by Durhamfootman » Sun Nov 21, 2021 2:59 pm
I much prefer Howe to Emery, so I wasn't at all disappointed when he turned the job down. Even with pots of money to spend it's still a business, so even if Howe impressed them mightily at his interview, why would they give a transfer fund, limited only by the FFP rules, to a manager who will have very limited experience of spending that sort of money, so I can understand why they might have preferred to go with Emery. In fairness to the new owners, I think the sudden change of heart from the PL caught them on the hop a little. If it had come earlier in the summer then Benitez would have been installed immediately, but that boat had sailed by the time the deal got the green light. I'm sure they'd have much preferred to wait until January, but they probably didn't trust Ashley not to move the goalposts again if they didn't do the deal immediately. Between windows is a terrible time to buy a football club, but it is what it is.
Prospects look grim for this season. The only football club in the entire 92 team football league to have not won a game yet. It would probably take 5 consecutive wins to get them out of the bottom 3 by the time the transfer window opens and that just isn't going to happen. Having not beaten Brentford (yeah... exactly), if they don't beat Norwich or Burnley in a couple of weeks time then it's hard to see where any win is going to come from before January. The other teams they face.... Arsenal, Leicester, Liverpool, Man C, Man U, Everton...... crumbs! They could be 15 points from safety by January. Even with a big spend, relegation looks really difficult to avoid, but as SP says, this is what you get after years of under investment.
Even buying players in January is looking difficult, If you are that far from safety, no proven quality overseas players are likely to want to come and the other PL clubs seem to be intent on boycotting the sale of any players to Newcastle in the window. Faced with a new rich rival, it suits the big clubs very nicely to try and negate that threat for another couple of years.
Despite all that, I'm a happy man atm. The spectre of Ashley no longer haunts the club and for the moment that's good enough. The long term future looks very bright, even if the next year looks problematic.
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