Luke's Football blog

Newcastle were a name stake when the Premier League first began, but in recent years they have fallen off, but under Howe they have redirected their form and are in the top 4, having not lost a Premier League game since August. But what caused them to fall off in the first place? 

Everything changed under Mike Ashley’s regime, who bought the club in 2007 but turned it into a marketing tool. He owns the popular sports retailer Sports Direct, and when he took over, he plastered it all over St James’ Park, making it appear to be a cheap marketing strategy. He had a decent relationship with the fans to start with the hiring of fan favourite Kevin Keegan as manager, but it went downhill since then.

In September 2008, after disagreements with the control of transfers, Keegan left, with fans staging a protest against Mike Ashley and Denis Wise in the next game. He put the club up for sale soon after, but decided it wasn’t up for sale a few months later. After three different managers in the same season, they were relegated on the final day of the season.

They got promoted straight away for the next season and enjoyed a good start to the campaign, but a few days after his win against Sunderland, Chris Houghton got sacked. This was a contentious decision because many felt he had been treated unfairly by the club, but he was replaced by Allan Pardew, who proved to be a wise choice as they finished fifth the following season. 

It all went downhill from there, though, as terrible transfer decisions saw the team plummet down the table. His refusal to add quality players to their squad saw them relegated for the second time in the Premier League after narrowly escaping relegation the year before.

They got promoted the next year, but ever since then, they have wasted money on more terrible transfers. As they have not progressed after being promoted in 2017, and with some terrible managerial choices after sacking Benitez and having a few mediocre seasons with Steve Bruce, he finally sold the club to pif, which is owned by Yasir Al-Rumayyan.

Since then, they have made some statement signings that have been important to their recent rise. One of them being Kieran Trippier, who has added quality and leadership at right back, which has been key to them rising up the table, has been arguably the best right back in the league this season. Another signing that has been important to improving Newcastle is highly rated midfielder Bruno Guimares, as his work rate has been key to the way Newcastle play, and it shows as they are good in midfield as he links up well with Joelinton and Joe Willock in the Newcastle midfield.

The rise of Newcastle this season has seen them reach a cup final for the first time in ages. If they can hold on to 4th place this season, it will be fun to see how they do in the future if they can keep it up right now. Eddie Howe is showing he’s a good manager, which didn’t seem to be the case when he managed Bournemouth as his Bournemouth side leaked goals for fun, but this season Newcastle have done the opposite of that, which has proven key to their rise.

The key for the future would be consistency, and if they can maintain that, they will be a team to watch in the future. With the squad they have right now, they will be hoping it will be good enough to take them to new heights in the future. ​