I have really enjoyed this past month with Newcastle United.
Watching these 60-odd matches has been so uplifting.
Of course, I’m not talking about games involving Newcastle United…
Instead, I’m referring to the sixty games so far out in Qatar, a tournament that comes to a final conclusion on Sunday.
A Sunday where either France will retain their crown, Argentina will win the World Cup for the third time, or Morocco or Croatia will lift the trophy for the very first time.
The other day I read an excellent article (Never mind the quality – Feel the entertainment) by Dean Wilkins, in which he perfectly summed up this Qatar World Cup.
He detailed how this mid-season tournament had been excellent in terms of entertainment, maybe one of the best ever. A lot of very good entertaining matches upsets to savor, but…
There is always a but.
In this case, the but is that when it comes to real quality, it is very much sadly lacking.
Lacking top quality doesn’t mean a lack of great matches or great entertainment. We see this so often in FA Cup matches for example, or even dare I say it, also in the Premier League…
As Dean Wilkins pointed out, this Qatar World Cup is simply reflecting football in general today. The scarcity of real top-quality players then means no real top-quality teams.
This brings me to Newcastle United. Dean (Wilkins) also touched on this aspect but I want to take it further.
In this current massively inflated transfer market of so much money spent and so little quality to spend it on, having the best quality people possible, and making the big transfer decisions, has never been more important.
Remember a few facts from this summer transfer window…
It was easily the biggest spend ever by the Premier League clubs in one window.
Chelsea broke all records for a single club when spending over a quarter of a billion pounds. Man Utd wasn’t far behind them.
Premier League clubs spent more money than all of the rest of the major European leagues combined!
This past year HAS seen Newcastle United spend around £200m BUT this is still less than 80% of what Chelsea spent in just that last window, also less than what Man U spent just in the summer.
These were two clubs supposedly just bringing in those extra few top-quality players that would then catapult them back to challenging for the title, or at the very least ensure they finish top four and get the vital Champions League football they desperately need, for on and off-the-pitch reasons.
In contrast, the new Newcastle United owners were needing to almost completely rebuild a squad and club, that had suffered so many years of neglect, on the transfer front and had seen only one player signed across the entire year and two windows just before they took control. Plus of course the small matter of having to instantly fight a full-on relegation battle.
With that background, to spend ‘only’ £200m and get this Newcastle United first-team squad from where it was in December 2021, to where it is now in December 2022, is pretty unbelievable.
As well as improving every single player that was already at the club, Eddie Howe and the rest of the Newcastle United hierarchy have bought in eight new first-team squad players (as well as the likes of Garang Kuol and a host of others for the future).
Trippier, Wood, Burn, Bruno, Targett, Pope, Botman, Isak.
As I say, you look at the lack of real quality on show at this World Cup and in the Premier League every week, yet Newcastle United have signed Bruno and Botman for a combined £75m or so! How did they do it? Our rival top PL clubs have massive recruitment/scouting operations and of course, these pairs weren’t exactly unknowns. Bruno had already played for Brazil, Botman had already won the French League title at the age of 20/21, and played Champions League the following season.
Even more bizarrely, Newcastle United was allowed to march in and buy La Liga-winning England right-back Trippier for £13m, then followed that up with buying England goalkeeper Nick Pope for £10m.
Adding Burn and Targett for a combined £26m in permanent transfer fees is also astonishing in this transfer era, two exceptionally solid (though that description doesn’t even do them justice) Premier League-level defenders for a relative pittance.
Chris Wood of course was a £25m necessity to fight relegation, everybody at Newcastle United knew they were paying far beyond his real value as they were left in a relegation battle with not a single PL striker when Wilson got injured v Man Utd last December. Although Wood’s actual value in leading the line and helping to ensure no relegation was worth far more than £25m.
I have seen enough of Alexander Isak, especially on debut at Anfield, to know we have bought another cracker. An initial £59m is big bucks, but when I look around at what others have paid for what I believe are bang-average players, then I am confident this is also money very well spent.
Newcastle United had been such a mess for so long. Now they are getting it right at the top end down and with Howe, Eales and Ashworth recruited, as well as many others further down the food chain, this is now looking like one serious club.
Yes, Newcastle United are spending big money at last, certainly big by the Ashley austerity year standards, BUT we are getting staggering levels of bang for our buck, as I see other clubs struggle for quality, no matter what they spend.
That third-best form in the final half of last season, all 19 games, was no fluke.
Going into Christmas with third-best form and only one defeat is also no fluke.
We now have a great manager, great signings brought in, and great work done on the players who were already here, Eddie Howe and the rest of the Newcastle United hierarchy now in the process of putting together a great team, which in turn will become a great squad.
Nothing is guaranteed but as things stand, despite spending more in one window than Newcastle United had spent in their last four, Man Utd find themselves four points behind NUFC, whilst Chelsea is nine points adrift of Eddie Howe’s side.
The future’s bright and the present-day situation isn’t looking too bad either.
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