THRU BLACK & WHITE EYES – Reset – 20/Jan/25
Responding to defeat ... United to get back to winning ways.
I don’t think even the most cynical of Mags or even those of us well versed in massive Black & White kicks in the balls would have predicted losing at home to Bournemouth by an emphatic 4-1 margin. I don’t think anyone would ever claim we were anything other than well-beaten by a side that looked faster, stronger, cleverer and I have to say it, better prepared than us for the game.
We have beaten some celebrated clubs this season both home and away but I make Bournemouth the best side we have played this season. Fair play to them, they well deserved their win.
For us, many felt there were warning signs in the win over Wolves, where despite the 3-0 scoreline, there was a lingering suspicion we had carried some luck.
Some good can come from the Bournemouth game and it isn’t just that the garbage about United being in a title chase or on for a treble can be put to bed. That was all nonsense on stilts to fill the airwaves.
None of it is true as anyone with any common sense knows.
I’ve read and heard some overblown commentary over the last few weeks when a good run of nine wins has persuaded some people to lose their minds and claim we have the best midfield in the country, our full-backs will be England internationals for the next ten years and so on and so forth. Completely over the top.
The truth is this team has had a good month and nothing more. It has achieved nothing yet and everyone involved with Newcastle United would do well to remember that.
That’s not being negative or having a bad reaction to a defeat or anything else. It is simply a statement of fact. What the last month has done however has provided us with a platform to reach towards an achievement that looked beyond us in November.
Our target should now be Champions League qualification by the season’s end. We will do that if we recover from Saturday’s set back and go to Southampton and win and then beat Fulham when we return to SJP at the start of February. It will take for us to avoid serious injury to key players too.
What the Bournemouth defeat did also was provide a reality check about the second leg of the League Cup semi final v Arsenal at SJP. We’ve grown use to not conceding goals, especially at home but Saturday’s pasting gives Arsenal hope they can travel north and overcome that 2-0 advantage we have. The semi final tie is far from over.
I’ve also read some demands for United to go into the transfer market and bring in some recruits.
No-one would like that more than me but with two weeks of the January window remaining, we are yet to see any departures, despite a lot of talk of Almiron and Dubravka hitting the exits. Over the weekend there was speculation of Lloyd Kelly going to Juventus but talk is where that transfer appears to remain at and no more.
The sum total of outgoings has been Isaac Hayden to Portsmouth on loan. That’s it.
Not that there is much business going on anywhere else either. The Profit and Sustainability Rules (PSR) have put a choke chain on any significant recruitment and last week’s news no PL club was facing any kind of sanction appears to have been the target many PL club executives were working towards over the previous six months. Mission accomplished in that regard.
We all know how a couple of first team ready players would benefit United in this second half of the season but that appears to be a pipe-dream right now. We aren’t alone.
My gut instinct tells me we’ll go the third window in succession without making a significant signing. I’d be delighted to be proven wrong but I think any real business will take place over the summer and possibly on the other side of the PSR deadlines.
Eddie Howe and the lads will have to turn this around without recruits. The same appears to be true of many other clubs too. We know the PSR rules are loaded to benefit a cartel of clubs but as much as we spit and moan about it, that’s just the way it is. We have to get on with it and be stronger than the sum of our parts. To be fair Eddie Howe has achieved that before.
Saturday is vital. Southampton look terrible but let’s not ignore how close they came to winning at Old Trafford last week if anyone feels like getting complacent.
There will be a full away end at St Mary’s as ever. Eddie and the lads owe them and the rest of the support a win and get back into the groove in what is a critical phase for what the club can achieve across the whole season rather than just a month.
Get into them United!
Keep On, Keepin’ On ...
Michael Martin, @TFMick1892.bsky.social @TFMick1892
With 20:20 hindsight, I suppose it was inevitable something like that would happen after all the interviews with Isak and talk about him breaking records. We always seem to come a cropper when we get too full of ourselves!
Fully agree, mick. Some of the hype this week has been ridiculous and I’m surprised EH gave it oxygen. This team have achieved nothing as you rightly say and this season, in my view, could go one of two ways still. Much to do and I don’t expect any recruitment support.
Hopefully, this is the kick they need to remind that when levels fall - we are susceptible. The words - blue print - feel very heightened right now as that showed everyone how to do it. They had 12 fit blokes - so, we should be careful with words like fatigue.