NEWCASTLE: Premier League football feels like it is on the verge of yet another coronavirus disease pandemic curtailment — and there’s a suspicion brewing among Newcastle United fans that this may be no bad thing for their club.
Rising COVID-19 case numbers, and record positive test results among top flight players, have seen talks behind the scenes point towards a circuit-breaker stoppage in the UK as soon as next week.
While the health and safety of players, officials and fans alike is the priority, the timing of this latest pause would be no disaster for the Magpies’ on-field ambitions.
Last night’s 3-1 defeat at Liverpool, just four days after a 4-0 hammering at Leicester City, drilled Newcastle further into the relegation mire.
Their 37 goals conceded is the worst in the division; they sit in 19th place on 10 points, with just one win in 17 games and a run of very tough fixtures on the horizon.
Things are so bleak, a new coronavirus variant sweeping the nation almost feels like a silver lining to an otherwise dire situation.
Should the league be set aside for a fortnight it would allow cases to drop inside the Premier League secure bubbles. It would also likely see the visit of Manchester United to St James’ Park, the trip to Rafa Benitez’s Everton, and a traditionally hard game at Southampton kicked to the long grass.
Should the circuit-breaker be deployed, it is likely United will not see Premier League action again until Watford at home on Jan. 15. That would give the club’s new owners 15 days to strengthen Manager Eddie Howe’s hand in the transfer market — nearly half the window, in fact.
And while January is unlikely to see the transformation many Newcastle fans have dreamed of for years, it does not need to. Pragmatism, and staying in the division, is the order of the day on Tyneside.
While fixture backlog is an issue for everyone, it is surely better for Howe to have a stronger hand to play, with new recruits bedded in, than take on Everton and Man United with this group.
Watching the Magpies at Anfield on Thursday evening, there was a lot to like about them. Howe has them disciplined in shape without the ball, and able to break and transition at speed with it. It is a long way from the disorganised chaos served up week-in, week-out under former boss Steve Bruce.
But it is also fair to say that they are running on close to empty.
The core of this team — Jamaal Lascelles, Jonjo Shelvey, Isaac Hayden, Matt Ritchie and others — were either signed to get United promoted in 2015/16 or were retained to keep them up.
Nearly six years on from that triumphant day in May 2016, when the Magpies beat Brighton and Hove Albion to the Championship title on the final day of the campaign, much of the same core remains, being asked to do the same job year after year with little to no plan or investment around them.
Whilst the investment part of this issue changes next month, sadly, so too will many of the players.
United’s plight remains real, though to a man they can barely be criticised for their spirited show at Anfield.
There were plenty of positives despite the 3-1 scoreline; like Sunday’s defeat, this was no one-sided encounter, when all had predicted the Magpies would be swept aside by Jurgen Klopp’s side.
Instead, after Shelvey’s shock opening goal, the game was turned on its head with Diogo Jota’s equalizer, when referee Mike Dean refused to stop play despite Isaac Hayden going down in the penalty area with a head injury.
“I couldn’t believe the game wasn’t stopped. For me, that’s a key moment in the match,” said Howe. “The priority has to be the safety of the player. We talk a lot at the moment about head injuries and I felt it was a wrong decision.
“There was no acting from the player. He was down. He couldn’t continue and we paid the price for it. We’ve been really harshly treated today and it follows a similar pattern, really, of other games where we’ve not had the rub of the green or the decisions are going against us for whatever reason,” he added.
Mohamed Salah added a second soon after, before Trent Alexander-Arnold’s long-distance cracker made it three late on.
Seven goals conceded in a week, no signs of a push to get out of the Premier League bottom three, and still just one win in their opening 17 of the top flight campaign. Yet still, a sense of hope remains.
That hope, born in early October, overrides any feeling of frustration at a situation that is looking more dire with every top flight encounter.
There is an acceptance now, even if it presents an incredible paradox, that this United is much better than the one presented for near 15 years under Mike Ashley.
In Eddie Howe they have a young manager of unparalleled promise and in the Public Investment Fund, RB Sports and Media and PCP Capital Partners, they have owners who finally care about the club. For the first time in a long time, every strand of the football club is pulling in the right direction.
That direction next month must be to sign players, and lots of them. Even those who will likely be replaced are owed at least that, as they’ve strained every sinew day after day, season after season.
While January represents opportunity, and omicron a welcome break of sorts, the window is also the first major test of the new owners’ muscle, expertise and intentions.
Get it right and the world is their oyster, unlocking the door to future success. Get it wrong, and Newcastle United will look like an investment error, with trips to Old Trafford and Anfield swapped for cold, rainy nights in Stoke.
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