley had any remaining interest in the club, it had evaporated, with the owner preferring profits over on-the-field success. Manager Steve Bruce was not the man for the job, playing with an underdog mindset, irrespective of the opponent.

Enter Saudi Arabia. The Gulf nation, which according to Credit Suisse, is the 26th richest nation on the planet, bought the club for 305 million pounds. This gave Newcastle a net worth of 320 billion pounds. For perspective, the second richest club, Man City, is worth 22.9 billion pounds. No, the decimal was not a typo, and yes, you read that correctly.

For every good story, however, there is a dark side. And for Newcastle, it is a very dark side. The country is known for its extremely conservative values, such as banning same-sex marriage, as well as jailing women's rights advocates, alleged human rights violations in the Yemen war and the infamous case of the killing of Turkish journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

This is not the first time the Saudis have attempted a takeover of the Magpies, with previous attempts in 2020 having been rejected.

Moving onto the football business, the first major move the new ownership performed was getting rid of Steve Bruce. The manager was arguably the worst in the Premier League at the time of his sacking and had no respect from the fans and media.

There were many candidates thrown in to replace Bruce - Steven Gerrard, who had transformed Rangers into Scottish football's indomitable force. Graham Potter, whose football knowledge had transformed Brighton into the model club for up and coming teams. Zinedine Zidane, who had won 3 Champions League titles in a row with Real Madrid.

However, the decision was a let-down - Eddie Howe was to be handed the keys. Howe was the manager of the Bournemouth side that got relegated in the 2019/20 season and then left the club by mutual consent.

To be fair to Howe, Newcastle have improved since his appointment, as the club find themselves out of the relegation zone as of 14.02.22.

Heading into the transfer window, there was plenty of hype surrounding the Magpies - while the club had the money to buy the world's best players, it would be hard convincing these players to be involved in a relegation battle.

However, Newcastle had to lure players in some way possible, to stay in the Premier League, which would make persuading players to join the club easier.

In a successful transfer window, the Magpies bought in Atletico Madrid RB Kieran Trippier, Burnley striker Chris Wood, Portuguese midfielder Bruno Guimaraes and Matt Targett on a loan.

Trippier has made his effect felt, arguably being the league's best player since he was introduced, and Newcastle as a whole have shown tremendous promise.

Let us now fast forward a few months to see how Newcastle could go about their business.

Midway through this season, I would have confidently said that the Magpies would go down. However, the promise that the club has shown recently leads me to believe they will escape relegation by the skin of their teeth.

This would lead us into the transfer window in the summer of 2022. Newcastle, who have now managed to stay up, could use the Premier League as a selling factor to targets.

The club still will not be able to attract Ballon d'Or contenders, nor will they be able to do so, until they are proven contenders.

This means that The Toon will have to bring in talented players who have fallen out of favour under their current manager. Players of this category include Jesse Lingard, Nathan Ake and Eddie Nketiah.

Aside from handing out second chances to players, Newcastle should also aim to sign young players, such as Sven Botman, Hugo Ekitike and Mitchel Bakker.

To mentor these youngsters, the club will also have to sign veterans, such as Gareth Bale and Diego Costa, to mention a few.

Finally, let us look at the manager. If I were in the place of Amanda Staveley, I would give Howe another season to prove that he is the manager for the job. However, I prefer Paulo Fonseca, as his role in helping Roma back to the big stages was pivotal.

However, one thing should be remembered - money does not guarantee on the field success. The perfect club strikes a fine balance between managers, players, and owners, who know their roles in shaping the team. Just look at Hoffenheim. According to GOAL, the German club are the fifth-richest club in the world, however, have very little to show for the spoils.

I will leave you with a quote from businessman Howard Hughes. "Money can't buy happiness."

Sources

• GOAL

• Credit Suisse