For once, a half decent article from the BBC .... Newcastle: How Eddie Howe has turned Magpies around in 150 days - BBC Sport
It's a good read that and an almost completely positive news story about us can be rare. On Howe...we are going to run into sticky patches of form but I am convinced we have to try and give him every chance to be really successful with us. He's got what it takes but will need some patience from the club and the fans.
We should give him at least 2 seasons IMO. We don't want to be like other clubs with owners who now nothing about football and want quick results simply because they throw a lot of money at things. It's going to be a good few years before we can expect really glory IMO. Anyone expecting Europa/CL qualification next season needs their head smashed against a brick wall. There's no way we can keep this form up throughout next season.
As i said before no one needs to say what we cant do as well as what we can do - yes we'd be setting ourselves up for failure by predicting a top 4 finish, but at the same time we dont need to say a top 7 finish is out of the questions. Just see how the season goes and dont put a minimum or a maximum on it. Howe has been exceptional so far and deserves another season at the very least, the owners undoubtedly know this and must ne delighted with the progress under him. When the money came in at City they had Mark Hughes and even he got his chance with the new owners, if Hughes got a chance then Howe is more than deserving of his his chance.
Paths is key - youth systems, scouts, training facilities, directors who actually want success, infrastructure blah blah.... everything that was completely neglected under Ashley.
I never said anything is out of the question, the problem I have is some people's expectations. If you want a goal of Europa qualification, then fine, but anyone is disappointed if we don't achieve this, then this isn't the clubs or eddie's fault, this is the fault of some people's expectations. But some people will literally whine if we don't achieve something like this next season. True the goal is always to finish as high as possible, but there's goals and then there's expectations. If your expectation/minimal satisfaction requirement is european qualification next season, then any disappointment you have if your own fault.
It's all dependent isn't it though, if he loses the first 14 games people will correctly want him out and call him cabbage head, he'd then disappear off to the Championship and probably turn some promotion chasing team in to mid table sewer rats.... Agree though he needs time but we've got to be looking at say 12th and up depending on investment. If we spunk £200m and are 17th at Xmas he'll go and rightly so. I agree with Tash - the expectations of the fans don't matter, it's what the board expect. Depending on the investment they provide they will have a right to expect certain milestones to be hit.
That's exactly your problem though! Your expectations are just inverted! "There's no way we can keep this form up throughout next season" You have no idea of this, also you are in no place to say we won't qualify for the Europa. It's one thing to say "lets not let expectations out of hand", but you are categorically saying that we wont achieve certain things.
I never said we wont qualify for Europa, please read what I'm actually saying. What I'm saying is that if European qualification is an expectation of yours, as if it's your minimal requirement to consider it a satisfactory season, then you need to keep your expectations in check, and realise where we were only a few months ago. And you do realise that if we keep this sort of form up, we'd be on course to challenge City and Liverpool for the title? Aren't we still 2nd based on our 2022 form? Me not expecting to keep this form up for an entire season and challenge for a title, against sides who have taken nearly a decade to build from the ground up, is a perfectly reasonable expectation and tame in comparison to others. We all have expectatiosn, all I'm saying is people should manage them, and not enforce their expectations on the club too much, and lambast the club as if it's failing if they don't meet your own personal expectations. Regardless of my expectations, I consider mine tame compared to the expectations of others, and I don't run a club and am willing to be patient. An improvement on this season would be enough for me.
You as good as said it, i quote from above: "Anyone expecting Europa/CL qualification next season needs their head smashed against a brick wall." You can get Europa qualification from 7th, does someone need their head smashing against a brick wall for expecting 7th place? Plus your figures are totally wrong - our league form in 2022 is W10 D2 L4. If we had kept that up for the whole season we'd be on about 66 points, ie around Chelsea and Spurs, absolutely nowhere near Liverpool or City. And there's honestly no reason to suggest we couldnt keep that form up for a season. Unlikely but hardly unthinkable.
Fair enough on the form point over the entire season, but what I meant is we've gotten more points than anyone besides Liverpool in 2022. I don't think people need their heads smashing in for believing 7th is a possibility, but what I'm saying is the expectation to the degree that that would be the minimum requirement to satisfy you.... that is the issue I'm taking. If you'd literally be disappointed to the degree of anger against the club for not qualifying for Europe next season, then you need your head checking for expecting so much so soon... it's possible, but it should not be considered a minimum requirement, that's the point I'm making.
Only cos City and Chelsea have slipped up several times in the new year, both teams were completely on fire before Christmas, and our current record is nothing compared to their pre Christmas records. I don't think many people want to put a minimum target on us tbh, leave that to Lawro, Jermaine Jenas and the other bores on the MOTD couch. The general feeling is excitement over a positive future after years over misery.
I would like it for us to be mid table looking up for once Look at the fixtures and think wouldn’t it be good if teams at the bottom were talking points of Leicester or Wolves , instead of constantly wanting teams around us in the bottom half to lose That would be a starting point Anything above that is a bonus
Has potential to be one of our best ever managers. I love the fella, wanted him for literally years and hes everything I hoped
Who cares what peoples expectations are or what other people think about them. I personally think nufc fans don't want to come out with what the think is possible for fear or being told they have unrealistic expectations. The reality is that nufc hasn't finished 17th the last 4 years it'll have been 10th 13th 13th and around the same this season, so for people to suggest finishing 8th is unrealistic then imo they're wrong. Newcastle United are now the richest club in the galaxy and finishing 8th next season isn't unrealistic. I say nufc will be having a right go next season once a club in 13th spends a few hundred million it's hardly unrealistic to think they can rise a few places
Competing with Wolves, Leicester, Brighton isnt out of anyones reach if they get a bit of cash. Its easily doable.
I want Europe and I think it's do'able. Imagine the atmosphere home and away on a decent European night under the lights again. The semi finals this week have made me really want to see that again. But I don't think Eddie should be measured against that as what I mainly want is for the club to be moving in the right direction and for watching football to be fun again.
