The 2021/22 season was one to remember for us for the right reasons. From having to suffer Steve Bruce's football and being unable to attend games in the 2020/21 season, not only were we able to have full crowds again but we finally saw Mike Ashley sell the club and Eddie Howe produce miracles when he took over as manager from Bruce.

Pre season saw Andy Carroll leave the club upon expiry of his contract along with Christian Atsu and Henri Saivet, who had both been omitted from our 25 man squad the previous season. Dwight Gayle was bizarrely given a new three year deal despite only scoring once, Jacob Murphy signed a six year deal, Federico Fernández signed a two year deal and Fabian Schär and Paul Dummett both signed one year extensions.

Our first pre season game came a week after England's heartbreaking penalty shoot-out loss to Italy in the Euro 2020 final and was our last away game that our fans couldn't travel to with the final social distancing measures being lifted the following day. It was just as well no fans did travel as we were beaten 1-0 by our former midfielder Steve Watson's National League North side York City but when we were allowed away fans again five days later, we beat Doncaster Rovers 3-2 and we finally got to hear a chant for Callum Wilson as he scored our third goal of the game. Jeff Hendrick scored a header a 1-1 win at Rotherham United four days later before goals from Jacob Murphy and Joelinton gave us a 2-0 win at Burton Albion, our final pre season game saw us beat newly promoted Norwich City at St James' Park thanks to a Matt Ritchie strike and a Dwight Gayle brace. Meanwhile, Joe Willock was signed permanently for around £25,000,000 from Arsenal after scoring eight goals in fourteen games on loan in the second half of the 2020/21 season.

Callum Wilson headed home Allan Saint-Maximin's cross to open the scoring in his first league game for us in front of fans against West Ham United but after the visitors had a goal disallowed for offside, replays showed that Aaron Cresswell's ball went straight in without any touches from the offside Jarred Bowen and David Moyes' side were level until a Jacob Murphy header gave us the lead going into half-time. The second half would go on to be a completely different story as Saïd Benrahma headed the visitors level before Tomáš Souček reacted quickest to Freddie Woodman parrying away a Michail Antonio penalty to give them the lead and Antonio made it 4-2 as we started the season in embarrassing fashion.

Things got worse as we lost 2-0 at Aston Villa thanks to a Danny Ings overhead kick and an Anwar El Ghazi penalty before Burnley knocked us out of the Carabao Cup on penalties at the first hurdle with Wayne Hennessey saving from Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almirón after a goalless ninety minutes at St James' Park. We ended August winless as James Ward-Prowse's stoppage time penalty gave Southampton a 2-2 draw after a VAR check confirmed that former Magpie Adam Armstrong was needlessly fouled by Jamaal Lascelles shortly after Allan Saint-Maximin netted what looked to be the winning goal for us on an afternoon when fans started to make their feelings known towards Steve Bruce from the stands after over a year without being able to go.

Meanwhile, a loan move for Leicester City's Hamza Choudhury fell through on transfer deadline day, meaning that Joe Willock was our only permanent signing of the summer although Santiago Muñoz was signed on an eighteen month loan deal (with an option to buy) from Santos Laguna for the U23s. Outgoing loan moves were Lewis Cass to Port Vale, Jake Turner to Colchester United, Kelland Watts to Wigan Athletic, Matty Longstaff to Aberdeen, Tom Allan and Oisin McEntee to Greenock Morton and Rodrigo Vilca to Doncaster Rovers.

If our start to the season was bad enough, we then had to face Cristiano Ronaldo in his first game since returning to Manchester United and he inevitably opened the scoring just before half-time but Javier Manquillo's first goal for us threatened to spoil his homecoming, however, Ronaldo bagged his second shortly afterwards and late goals from Bruno Fernandes and Jesse Lingard gave Ole Gunnar Solksjaer's side a 4-1 win. Meanwhile, Bruce's post match interview showed signs that he was feeling the heat as fans continued to voice their frustrations at him but he did at least change the formation for the visit of Leeds United whilst Karl Darlow came in for the injured Freddie Woodman after suffering from COVID-19 in pre season but we could only draw 1-1 as Allan Saint-Maximin's superb equaliser shortly before half-time bailed us out before Sean Longstaff's wonder strike opened the scoring away to Watford. However, he missed a good chance to make it 2-0 before Ismaïla Sarr's equaliser and Joshua King's disallowed goal then Jacob Murphy also wasted a good chance for us in stoppage time as we drew 1-1. We dropped to 19th as we were beaten 2-1 at Wolverhampton Wanderers thanks to a Hwang Hee-chan brace despite Jeff Hendrick's equaliser but that proved to be the final game of the Mike Ashley era as Saudi Arabia lifted a ban on BeIN Sports in their country, this allowed the takeover from the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia, PCP Capital Partners and the Reuben Brothers to be completed on 7 October with mass celebrations outside St James' Park throughout the evening.

This inevitably led to speculation about Steve Bruce's future and he was the heavy favourite to become the next Premier League manager to leave, even after the new owners confirmed that he would take charge of his 1000th game against Tottenham Hotspur. Wor Flags made a return to St James' Park to celebrate the takeover, twenty-eight months after ending their displays when Rafael Benítez left in 2019 and Callum Wilson opened the scoring but the chants against Bruce started again as goals from Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Kane and Heung Min-Son gave Spurs a 3-1 lead at half-time, a late Eric Dier own goal halved the deficit but the 3-2 loss was Bruce's last game as he was sacked three days later. Graeme Jones, who had a positive impact in the second half of the 2020/21 season after his arrival in January, took charge for the next few games, the first of which saw a Callum Wilson overhead kick cancel out Christian Benteke's header and give us a 1-1 draw away to Crystal Palace before European champions Chelsea won 3-0 on Tyneside thanks to a second half brace from Reece James and a Jorginho penalty. After former Arsenal manager Unai Emery rejected the job in favour of staying at Europa League champions Villarreal, Eddie Howe watched from the stands as a second half strike from Isaac Hayden gave us a 1-1 draw at Brighton & Hove Albion and he was confirmed as our new manager two days later.

Howe tested positive for COVID-19 the day before his first game at home to Brentford, meaning he would have to manage the team from his hotel. An entertaining game saw Jamaal Lascelles open the scoring before our former striker Ivan Toney equalised at the Gallowgate straight away and Rico Henry gave the visitors a 2-1 lead but Joelinton's first goal of the season made it 2-2 at the break. Frank Onyeka's strike was deflected in off Lascelles to put Thomas Frank's side back in front before Allan Saint-Maximin netted from Ryan Fraser's cross to give us a 3-3 draw. Howe returned to the dugout for the trip to Arsenal after a negative test but we were beaten 2-0 thanks to second half goals from Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli and three days later, Ciaran Clark was sent off five minutes into a vital home game against Norwich City for denying a clear goalscoring opportunity. Callum Wilson's penalty gave us the lead in the second half but Teemu Pukki's volley gave Dean Smith's side a point and things looked very bleak for us as we had no wins in our first fourteen games and were six points off 17th place.

Wilson scored again four days later as we finally got our first league win at the fifteenth attempt, beating Burnley 1-0 but we were brought back down to earth with a 4-0 loss away to Leicester City thanks to two goals from Youri Tielemans and one each from Patson Daka and James Maddison. This would've left fans dreading the trip to Liverpool four days later but Jonjo Shelvey's cracking strike gave us a shock lead against his former club before goals from Diogo Jota, Mohamed Salah and Trent Alexander-Arnold gave Jürgen Klopp's side a 3-1 win and another 4-0 defeat came three days later at the hands of Manchester City thanks to goals from Rúben Dias, João Cancelo, Riyad Mahrez and Raheem Sterling in a game which gave us further indication of how important the January window would be.

Allan Saint-Maximin scored our final goal of 2021 to open the scoring against Manchester United in a game where Cristiano Ronaldo was outperformed by our own number seven in Joelinton and Ralf Rangnick's side were fortunate to come away with a point as Edinson Cavani saved them from defeat in the second half. Our trips to Everton and Southampton were both postponed due to a number of COVID-19 cases along with injuries in our squad. Kieran Trippier became our first signing under our ownership when he joined from Atlético Madrid for £12,000,000, having previously worked with Eddie Howe at Burnley but he couldn't prevent us from a humiliating FA Cup defeat at home to League One side Cambridge United on his debut as Joe Ironside scored the only goal in a game which showed a striker was needed with Callum Wilson suffering a long term injury against Manchester United. Three days later, Chris Wood's £25,000,000 release clause was activated and he was signed from relegation rivals Burnley but his debut saw us drop yet more points as João Pedro's late header cancelled out an Allan Saint-Maximin strike to give Watford a 1-1 draw at St James' Park, however, we did manage to get our first away win of the season a week later as a Jonjo Shelvey free kick gave us a vital three points away to Leeds United.

During the winter break, we went to Saudi Arabia for a warm weather training camp, which included a friendly against Al-Ittihad and goals from Allan Saint-Maximin and Ryan Fraser gave us a 2-1 win but Ciaran Clark was sent off following a tangle with Abderrazak Hamdallah, who was also sent off. Before the end of the January window, we signed three more players - Brazilian midfielder Bruno Guimarães came in from Lyon for £35,000,000, Blyth born centre-back Dan Burn signed from Brighton & Hove Albion for £13,000,000 and left-back Matt Targett was brought in on loan from Aston Villa. Meanwhile, seven players went out on loan - Joe White to Hartlepool United, Elliot Anderson to Bristol Rovers, Matty Longstaff to Mansfield Town after a disappointing loan spell at Aberdeen, Matt Bondswell to Shrewsbury Town, Jack Young to Wycombe Wanderers (a deal that would later be made permanent), Jeff Hendrick to Queens Park Rangers and Freddie Woodman to Bournemouth. When the 25 man squad was resubmitted after the window closed, Isaac Hayden was left out due to a long term injury whilst Jamal Lewis and Ciaran Clark also lost their places due to the January arrivals.

Targett made his first start when Everton came to St James' Park in our first game after the winter break, a Jamaal Lascelles own goal gave Frank Lampard's side the lead but it was his header that got us level almost immediately afterwards as the ball went in off Mason Holgate. Ryan Fraser's first league goal for us gave us the lead before a Kieran Trippier free kick sealed a 3-1 win, despite coming on with very little time left, Guimarães showed flashes of his quality when he came off the bench. Another home game against a club that had appointed a legendary English midfielder as manager five days later as Aston Villa made the trip to Tyneside and Trippier scored another free kick to send Steven Gerrard's side home with a 1-0 loss whilst Burn was given Sky Sports' Man of The Match award on his debut. Unfortunately, Trippier suffered a broken bone in his foot and wouldn't play for another few months but Joe Willock cancelled out a Craig Dawson header to give us a deserved 1-1 draw at Champions League hopefuls West Ham United. He scored again as we beat ten men Brentford 2-0 after Joelinton netted his second goal of the season against the West London outfit and an unbeaten February saw us up to 14th in the table and Eddie Howe win the Manager of The Month award.

Goals from Ryan Fraser and Fabian Schär gave us a 2-1 home win over Brighton & Hove Albion before Chris Wood netted his first Magpies goal to draw us level away to Southampton after Stuart Armstrong's opener before a backheel volley from Bruno Guimarães on his first start gave us another 2-1 win. Two 1-0 losses followed as Kai Havertz netted a late winner for Chelsea after he could've been sent off for an elbow on Dan Burn whilst Jacob Murphy was denied what seemed to be blatant penalty when his shirt was pulled by Trevor Chalobah. Four days later, Alex Iwobi's stoppage time strike gave ten men Everton a vital win against us in a game which saw fourteen minutes of stoppage time being added on as a fan strapped himself to a goalpost in the second half. After the international break, Fabian Schär's free kick gave us a 1-0 lead at Tottenham Hotspur before a Ben Davies header put Spurs level going into half-time, we collapsed in the second half as goals from Matt Doherty, Heung-Min Son, Emerson and Steven Bergwijn gave Antonio Conte's side a 5-1 win.

The rot was ended with a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers as Chris Wood netted his first home goal for us from the penalty spot in the second half after having a goal disallowed for offside by VAR in the first half. VAR did benefit us in our next game against Europa Conference League semi-finalists Leicester City as Bruno Guimarães scored his first home goal for us, it was initially ruled out for a foul on Kasper Schmeichel but the check confirmed that there was no foul and the goal was given and he headed home in the last minute to give us a 2-1 win against Brendan Rodgers' side. Three days later, Miguel Almirón netted his first goal of the season in a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, just as he had done in the 2019/20 season, the win took us up to 40 points, something that seemed impossible for us earlier on in the season and meant that we'd win six in a row at home for the first time since the 2003/04 season. A fourth win in a row came as a Joelinton brace and a Bruno Guimarães chip over our former goalkeeper Tim Krul gave us a 3-0 win at Championship bound Norwich City.

Games against the two contenders for the Premier League title followed and Liverpool ended our winning run at home as Naby Keïta scored the only goal of the game before we suffered a 5-0 loss away to Manchester City as Raheem Sterling scored twice and Aymeric Laporte, Rodri and Phil Foden also got on the scoresheet with the only positives for us being Kieran Trippier and Callum Wilson returning from long term injuries. Our final home game of the season would prove to be memorable one as a Ben White own goal gave us the lead against Arsenal then Bruno Guimarães scored to seal a deserved 2-0 win before the first lap of appreciation we could do in front of a full St James' Park since 2019 and not only involved the players, coaches and their families but also the owners. We rounded off the campaign with a 2-1 win at Burnley, who suffered relegation on the day, thanks to a Callum Wilson brace and finished 11th in the table with our highest Premier League points tally since 2014 (and also only seven points off a place in Europe), a fantastic achievement given how things were before the takeover and even before Eddie Howe took over as manager.