“We will be ready,” Eddie Howe said, and there was little cause to disagree.
Over their two final pre-season games, played on Friday and Saturday, Newcastle United beat teams who finished third in the Spanish and French leagues last season and, with the women’s side also winning on penalties against AC Milan as part of a double-header with the latter, it meant two items of silverware were held aloft in the happy sunshine of Saturday evening. And people have the nerve to call it a trophy drought?
The real stuff may not begin until next weekend, when Southampton come to St James’ Park on the Premier League’s opening weekend, but Newcastle are in a decent place as the 2024-25 season looms.
There has been upheaval since the previous campaign ended in May, from narrowly meeting their financial fair play obligations, the departure of Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi from the directors’ box, to the arrival of a new sporting director in Paul Mitchell. But, on the pitch, perhaps they have rediscovered part of themselves.
Kieran Trippier and Bruno Guimaraes lift the Sela Cup (Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
Newcastle rarely got the opportunity to demonstrate strength last season because their resources were so routinely stretched; by those six extra matches in the Champions League, by reaching the quarter-finals of both domestic cup competitions and by injuries. Their depth proved shallow. They automatically become better and brawnier this time around simply by being almost entirely fit and available, but yes, of course, everybody wants shiny new transfers.
“The difference from the middle to the end of last season is that we’ve got a lot of players back — massive, massive players — and if we can keep them back, we will be stronger,” head coach Howe said after Saturday’s 1-0 win over French visitors Brest.
It is a beguiling thought, particularly if a defender of Marc Guehi’s calibre arrives before the end of the window. Newcastle and Crystal Palace are still talking about the England international centre-back.
In many ways, it has been a draining summer but, in others, Newcastle look refreshed and invigorated and Friday’s 4-0 demolition of a seemingly half-interested Girona — both they and Brest will play in the Champions League this season — was fun and ferocious.
“Me and the lads can’t wait for next weekend and the season to start,” Emil Krafth, the Sweden international defender, said. “So, yeah, we’re ready.”
How will they play?
In March, Howe talked about evolution. “We can’t be playing the same football we were three or four years ago,” he told Newcastle’s official programme. “We can’t be doing the same training that we were three or four years ago. Because if that’s the case, I think we’ll cease to exist. You have to keep evolving.”
For much of last season though, Newcastle’s style of play was less about evolution than survival. In November and December, when injuries bit and Howe could scarcely rotate his starting XI, they inevitably became a more passive side. Staying in games and energy preservation took precedence over relentless pressing and having a blast for the first hour of matches in the knowledge that reinforcements would come over the hill.
Newcastle’s problems were ingrained and even when players dribbled back, they did so at half-speed or when still vulnerable. Nobody got a rest.
The team’s identity became blurred; while St James’ remained a fortress for Howe and his players, their away form was poor, with only Sheffield United (15), Luton Town (13) and Brentford (12) faring worse than their 11 league defeats in the 19 outings. (The first two of those got relegated.)
Where were Howe’s hard-running b******s, who could play and mix it with the best of them?
A summer reset was sorely needed — sore being the operative word — and although there was little sign of it in Newcastle’s two friendly matches on tour in Japan, the context there was searing heat combined with sapping humidity. As Bruno Guimaraes said, “in my first day (there), I thought I would pass away”. And he’s from Brazil! These were games to be negotiated rather than seized, the temperatures in the Far East important for conditioning but hardly conducive to ferocity.
It was different back on Tyneside this past weekend, particularly against Girona, who were blitzed during an opening 15 minutes which brought three unanswered goals. Howe described himself as “really pleased with the energy and intensity, which in that first half-hour was top drawer. It was a big game to show our true selves”.
This was Howe’s Newcastle; stationed high up the pitch, forcing errors, sprinting hard and blessed with Alexander Isak’s gossamer touches in attack. If anything, Isak looks fitter and hungrier than in his first two seasons in England.
“I expect him to get at least 25 goals this season, maybe 30,” team-mate Krafth said. “He’s a fantastic player. It’s so hard to take the ball from him, he’s so good with his feet and a great goalscorer. He’s one of the best in the world at the moment.“
Isak is a striker in form this pre-season (Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
Man, it was good to have this Newcastle back.
“That’s the way we want to play,” Krafth said after the Girona game. “We want to press teams high, win the ball high and try to kill the game early. We were really successful with it and I don’t think they expected us to press that high. That’s the way we want to play, home and away, so we just have to keep it going.”
“However we play, you will see a team that will leave it all on the pitch,” Howe said the following evening. “I can’t make any guarantees in terms of results, but the way we play is important to me and the way we approach the game is important to me. But the main thing is that we leave no stone unturned in terms of trying to win and to be successful.
“We will try to deliver that. It’s easier said than done, but that’s what I live by.”
Howe during Saturday’s 1-0 friendly win over Brest (Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
How are the team shaping up?
It has been a summer of change at Newcastle, not that you would notice it on the pitch.
The team that began the match against Girona was a familiar one, featuring no new additions (not including Lewis Hall, who was on loan from Chelsea last season). The following day, there were starting places for Lloyd Kelly and William Osula against Brest but, as things stand, neither will be in Howe’s first XI for that opening league fixture with Southampton.
If the lack of a breakthrough in terms of front-line signings is a cause of frustration for supporters (and it is), there is at least one good reason for it. “If you’re going to add players, they have to push the group to new levels; so that’s what we’re looking for, which is very difficult to find,” Howe said. “There are not many players who will make us better.” As well as Guehi, Howe ideally wants to sign a quality right-winger.
The good news? As the Girona win reiterated, Newcastle already have a fine team. As the Brest game showed less than 24 hours later, they also have a pretty decent squad when they do not have injuries to contend with. The players already here are committed and together and fired up by the challenge of keeping their places.
A new right-winger, you say? Jacob Murphy has scored five times in pre-season, which should be enough to see him start against Southampton. A new centre-half? Fabian Schar and Krafth might have something to say about that. Constant improvement should be the way of things at ambitious places, but Newcastle have players who have repeatedly risen with the club since the 2021 takeover. They will not go quietly.
“I’m still alive!” said Krafth, who joined Newcastle five years ago, shortly after Steve Bruce was appointed as manager. “I know what I’m capable of. Everyone here is a really good player and everyone wants to be a part of the team this season.” This is the final season of Krafth’s contract, but as the 30-year-old says, “I want to stay. I love being in Newcastle, being part of the team. I will work as hard as I can to make it happen.”
Osula has joined from Sheffield United (Nigel Roddis/Getty Images)
Fans got a first glimpse of Osula, the 21-year-old striker bought from Sheffield United last week for an initial £10million ($12.8m). There was an early shot against Brest, an unlucky offside call that chalked off a goal, and some willing running. He looks a busy threat.
“He’s a player that really excites us,” Howe said of the Denmark Under-21 international. “He’s got some really good raw ingredients to become a very, very good centre-forward. He’s got extreme pace, a really good physical profile and good technical skills as well.”
The better news? There is more to come, both in terms of performance and personnel. And, away from new signings, last summer’s £55million buy Sandro Tonali will soon to free to return from a 10-month suspension for betting offences.
What are their targets this season?
When Newcastle ended up finishing fourth two seasons ago, discussing the Champions League qualification they eventually secured was off-limits; Howe wouldn’t countenance it until it was done.
A year before, the team had clambered out of the relegation positions post-takeover to seal 11th place, which felt like a small kind of miracle. Internally, discretion was the watchword; for that 2022-23 season, the club had budgeted for a top-10 place and “anything better than last time”, a senior source said, speaking anonymously to protect relationships.
Newcastle were the great disruptors that year.
Then last season came along to disrupt them, a chronic list of fitness issues picking apart any notion of what progress might look like.
In the end, seventh in the Premier League and those two domestic cup quarter-finals proved Howe’s side were good enough to compete across multiple competitions. It was also difficult, with moments of severe discomfort.
Guimaraes during the pre-season game against Yokohama F Marinos in Tokyo (Hiroki Watanabe/Getty Images)
This time, there is no disguise, no deflection and no discretion.
For a club with Newcastle’s aspirations, getting back into European competition for 2025-26 is the bare minimum. Everybody acknowledges it.
“We expect to really be in Europe. That has to be the aim for us next season,” Darren Eales, the chief executive, said earlier this summer.
And here is midfielder Guimaraes, a 26-cap Brazil international: “When I signed for the club, I said I want to play in the Champions League and everyone said I was crazy. We got it. Now I want to be in the Champions League again. I want to win something for the club.”
“In the future, we want to be a part of European football, always,” Krafth said.
Howe is an anti-hype machine, but even he is embracing this new reality. “I’m very comfortable with that,” he said. “We have to have high expectations of ourselves. We have to push ourselves internally. I think it’s slightly different when you’re in my position because you can have your targets, but nothing’s going to be given to you. You have to earn the right.”
You have to be ready.
Newcastle believe they are.
GO DEEPER
Guimaraes added to Newcastle’s leadership group: ‘I never said I want to leave’
(Top photo: Owen Humphreys/PA Images via Getty Images)
