Martin Samuel: Newcastle’s mid-season slide brings back memories of 1996’s failed title bid

At first he was reluctant. Newcastle, after all, had led the league by 12 points in February. This was May 5. They had won only five of their past 13 games. Keegan didn’t think it was a time for celebration. Yet he’s a decent man. He put aside his personal feelings and took the team out. It was the warmest reception.

By the end, David Ginola was waving a chequered flag above his head and many of the players had dug deep to find the joy in such a thrilling campaign. There were appreciative waves, even smiles. Yet at the back of this procession was Steve Watson. And he looked utterly heartbroken.

Watson wasn’t the only local in that team. Peter Beardsley played 35 league games that season and Steve Howey had come through the academy, same as Watson. Yet something about Watson’s emotions caught the eye and the imagination. He had been the youngest player in Newcastle’s history on his debut in 1990; he had been at the club when they were struggling to stay out of the third tier; after games he could be found in Bigg Market or the Quayside area, having a drink with fans. “Anybody who wanted to come and talk to you and have a pint was welcome,” Watson later recalled.

So it meant more. Watson, of all the players circling the perimeter that day, seemed to understand what had been lost. David Batty had already won the league with Blackburn Rovers, Beardsley with Liverpool; some of the others, such as Ginola or Philippe Albert, might have expected to go on and get the chance elsewhere. Yet Watson knew. More acutely than anyone, he felt the pain being suppressed beneath the cheers from the stands.

And now here we are, 27 years on. Newcastle on the brink, again. It has been a season of enormous strides and heightened expectations. Few imagined that Eddie Howe, as head coach, could take the club so far, so fast. Newcastle are in their first domestic cup final this century and had risen as high as third in the league. Last month they were still considered dark-horse title contenders and they will return to the top four if victorious in their game in hand over Tottenham.

Yet it could go either way from here. Their opponents in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, Manchester United, are the form team right now. Newcastle have collected three points from the past 12 available, and one league win since Boxing Day. Might this campaign deliver another lap of honour, high on emotion, low on tangible reward?

What the hell, it could be argued. The Mike Ashley years were so dispiriting that even a place in the Europa League and a weekend at Wembley, whatever the result, would be a cause for celebration. And that’s a fair point. Just to get the city buzzing again is an achievement and Howe is certainly in advance of the schedule. Yet if Newcastle do fall short, given what was still possible after the win against Fulham on January 15, what will it say about the challenge ahead?

That this is going to be hard and the odds are stacked against them, still. Saudi investment may put Newcastle in a much better place than previously, but financial regulations continue to pin down the club. The elite have Newcastle where they want them. If they do finish outside the top four, Newcastle will be in the space that such clubs as Leicester City or West Ham United hoped to occupy. They won’t be a threat to United or Arsenal, maybe not even Liverpool. Not yet. Liverpool’s win at St James’ Park on Saturday moved them within six points of Newcastle with a game in hand. Money is talking. Money that the established elite are allowed to spend and Newcastle are not.

Howe is insistent the club have a long-term strategy and that they abide by Financial Fair Play. Yet one look at what has been spent at Chelsea since the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover shows how tough this competition could become. Apart from the pounds 63 million Alexander Isak, Newcastle’s acquisitions tack towards the mid-range. Anthony Gordon, Sven Botman and Bruno Guimaraes are all players who would not be beyond the budgets of ambitious clubs outside the elite. And while Guimaraes may now be worth more than double the pounds 35 million paid to Lyon in January 2022, that market isn’t always going to unearth gems, no matter how smart the recruitment. Equally, with fiscal compliance so important, the odd inevitable mistake has more impact. United can drop pounds 50 million on a right back who can’t get in the team and go again; Newcastle cannot.

So, a big weekend, followed by some big months ahead. Very soon we’ll know where Newcastle are. Where they can be, however, isn’t entirely in their hands. That’s what has changed since 1996.

Good luck giving all fans what they want

The irony of a fan-led review is felt most acutely at Bury, where supporters of the same club can’t even agree on the best way to go skint.

One Bury couldn’t make a go of it and now we have two. There is Bury FC – or Bury Community United Football Club – who unsuccessfully applied to join the North West Counties Football League, and Bury AFC, who already play there. We’re in real People’s Front of Judea territory, with two phoenix clubs rising from the ashes of one dodo. If the love for Bury couldn’t make a single club solvent, how does anyone imagine it is going to be enough to fund a pair? And how can even a crisis as dramatic as extinction fail to unite supporters behind one common cause?

Yet on the horizon is a review that implies all fans want the same for their clubs, and the game, and that a government so smart it was unable to understand how Ireland worked when envisaging Brexit can deliver happily for all. Maybe see how that first licence failure goes before presuming kinship. Supporters of Birmingham City are angry with their owners; they don’t want to be without a football club, though, whatever judgments are made for them.

Red Devil? Ratcliffe still has a blue stain

Raine, the banking group handling the sale of Manchester United, has warned interested parties to stop campaigning on an anti-Glazer ticket. Statements by the Qatari bid, and that fronted by Sir Jim Ratcliffe, used terms that were considered hostile to the existing owners.

Yet this was always going to turn into a popularity contest, with the various suitors playing to the gallery and telling the fans what they want to hear. A fat transfer budget, shiny refurbished ground and fan priorities front and centre, you say? Well, step right in. They might as well campaign on a ticket that promises “free money”. Politicians do.

Still, congratulations and first blood to Ratcliffe, who has successfully positioned himself as the local boy and a United fanatic, despite being a Chelsea season-ticket holder. As a billionaire, would it really have been that hard for Ratcliffe to follow United without contributing to Roman Abramovich-era Chelsea? He’d hardly have been scrapping for the last National Express ride to Manchester.

How does a staunch United fan end up a Chelsea season-ticket holder? Unless he bought it for one game each year, which is unlikely.

United sale shrinks Liverpool ambition

John W Henry, the principal owner of Liverpool, now says the club aren’t up for sale and his Fenway Sports Group is seeking only additional investment. This is what is called a reality check.

The revelation that United were also on the market appears to have scuppered Liverpool’s short-term ambitions. No significant investor is going all-in for Liverpool without first seeing how United’s sale develops and some of those who would have targeted Liverpool immediately switched their attention to events at Old Trafford.

It’s a significant development too, for owners who may still harbour ambitions for a Super League. There are big clubs, very big clubs, and then there is United. The reason the Premier League thrives is that United were persuaded to stay a part of the whole for competition’s sake. If it were every club for themselves they would blow the rest out of the water. Better that Liverpool found out now than when it was too late.

Originally published as Martin Samuel: Newcastle’s mid-season slide brings back memories of 1996’s failed title bid