Newcastle United vs the Glass Ceiling

What next? Have Newcastle hit their ceiling?

I thought Newcastle’s approach to suddenly being richer than the rest of football combined was interesting- they didn’t go with a superstar manager and they didn’t fill the team with established galactico players. Instead they took a promising young English manager on the way up, bought decent but mostly fairly low-profile players and even kept a core from the previous squad. The results they got from that approach were impressive I think.

Personally I think Howe did an amazing job transforming the club as quickly as he did, even with all the resources he had available to him, and their league position over the last few seasons has been a brilliant achievement, but the fact remains that expectations are now higher. A failure in Europe (albeit in a very tough group) and CL qualification looking a bit of a long shot already this season seems a bit of a disappointment.

I would be interested to know what Newcastle fans think. Are any of them now calling for a re-think (superstar manager, team full of superstar players on Saudi league wages)? Or are you happier with the Howe approach? I know there are PSR restrictions, but I do believe it will come down to Manchester City’s fight with the Premier League on what out next step will be. Man City win, it’s time to break out the cheque book and buy, buy, buy. If Man City lose, I feel the ownership will start to lose interest in the club as they will struggle to develop and expand the club in the way they want. You have to remember, this ownership want the most success possible with the potential Saudi World Cup bid looking to be a success in 2030. They will want to use Newcastle United to advertise this showpiece to countries all over the world playing Real Madrid, Bayern and Juventus in the Champions League, not Brentford on a cold Tuesday night. The question needs to be asked, have we hit our glass ceiling, are we unable to progress the club until we make a decision on how we generate more money to fund the players pool? We have seen very quickly how one or two injuries to key players like Botman and Isak can derail our season. There is no squad depth available.

Glass Ceiling or too much success too fast? This is a question being asked by every Geordie follower out there at the moment. We go back to the magic wand question I asked everyone at the start of the season, what is success for us when the season finishes in May? Tuchel being appointed as England manager has ensured we keep Eddie Howe, but he will need support, eventually he will look to the owners to make it clear he can’t take this team any further unless we have more backing in the transfer market, which the ownership will want to provide without the risk of a point deduction.

Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!!

Thanks for reading.

Canice.

Canice Walsh has been a Newcastle fan for the past 20 years and is one of our esteemed Cork-based Irish Mags. If you are interested in joining the Irish Mags as a Guest Writer, drop us a message on our socials or email info@theirishmags.com.