Tag: Newcastle United

NUFC: Reflections on a Wembley win.

So, finally we did it. After over 55 years of hurt – 70 if we’re talking about a domestic trophy – for the club and however many years it was for you personally, we won a trophy.

“We won a trophy…” words I never thought I’d say or type. Even after the takeover, I still found it hard to believe. This was Newcastle United after all; a club of the past almost, we just didn’t win things anymore. I’d spent my whole life hoping for something, but every time we seemed to get anywhere near close, fate intervened. And then Sunday happened.

I wasn’t lucky enough to get a ticket for Wembley. I guess being in Pot Z for the ballot will do that though. I was ok with that. I’d be a nervous wreck at Wembley, I’d be a nervous wreck at home. It genuinely didn’t matter.

There were stories everywhere you looked on Sunday. Be it the players, the management, Ant and Dec, Shearer and family or just the people of the long suffering support. Stories just leapt out, left, right and centre. And while I could bang on – again – about what it all meant to me, I thought I’d focus on some of the stories instead.

I have to start with Eddie, as important as Ant or Dec might be. Now the most successful manager in the club’s modern history, it’s fair to say that he achieved legend status on Sunday. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer, more deserving bloke either. A grafter who instantly ‘got’ the club and who has been taken to the hearts of supporters and the city itself. I’ve said before that he had restored pride to the city and the region, but on Sunday, as the leader of that squad of players, he made the world sit up and take notice. He broke the hoodoo, lifted the gloom and broke all of the curses that we might have wanted to imagine existed – traveller’s curses, Wembley curses, London curses, cup final curses…all of them banished by Eddie John Frank Howe.

Now Eddie is usually pretty cool and calm on the touchline, but he was visibly invested and visibly moved by the events at Wembley. Fists shaking for every goal, joking in the interviews afterwards and brandishing that trophy in front of his adoring public in as animated a way as I think we’ve seen him in his 3 years at the club. It was a joy to watch.

The Carabao Cup Final served as a exemplar for how the club has changed in Eddie’s time. The build up felt different this time. Personally, I was no longer relying on blind hope and although I never told a soul, I genuinely felt quietly confident. I believed that we could do it. Belief; that’s Eddie again, that.

Newcastle United has become a culture, a movement, a belief under Eddie. As supporters we’ve had it for years, albeit at times somewhat fractured, but under Eddie the club is well and truly united.

What struck me as being most illustrative of this unity was the team photos with the trophy. When the squad gathered for the traditional champagne spraying shenanigans, there were something like 23 members of staff aside from payers. When it was done later, elsewhere, even the club photographer was urged to join in. Unity, a culture of winning and belonging right there. Newcastle United is no longer about individual stars, nor is it to be known patronisingly for its ‘magnificent’ fans. And it could be seen all over the place at Wembley on Sunday.

Those photos have been a feature of Eddie’s time in charge from the very start and it’s always been the same – everyone is involved; team, squad, injured players, staff. This is everyone’s effort and the trophy on Sunday was down to every last one of them.

Another story for me was that of those not quite so involved. Firstly, there were youngsters Lewis Miley and Sean Neave. Both looked a little bewildered at the end of the game, but both played their part. As squad members they were shown trust at the highest level. Miley has already experienced a lot in his time in the squad but for Neave, this must have been an incredible boost. It was good to see that this trust was given, rather than just taking the option of naming two keepers on the bench and I’m sure this will pay off in terms of the development of these two players in years to come.

It was a similar story with Will Osula, someone who seems to have settled into the squad very well and was at the centre of the celebrations on Sunday. It’s worth remembering that he’s still a very young and inexperienced player and yet there he was after the first goal in the thick of things with Dan Burn and again at full time carrying and spinning Alexander Isak around the pitch. A definite sign of the unity within the squad. At the other end of the scale was Mark Gillespie, rarely involved in what we might call ‘active service’ but always part of the group and obviously a valued member of the culture that has been created. Even Sven Botman, fresh from surgery, hobbled his way onto the pitch at full time. Everywhere you looked, the pitch was filled by those who had been working hard to get us to this point.

The final story for me belonged with the fans. But it wasn’t just those that were lucky enough to be there. 70 years is a long time to wait and for some, time just ran out. There weren’t many who could say they were alive the last time we won a domestic trophy. Bruno picked up on this in his pitchside interview afterwards. “People have died” he said, referencing the fact that not everyone had got to cherish this moment. This was far more than just a trophy. It meant everything to everyone and I’ve no doubt that there were many of us letting those we’ve lost know what happened this week. So while there were many tears of joy, there was plenty sorrow too. But while many of us spent time looking back on Sunday, we must remember that Eddie and the lads have now given us reason to look ahead.

Like many of you, I was in floods of tears at the whistle. I was fighting them for the whole of the second half, physically shaking for the last 20 minutes. Slumped on our living room floor I was mobbed by my Leeds supporting wife and son, who knew exactly what this meant. Minutes later, my phone rang. My 85 year old dad. I picked up but could barely speak. I wanted to say thank you for taking me to St. James’ Park in the first place and handing this on to me, but couldn’t find the words. Three days later and I still don’t think I can speak to him without emotion!

Now, after decades of hurt, Newcastle United are the latest club to win a trophy in English football. The wait is over and didn’t we enjoy celebrating? Same again next year? I’m sure we’d all love that, but let’s not build our hopes up just yet, eh!

An open letter to Eddie and the lads.

Dear Eddie, Mad Dog and the lads,

Chances are you won’t read this. Some random Geordie pouring out his heart in what might well sound like a bit of a sob story. Why would you want to read that? However, on the off chance that you catch sight of it and find yourself with a spare 5 minutes, here’s my ten pence worth about the final.

I think I speak for the majority of Mags when I say that this cup final matters more than almost anything else. It’s not about glory or bragging rights or anything trivial like that. It’s about dreams. It’s about pride in what and who we are.

Like many others, I’ve supported Newcastle United for a long, long time. In my case it’s well over 40 years. Others have served the cause even longer. It’s like an addiction, Eddie; a birth right and for a lot of us it’s been a cruel curse to be handed down to us by dads, grandads, elder siblings and the like. Like it is with any team. Many a time I’ve joked that I wish my mam and dad had lived in Barcelona or Madrid, giving me a legitimate chance at glory, not glory hunting. But it’s only ever been a joke. I wouldn’t change my allegiance to that badge and that black and white shirt for anything.

Some of my earliest memories are tragically Toon related. I still have a vivid memory of waving my dad off to Wembley in 1976 and then waiting at the window for him to come back home the next day. He’d gone full of hope if not any sense of fashion, dressed in black and white tartan flares and wearing a black and white Tam o’ shanter, no doubt drunk before he got into the passenger seat. That might explain his outfit as well! He returned deflated, a shell of the man who’d walked up the drive the previous day. I now know that it was probably more to do with a raging hangover, than the defeat, but at the time I just thought he was heartbroken. At least he’d seen us win in ’51, ’52, ’55 and ’69. He’d tasted the ultimate victory, sampled silverware.

My dad took me to games from an early age. I was born with a heart complaint and during one of several hospital stays I was sent a letter from the club, telling me how brave I was and rewarding my bravery with free season tickets whenever I was well enough to take advantage of them. I was already in love with the club. Now, I was obsessed. There was not going to be a chance that I’d ever be anything other than black and white from that point. I’d be miserable about it all for a lot of the time, but I’d be black and white. And that’s the point for loads of us. We didn’t get a choice, we didn’t need to be winning all of the time and we’d be loyal without a great deal of reward, but we’d stick with it and we’d never give up hope.

In my early years as a Newcastle fan, I thought it was only a matter of time before we won something. By the time I was a young adult I was already desperate to see us win anything at all and the nagging fear of ‘not in my lifetime’ was already eating away at me. King Kev gave me hope and glory, but in the end we couldn’t even win the Anglo Italian cup. It was Keegan who said that the fans had followed Newcastle through “thin and thin” and he was spot on!

Some years earlier, in 1989 I’d been glued to the radio as Newcastle played in the Football League Centenary Trophy, a tournament played over a weekend at Wembley. Our first game was against First Division champions Liverpool, so I held out little hope. Lo and behold though, we somehow won the game on penalties. This was it…silverware beckoned, I was going to be rewarded for my loyalty. I was finally going to be able to say that my team had won something, even if I didn’t really know what it was. And then we lost the next game against Tranmere of the Fourth Division! Typical Newcastle United!

I learnt to not get my hopes up pretty fast. Supporting Newcastle didn’t need to be about trophies, after all. Good job, really. It became about loyalty, community and a sense of belonging. Newcastle United was a huge part of my identity and year in year out I would give it the majority of my attention. Year in, year out, it let me down. Many managers and board members didn’t seem to care about us and it never really felt like a lot of the players understood what it was to wear the shirt. But I clung to the ones that did; Beardsley, Keegan, McDermott, Quinn, Kelly…the players of my youth. Your lads all seem to get it, Eddie.

We’ve seen Wembley appearances before, of course. Glorious failures in the 90s and the semi final in 2000. And then a couple of years ago against Manchester United. But at some point it can’t just be a day out anymore. In my time I’ve seen West Ham, Wigan, Leicester, Portsmouth, Coventry and even bloody sunderland win at Wembley, albeit it in the pizza cup. But if them, then why not us?

We follow Newcastle because it makes us feel like we belong and it’s a massive part of who we are. It’s rare I’ve felt as welcome as I do stood behind a goal surrounded by fellow Geordies singing my heart out. We support Newcastle because it’s our city, insular and fighting to make itself heard, yet welcoming to almost all. The best city on the planet. We support this team for hopes, dreams, friendship and pride. We support them because it makes us feel good; even when we get beat there’s a certain level of feel good factor. There’s enjoyment to be had, mates to see, strangers to bond with over a common cause.

Just for once, it’d be nice to feel rewarded in the more traditional sense though – being able to watch our players parade a trophy around the pitch. We don’t demand a team that wins, but just this once it feels like it might be the only thing that really matters.

Eddie, you’ve given us back a huge amount of pride. Given us a competitive team that just gets it, like we do and who are loved by the city as a result. Your team has rewarded those who travel thousands of miles to watch their team year in, year out. It’s added even more pride to wearing those famous stripes. It would be beyond words to see us win on Sunday. But I’ll still probably write about it, if you fancy a read!

On Sunday, the opposition doesn’t matter – we demand a team that tries, so get into these! Leave nothing on the pitch, lose your voice on the touchline and get back to Newcastle with no regrets.

Good luck, Eddie. Good luck, lads.

NUFC: The ones that got away – Florian Thauvin.

The old saying goes that ‘if at first you don’t succeed, try, try , try again’. Florian Thauvin was definitely a case of the saying being put into action. Signed from Marseille for £15m in August of 2015, Thauvin was finally joining Newcastle after what felt like years of us trailing him.

From memory, I think we’d tried to sign him from Bastia two years previous, but the player wasn’t keen on the move. Then, when he joined Lille, we were still trying for his signature. Two years later, we finally got our man. He’d forced a move to Marseille, having been in dispute with Lille about a contract and he’d publicly rejected our advances at that time too. We should have know better and just walked away because after just 5 unhappy months on Tyneside, Thauvin was heading back to Marseille on a loan which would then be extended into the next season before being made permanent in a £9.8m move a few months later.

Thauvin made his debut from the substitute’s bench in an away game at Old Trafford. And he came agonisingly close to making himself an instant hero, sliding in at the back post, but being inches away from getting on the end of a cross that flashed across the face of goal. Who knows if connecting with it and scoring might have made Thauvin’s time at Newcastle an entirely different story?

Florian made his first start for the club a few days later in a League Cup tie at home to Northampton. And it was quite the performance as he scored a spectacular, acrobatic goal, getting on the end of a cross at the Leazes end, before bagging three assists. Two of those assists came from fantastic, Lauren Robert style free kick deliveries and the other from a cute pass to play in the overlapping Darryl Janmaat at the Gallowgate.

The future looked bright, but sadly, that was the highlight for Thauvin at Newcastle. He seemingly hadn’t really wanted to join and his form showed that. In all, he made just 16 appearances and scored just the one goal. He never looked comfortable on Tyneside and in the end the club cut their losses and moved him on. He was a player with a wand of a left foot, a bit of pace and the ability to glide past full backs, but it just never looked like working out at Newcastle. The kind of player we love as Newcastle fans; a flair player and a difference maker…just one that never managed to make a difference!

The other abiding memory of Florian comes from the fact that he turned up for a home game against wearing a tuxedo, something that he was widely criticised for. Personally, I kind of liked his style, but each to their own I suppose! The fact was, he joined a struggling team under one of the worst managers in NUFC’s modern history – Steve McClaren. The poor lad was doomed from the start.

Having left Tyneside, Thauvin would go on to show exactly what a talent he was, making a total of 200 appearances for Marseille, scoring 71 goals. Then, in 2018 he became a World Cup winner with France! He was also part of the French Olympic squad in 2020.

Having left Marseille to join Mexican side Tigres in 2021, Florian spent almost two seasons there before joining Udinese in 2022, where he still plays. Overall he has played over 450 career games, scoring 119 goals, but just the one for us!

Clearly, a talented player who could have been so much more on Tyneside. Definitely one that got away, but also maybe a case of Newcastle needing to take more notice of repeated knock backs, I suppose. Thankfully, a lesson we just about seemed to have learned some years later when we were persuing a certain Hugo Ekitike!

A win’s a win, surely?

The home game against Forest will have made a lot of us sit up and think. There will have been an abundance of questions, lots of mulling over the performance and probably not as much celebration as we’d usually expect when we’ve won. I’m sure Eddie Howe and his coaching team have a lot to reflect on too.

And yet, we won didn’t we? We definitely picked up three points; I know because I’ve seen the league table. So why so much angst, anger and head scratching then?

Before I go on, I understand why there was anger, frustration etc. I don’t necessarily agree with it or subscribe to that way of thinking, but I understand where it comes from.

It’s a shame that it all gets so extreme though. In the stadium the crowd seemed quiet and on edge which I think is understandable. There were still bursts of noise and encouragement though in that second half when we found ourselves improbably under the cosh.

In other places though, things were getting a bit daft to say the least. Online (I know, I know…) the reaction was akin to that if we’d been hammered. There were numerous posts saying that people had ‘had enough’, bizarre takes about tactics, substitutions and player performances and metaphorical toys being thrown from metaphorical prams in every direction. I saw posts criticising most players; some even saying that Bruno needs to be sold. I even saw one post demanding ‘answers’ from Eddie Howe, like he might just come round the poster’s house this morning at some point and explain the thinking behind playing Nick Pope or why he Callum Wilson made a couple of silly decisions late on in the game.

I can’t say that I wasn’t frustrated while watching. The amount of passes that went astray in that second half was mind boggling and why we weren’t clearing our lines when no great subtlety was needed, I’ll never know. I was absolutely fraught at times, screaming and shouting like a lunatic, as many others would have been too. But the reality is that a decent side upped their game for 45 minutes and built up enough pressure that meant they were able to grab a couple of – let’s be honest – scrappy goals. Then, after quite a stressful time for all involved when the ref blew his whistle it turned out we’d won.

There were lots of reasons to be cheerful. Isak scored again. Lewis Hall was outstanding and Lewis Miley continued to look like a seasoned pro. After an injury worry, Sandro Tonali came through unscathed. It wasn’t all doom and gloom.

I’m not an idiot. I realise that we can’t continue to perform like we did in that second half. I realise that better sides would have put us away, although Forest are a very good side according to the league table. I realise that we need to be much more first half than second half in the Carabao Cup Final. Our form has to be more consistent because if not, we risk ending up outside the European spots and ending the season in really disappointing fashion. But I’m happy to leave solving any perceived problems to Eddie Howe and his coaching team, as well as the players who have greatly entertained us time and time again over the last few seasons and who managed to score one more goal than Forest when all is said and done.

I’m really not an optimist where football is concerned. A bad result affects my mood, my day and my week as it does for many others. But against Forest we won. We took three points. No one took any away from us because the second half was poor. And we moved back up the table into 5th position. So yes, we weren’t at our best for a good chunk of that game, but let’s all calm down a little bit and adopt a more realistic way of thinking.

Whatever the result or the performance, we move on. We hope that performances get more consistent of course, but we don’t need to be ranting, raving or demanding answers just yet surely? A win’s a win, isn’t it?

Gallowgate Cult Heroes, number 11: David Kelly

David Kelly changed my life. With one sweep of his right foot he changed the fortunes of Newcastle United and more or less saved them from writing the darkest chapter in their entire history. In doing so, he changed my life. And in doing so he might just have changed the life of yourself or someone you know.

David ‘Ned’ Kelly was signed from Leicester City for £250,000 in December 1991. He would go on to make 70 appearances across 3 seasons on Tyneside, scoring 35 goals.

We were in deep trouble when Kelly signed. This was the 1991-1992 season, infamous for how close we came to dropping into the third tier of English football. Kelly was signed by Ossie Ardiles, but ended the season under Kevin Keegan, scoring 11 crucial goals that would help us get just far enough up the table to avoid the drop by a whisker. It was a close run thing though!

Kelly was a workhouse of a striker, a willing runner and a chaser of lost causes. He wasn’t without ability, was blessed with a little bit of pace and had scored goals wherever he’d been; just what we needed at this time in our history.

The goal that changed the course of Newcastle United history was obviously a memorable one. Anyone who was at St. James’ Park that day will tell you. We played Portsmouth at home in the old second division and were desperate for a win. Keegan’s Newcastle made all the running that day, but with 5 minutes remaining it looked like we wouldn’t be able to make the breakthrough. And then it happened.

Keeper Tommy Wright threw out to Ray Ranson on the right side of the pitch in our own half and he advanced a little before launching a long ball up the middle. Kelly glanced it on to Micky Quinn who saw his strike partner going for the return and hooked the ball into his path. Meeting it on the bounce, Kelly lashed at it on the half volley from just inside the box at the Gallowgate and the keeper didn’t get near it as it rocketed into the top corner! Cue bedlam, mayhem, limbs, whatever you want to refer to it as.

I’d travelled up from university that day and was in the Gallowgate on my own. I felt physically sick at the prospect of us slipping into division 3 and had hated every second of the match. But as the ball hit the net, the place erupted. I don’t remember a huge amount; just being lifted off my feet in the chaos, screaming with sheer relief. The place was just a swell of joy; nobody who was there will ever forget the significance of what had just happened.

We would go to Leicester on the following weekend knowing that barring a disastrous series of results elsewhere, we would stay up. We won and Kelly was confronted on the pitch by angry Leicester fans who had raced on from the stands as we got the winner.

I met Kelly that summer in a pub in Cramlington. He was just sat at the bar with a mate, totally unassuming in a purple shell suit. I was loathe to make a tool of myself but still felt I had to say thanks for that goal. Kelly received my gratitude with a little bit of bemusement, clearly thinking that he’d done nothing special. I hope he knows the truth.

History shows that we were then promoted to the new, shiny Premier League in the following season and Kelly played his part then too. In a memorable season that ended with us as Second Division champions, Kelly was top scorer with 28 goals. Most notably, he scored the goal that clinched promotion in the 90th minute of a win away at Grimsby when it felt like three quarters of the crowd were geordies. He then went on to score a hat-trick as we walloped Leicester 7-1 at home in the final game of the season. It felt like the Kelly/Cole partnership were about the reap havoc in the Premier League. And then Kelly was sold.

Keegan decided to bring back Peter Beardsley from Everton and Kelly was sacrificed, heading to Wolves. ‘Ned’ would never be forgotten though and the love he found from those at St. James’ Park was still strong, even when he’d clearly had enough of proper football and signed for Sunderland. In fact, when he returned with the mackems a few years later Kelly was given a standing ovation as he took the field as a sub. A remarkable, instinctive and quite beautiful show of appreciation for a man who, you might just say, played a big part in saving the club.

David Kelly, take a bow.

NUFC: The January transfer window? Feels like a waste of time!

In his poem The Wasteland, T.S. Elliot tells us that April is the cruellest month. It’s a reference to depression and suicide rates. And while I’m a bit of a fan of the poem, I’m afraid I’m beginning to disagree with Elliot’s assertion about April. Surely, in a world of PSR frustrations, January is miles more cruel for us Newcastle fans.

Of course, I’m being a bit dramatic, but I’d defy anyone to tell me that January in Toon terms isn’t at the very least an enormous pain in the arse.

There are many reasons for this, the chief one being those three dreaded letters…PSR. The ludicrous financial fair play rules that make it practically impossible to achieve anything close to fair play. That is of course unless you have to be one of a clutch of clubs that the whole system was designed to favour in the first place. Or that you’re just Chelsea.

In summer, our spending was rendered almost pointless as PSR forced us to sell two bright talents in Elliot Anderson and Yankuba Minteh, two players who would have almost certainly been in and around the first team for these last 5 months and then for years to come. Frankly, we’d all rather have kept Anderson than gained Odysseas Vlachodimos, as funny as his name might be. In fact, it might be argued that Anderson was a better third choice keeper than the Greek, given that he’s barely had a look in during his time at the club. Put simply, what Anderson and Minteh offered was well worth keeping and the rules shouldn’t be dictating that kind of decision when a club simply doesn’t have the financial need to have to make it. Nor should the rules be used against clubs resulting in weakening squads.

The argument about our ‘richest owners in world football’ has been done to death and there’s no point crying about it here, but it’s safe to say that PSR isn’t the thing that’s keeping us financially safe. And that’s the case for many other clubs too. While clubs being in financial trouble is no joke given their status at the heart of many communities, how many have actually gone out of business? Not many in the grand scheme of things and when you are as financially independent as we are and as responsible with spending, PSR is irrelevant.

Face it, PSR is the ruin of the transfer window, a death knell not just for ridiculous spending that clubs can’t afford, but in many cases just spending of any kind. The majority of clubs won’t spend anything because of the PSR deadline in June! It makes the January transfer window almost obsolete and with that begins to threaten the Premier League’s grand claim of being the best league in the world. Clubs can’t buy anyone in order to help change their fortunes, which only goes to add more weight to the anti-competition accusations. In Newcastle United terms, it makes the wealth of our owners just another frustration and helps make January in particular, the cruellest month. To use an idiom, we’re all dressed up with nowhere to go.

Things get worse when you look at the spending of other clubs. As I write, Manchester City – with 115 charges still against them in terms of previous spending, by the way – have so far spent £122m. And I know that their turnover is far higher than ours…but still. Villa have spent money and continue to be linked with players, Spurs have spent money and it looks like there will be more, Ipswich have spent £20m and even Bournemouth, Wolves and Southampton have spent a bit. And there will be more, you can bet. PSRwise, how does this work?

Meanwhile, we’re told time and again that it will be very unlikely that we’ll spend money, despite players being moved on. The reasoning that we’re saving it until summer doesn’t fill me with much hope either. I’ve heard it before. We’ve all heard it before. And given our actual financial situation, it’s all the more frustrating.

Then we get to Chelsea, who so far this January haven’t spent a penny. But they will. And if it was just because they have a huge turnover, that would be ok. But we all know that it’s not. So far, the Premier League have sanctioned the selling of two of their hotels to themselves as well as the sale of their women’s team…to themselves. It doesn’t fill you with much confidence about the whole cartel argument and the way that the Premier League seems to look the other way as Chelsea take the piss. And we could cast our eyes Manchester United’s way for similar shenanigans as ‘allowances’ are made for them because of Covid expenses. Not a privilege that will ever be extended to us by Mr. Masters, I’m sure. And I’m sure that any even remotely similar transactions on our part would come under ridiculous amounts of scrutiny too. It’s enough to bend the mind of any Toon fan as we endure another barren January.

What makes January even worse for me personally though is the constant links and hard luck stories that we get from the press. So far this month we must have been linked to at least 40 different players. The excellent NUFC.com list 20 different links on the Rumours page at time of writing, while the Chronicle seem to have a story saying that we’re either ‘watching, ‘tracking’, ‘monitoring’ or ‘interested in’ several players on a daily basis. What do these things even mean? And if we’re never signing these players who ultimately end up elsewhere, what’s the point in even scouting them at all, let alone ‘monitoring’ them?

The story that really got my January goat was when the agent of Khusanov, the centre half who went to Manchester City, told the Chronicle that we were ‘very close to the deal’ and that we were ‘last to leave the race with City’! The last to leave the race is small consolation when actually it just means that we didn’t sign anyone again!

Despite all of this, I still scan the websites, read the papers and will inevitably be tuned to Sky Sports News on deadline day, as ever, in the hope that something, just something will happen. Despite Eddie Howe being pretty consistent in telling reporters that any signings are unlikely, I live in the same state of hope that we probably all do. Why do we bother though? January is definitely the cruellest month…and that’s before you even give a thought to Arsenal fans and their obsession with Alexander Isak!

NUFC: The ones that got away – Silvio Maric.

Silvio Maric should have amounted to much more than he did as a Newcastle player. Signed from Croatia Zagreb in February 1999, he came with a good reputation as a goalscoring midfielder, having scored 28 goals in 91 appearances for Zagreb. Maric looked for all the world like a solid signing, with an eye for goal and the bit of quality that we would need. And while I know it’s not a guarantee of any kind, when you think of the midfielders that Croatia has produced over the years – Modric, Rakitic, Prosinecki and Boban spring to mind – it seems very much typically NUFC that we could sign a Croatian dud!

I’m sure there’ll be many a Mag who disagrees with me on this latest choice for a ‘one that got away’. But to that I’d say, you might just be missing the point. The point of this series isn’t to look at amazing players that we lost; more to look into the ones that just should have been better than the disappointments or disasters even, that they turned out to be. So for me, Silvio Maric fits the bill perfectly. For me, there was a player in there, but he just simply didn’t come out to play!

Maric was signed by Ruud Gullit, who you’d have thought might just have had a good eye for a decent midfielder. And Maric did have quality. At £3.5m he could have been a bargain, but in the end we actually ended up losing almost half of our money when he was sold to Porto after just over a season.

Silvio arrived looking out of shape and rather than hitting the ground running, he just hit the ground. It was obvious from very early on in his Toon career, that he wasn’t going to be up to the demands of the Premier League, but also that he just didn’t seem to fancy it. And yet here was a midfielder with vision and real quality on the ball. Coupled with his eye for goal – his career stats of 46 goals in 222 appearances kind of back this up – all he really needed was the desire to succeed or a bit of hard work and he could have been so much more for us.

My one real positive memory of Maric was at the 1999 FA Cup semi final against Spurs when he set up the second clinching goal for Alan Shearer. He took the ball to the edge of the box on the left hand side, drew two defenders in and then, when most would have whipped over a cross, he checked back and laid a perfect set up back to Shearer on the edge of the box who thumped it with the outside of his right foot, beyond Ian Walker and into the back of the net. The goal will always be remembered as yet another Shearer thunderbolt, but Maric’s vision under pressure, with the clock ticking down and Spurs looking for an equaliser, was important as well.

Maric made under 30 appearances for Newcastle and only scored in Europe, where he had an impressive record of 2 goals in 3 games that might have hinted at the player we actually had. Ultimately though, he just didn’t seem to have the stomach for the Premier League and in 2000 he was off to Porto for £2m. His final move was back to Zagreb in and he retired in 2006.

We can only really speculate about whether Maric was ‘one that got away’, but what I would say is that he was another one of those players that could and perhaps should have done so much more on Tyneside.

Jacob Murphy: Still living the dream!

In April of 2023 I wrote a piece about Jacob Murphy and his contribution to Newcastle United at that time. Put simply, Jacob Murphy was living the dream!

At the time Murphy had been starring in the 2022/2023 as we headed towards Champions League qualification. He’d scored a screamer against Spurs in that 6-1 game and been an integral part of the team in our two legged Carabao Cup semi final victory over Southampton. Who could forget him waving Duja Caleta Car off after his red card in the away leg? And although he couldn’t prevent us from losing the final, he would create more memories in the next season just by lining up for our first Champions League group game against AC Milan in the San Siro. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player looking so pleased and proud and so bewildered just to be lining up for their club.

I also focused on the fact that, because we were his boyhood club, he was one of our own which made it feel that little bit better that he was doing so well. This was particularly relevant as, prior to Eddie Howe’s arrival, it had looked like his time at the club could have been over following some fairly lukewarm performances, a couple of loans away from the club and the impact of Steve Bruce and his merry gang of other Steves.

Fast forward to 2025 and Jacob Murphy is flying again. Having turned into somewhat of a marmite figure amongst fans for the last year or so, Jacob found himself back in the team towards the end of 2024. I don’t think too many people expected a great deal and the focus was still very much on the need for a right winger in the January transfer window. However, Murphy has enjoyed something of a renaissance since getting back in against Liverpool. In his last 8 games there have been 3 goals and 5 assists. His two goals in the game v Leicester were clinical and in truth he could and should have had a hat-trick that day. But he followed that performance up with a beauty in the next match away to Ipswich.

Murphy’s assists have been invaluable in the recent run. He got another one last night in what was a brilliant performance against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup semi final. He was also involved in the build up to the second goal too. Jacob has produced 4 assists in the last 7 league games and in 24/25 he’s the joint 5th top assister in the Premier League with the same amount of assists as every mackem’s favourite player Amad Diallo, the much hyped Bruno Fernandes and the mythical creature that is Cole Palmer. Clearly, Murph is having a real impact at this moment in time. Eddie Howe loves him. And but for some poor finishing by both Murphy and some of his team mates his goal and assist figures could have been significantly higher. Add to that his workrate and all round contribution and it’s fair to say that Jacob Murphy is well and truly back and living the dream again!

Which brings me to my final thought on the subject. And before I mention it I’ll just clarify and caveat this with the fact that in no way am I saying that this should happen, however much I like Murphy. That said, with Thomas Tuchel in the stands last Saturday as we beat Tottenham, what price an England call-up for Mr. Murphy? I’d imagine it’s highly unlikely with the amount of younger talent that Tuchel has to choose from, but I’d definitely say that England could do worse. Just a thought…

Ladies and gentlemen, Jacob Murphy is living the dream once again!

Gallowgate Cult Heroes Number 10: Papiss Cisse

If you were to come up with a check list to define what makes a footballing cult hero then Papiss Cisse would tick a lot of boxes. Great relationship with the fans? Tick. Outrageous technique? Tick. Scorer of screamers? Tick. You could go on, because Cisse had a lot of great attributes that would endear him to the fans.

Signed in January 2012, Cisse was a bit of a mystery for most fans. I’m not even sure I remember the obligatory YouTube showreel of all his best bits! However, by the time he left the Toon, he most definitely had one.

Cisse, a Senegalese international, was signed for £9.3 million from SC Freiburg of the Bundesliga; a lot of money during the Mike Ashley era. He was very much an unknown quantity, albeit one who had behind him a very decent record for scoring goals in both France and Germany. But could he cut the mustard in the Premier League? We didn’t have to wait long to find out.

Cisse, wearing the cherished number 9 shirt, made his debut the following month against Aston Villa, coming on as a substitute for Leon Best. In a fairytale start to his career on Tyneside, Papiss scored an amazing, quite instinctive winner, chesting down a cross from Jonas Gutierrez just inside Villa’s box before lashing it on the half volley into the corner of the net at the Gallowgate. What a start! And Papiss would go on to make a habit of scoring important and spectacular goals!

In 5 seasons in black and white Cisse would score 44 goals, making 131 appearances. In his first season he notched 13 goals in 14 games, an incredible record. But after that injuries and at times a lack of form meant that he never really came close to fulfilling his potential. While he wasn’t exactly prolific – his record roughly equates to a goal every three games – Cisse would regularly light up games for Newcastle and he quickly became a bit of a crowd favourite.

His popularity with the crowd came for a few different reasons. Firstly, we’re well known for our love of a number 9 and not just because they happen to wear that shirt. We love a number 9 that fills the shirt, if you know what I mean. Someone who accepts the responsibility and rises to it. Papiss Cisse did just that. He was one of those players with a bit of flair and personality and it always felt like he just loved playing for the club.

Cisse also brought a certain level of entertainment to a side that, at that time, wasn’t all that entertaining. For me, he brought to mind Andy Cole, albeit being nowhere near as prolific. Consecutive seasons under Pardew, Carver then McClaren were all pretty dull, apart from the one that brought European football back under Pardew, yet Cisse always managed to stand out in what were at times, pretty dull sides.

And then there were the spectacular goals, starting with that first against Aston Villa. Cisse is probably most well known for the screamer scored from what felt like an impossible position out by the touchline away at Chelsea. You know the one; the ball was layed off to him, late in the game and rather than maybe taking a touch and protecting it or heading for the corner to kill time, he just lashed at it, producing a kind of banana shot that curled goalwards, looped over Peter Czech and nestled in the bottom of the net at the back post. A thing of wonder, although I’m sure I read a comment by Cisse somewhere saying that he was just too tired to do anything else than thrash at the ball!

There were others too. For me, his first in that same game against Chelsea was actually a better goal as he took a difficult ball down and then just volleyed it into the back of the net from just outside of the box. In that same season he also scored a beauty against Swansea away; a kind of scooped, curling effort into the far corner as he fell away from the ball off balance. In the following season he scored a peach of a volley from around 25 yards at home against Southampton and I definitely remember a couple of penalties that were just lashed into the top corner to give the keeper no chance.

Having watched all of his goals again in order to help write this, it seems that Cisse was much more a fox-in-the-box type of striker than I remembered though. He had a remarkable ability to find tiny pockets of space in the box and his movement was excellent. Time and time again he would lose his marker in order to finish from somewhere in the box. And at other times he’d be the only attacker there, but still manage to get away from 3 or 4 defenders in order to score.

Papiss Cisse might not have been the greatest striker that we’ve ever had at Newcastle United. He might not even make the top 10 in the last 20 years, come to think of it. However, for a short time, he was absolutely adored by Newcastle fans. Definitely a cult hero!

Three Mags at Wembley!

It was a bit of a funny old weekend. Those international breaks are rarely that entertaining and I think we’d all much prefer to be watching our beloved Newcastle United. But then with three players in the England squad for Sunday evening’s game against the Republic of Ireland, I’m guessing that a lot of us found ourselves watching.

I found out via social media that we had three starters in the team. It took me by surprise, despite the fact that Anthony Gordon and Lewis Hall had both played a part in the victory away in Greece a few days earlier. I thought that Hall deserved the start this time, but England being England, was still quite surprised to see him in the team. I mean, I’d have been less surprised if I was told that they’d just called up the perma-injured Luke Shaw.

And then there was Tino Livramento, a player highly rated at St. James’ Park, but who so far had been largely ignored by England despite making the last couple of squads. I thought I’d read it wrong when suddenly he was in the starting line up for Wembley, even though I really rate the lad and think he could be England’s first choice right back for many years to come. Still, there was no time for grumbling and just about enough time to get the telly on and watch the match.

I thought our lads did extremely well. Gordon was a constant threat out on the left hand side, despite being handled quite well by the Irish and in particular their right winger Ebosele when tracking back. Gordon being Gordon though, he just kept making the runs and would eventually get his reward when scoring his first international goal. A good run across his defender and a cute finish too that gave the keeper no chance of ever getting across to it. And there was double the reason to celebrate as it was from Livramento’s cross via a flick on. A goal made on Tyneside. Well, sort of.

Tino had a good, solid debut. I thought he was a bit more conservative than he is with us, in terms of getting forward, but as the game wore on he just got better and better. He looked like he belonged in the shirt, playing alongside some of the best the country has to offer.

Lewis Hall, for me was a contender for Man of The Match. He was calm, assured and dynamic going forward; the player that we’ve grown used to watching for Newcastle, week in, week out. What a player we’ve got on our hands and what a left back England have too!

All three of our players did their country proud on Sunday evening and in doing so no doubt made all Newcastle fans proud, too. This was the first time in 27 years that we’d had three players in an England starting line up; an indication that our future really is bright.

So, it was a lovely Sunday evening for us Mags. The icing on the cake though came with just a little bit of help from our ‘friends’ down the road. On the weekend that mackems celebrated another famous social media win – their lesser Bellingham started for the U-21s and got asked for some autographs and their manager was spotted by one of their fans enjoying the delights of our city – we had the three starters for England…

Clearly, there are levels to this game.