Thru Black & White Eyes - A Certain Ratio - 7/May/25

Three games remaining for Eddie's Mags to clinch a transformative Champions League place.

The expression has become squeaky bum time, coined by a certain red-nosed Glaswegian who had a degree of success with a football club in the Manchester area many years ago. You get the picture.

I don’t think I enjoyed a minute of Sunday’s trip to Brighton. There was teeth-grinding angst as we were a goal behind for a large stretch of the game but we may be very grateful for the point after Alexander Isak squared it from the spot when the final shakedown of this season happens.

Later watching Liverpool’s limp performance and defeat away at Chelsea didn’t lighten the mood either - though there was succour of some sort when Forest could only draw at Palace on Monday night. I haven’t made my mind up whether Bournemouth’s win at Arsenal matters to us at this point. I have had a half-baked notion we could catch Arteta and his whingers but that was largely predicated on us beating Brighton. Who knows?

As his Eddiness noted some weeks ago, things are going to be very tight and might go to the last game of the season. We are however in a good position. We are neck and neck with Man City and I wouldn’t swap our position with Chelsea, Villa or Forest. That is how things stand today.

Looking further down the line there are some fixtures that catch the eye - notably Villa away to Bournemouth and Man Utd (I know, I know) as well as Forest at home to Chelsea on the last day.

TF Match Report - Brighton and Hove Albion 1-1 Newcastle Utd

Whether Arsenal’s trip to Anfield will mean anything to us is one to book-mark I suppose. Man U are at Chelsea but they are so flaky these days you just can’t rely on them to do anything but fall flat on their arses. As much use as a one legged man at a arse kicking party. The Old Trafford sh*t-show has been hugely entertaining but we could do with them doing something in forthcoming games with Chelsea and Aston Villa. I wouldn’t put any of my pennies on it however.

There are of course loads of permutations with each result changing perceptions, risks and possibilities. It can be nerve shredding but as we keep reminding ourselves this is what we longed for in the long, dark night of Mike Ashley and not competing in cups and kept simply tickling along as Howe’s slug-like predecessor explained. These are good days.

I don’t think it is possible to exaggerate the importance of our Sunday fixture with Chelsea at St James’ Park. A 12 noon KO is an absolutely shit timing for a game of this importance and I won’t be the first to have mentioned it. A Saturday evening KO at 5:30pm and SJP nicely juiced up would’ve created an incredible atmosphere on Gallowgate but TV schedules rule the game so here we are … Sunday, dinnertime it is then.

Howe has said himself the team needs the crowd on Sunday and hopefully we will oblige. I have no idea what Wor Flags have planned for KO but to be honest as much as I love the displays, it is the venomously hostile, visceral atmosphere that follows which matters more this Sunday. These are the days for the radgies amongst us to be growling at Chelsea in the stands - primal, raging and red-faced. We all know the script.

We know how much this game matters to the club in so many ways. I feel a bit weird wanting the club to qualify for the Champions League for the financial rewards - I do like to think there’s something remaining of the football romantic remaining deep inside me and it wasn’t revenue, PSR, TV deals and what they mean to the Newcastle United bottom line that made me fall in love with football as a child. But this is the corporate reality of the modern game. Its soul-crushing but it is how football is unfortunately.

Back in the 70s when I first started loving the game, players might agitate for moves to enhance their international prospects (and wages of course) but in 2025 any top player wants to be at a club playing Champions League football. They still like money admittedly and there’s more of it now than ever before. Not only do we have players who want to be in the world’s elite club competition, we have players who might be of a quality to be in teams to win the thing.

For them not to be in next season’s Champions League would be a big blow to their personal ambitions but likely put the cat amongst the pigeons with the club’s attractiveness to them. These are the realities unfortunately no matter the reassuring words we read in those parts of the friendly press.

We are reassured that after three barren transfer windows, United will be active in this coming window. If we are in the Champions League then our targets come from a higher bracket and so that means our ambitions for next season can be greater too. Again, so much is riding on these next three games and Sunday in particular.

I’ve been suggesting in conversations with pals lately that United should start thinking about having a crack at winning the Premier League title in the next 2-3 seasons. No-one predicted Liverpool would win the PL this season and I believe Arsenal are unconvincing competitors under Arteta. I’m sure Man City will be planning a return to the top but they’ve proven this season not to be infallible.

I’m not one for flights of fancy and I’d like to think my optimism is grounded and based on our direction of travel. Our trajectory remains upward.

We have a rich crop of young players improving under Eddie’s tutelage with others approaching their peak years and some experience in there too. Of course we need to add to the pool of players we have in key positions, retain our best performers and get lucky with form and injuries to be title contenders. That is the same for every team that progresses towards a bid for the title?

Our club appears to wish to play by the financial rules set out by the Premier League. I suspect it is very important to the Saudi Arabia PIF they are seen as good partners within the Premier League and UEFA. I sense they will remain compliant with PSR, as bent as those rules unquestionably are. I write that fully aware of the nonsense of FIFA granting Saudi Arabia the World Cup (as Qatar and Russia before them).

Our club’s owners seem to have little appetite for the sleights of hand and financial absurdities we have witnessed from Sunday’s opponents under Todd Boehly which allows them to spend, spend, spend every transfer window. Chelsea’s crass manoeuvrings reveal the absurdities of the current PSR set up.

United do of course benefit from considerable financial support from PIF (and the Reubens) but have demonstrated they will remain within the rules and show no appetite for litigation, unlike Man City. Whether we benefit from whatever City achieve in their endless legal war with the PL remains to be seen.

PSR compliance makes Sunday’s game all the more important. We do have a good recent home record v Chelsea and they don’t appear to relish their trips to NE1. It’s my contention we are a better side than them. At Sunday dinnertime, we need to prove it.

We can’t afford to dwell on Joelinton being ruled out for the rest of the season. Players need to step up and we need to get behind them. It has been great to see Sven Botman back on the grass and there was something in the performances of Callum Wilson and Antony Gordon which was encouraging at Brighton. Lewis Miley is back amongst the squad and that’s a huge positive too.

We should go into Sunday’s game ready to do the business on and off the park regardless of the KO time. We need to be at our ferocious best.

The mentality the lads showed at Wembley was what comes from winners but it equally applied to our support too - early in the stands, noisy throughout, no drifting off for HT pints or bunking off early for the bus.

The lads need the power of our crowd on Sunday.

Get into them United!

Keep On, Keepin’ On …

Michael Martin @TFMick.bsky.social