Pre season On The Home Stretch

Pre seasons are always hard to judge on the pitch and off the pitch navigating gossip columns, SSN yellow bars and friendship group chats can be “Interesting” to put it politely.

Newcastle United Women

Goodbye to Kingston Park

As the 25^{th of} July approached all thoughts were on the fixtures being released. By the end of the day most focus amongst the Women’s community was about a stadium move to Gateshead international stadium.

A move to a stadium with a grass pitch is something that would have had to happen eventually. The long-term ambition is to be in the Women’s Super League and a grass pitch is required for that. How it was communicated, or the lack of communication is what frustrated many fans especially considering a few weeks earlier current season ticket holders had selected seats based on Kingston Park. Local fans have far more knowledge of the stadium than I do, but I know I am worried about the atmosphere with the racetrack and the singing sections from KP being split up or spread out.

There is enough time between now and the 1^st game of the season for this to be worked out and I did see on the Women’s Facebook group that an open day is planned so people can see their seats. My hope is that this is one of very few negatives in a positive season.

Top Flight Experience

Other news for the Lasses in recent weeks included the signing of Polish international Malgorzata Grec from Dijon.

She is known as Gosia and on joining the club she said

“I feel very excited to be part of this big club and that’s such a pleasure for me, and I cannot wait for our first game. Once I heard about the project here it was amazing and all of the people here are very ambitions, so me, the choice was very clear. Our Objectives are very clear here to get to the WSL.”

Becky Langley said

“Gosia joins us off the back of three successful years playing in the topflight of French football and we are delighted to have her onboard. She carries a great physical presence in both boxes; she has a brilliant passing range and is technically gifted. We are excited to welcome her into the group and start working with her.”

From my point of view, I think it is another positive signing for this season. As mentioned, before she has international experience on top of her top flight exposure. Dijon only conceded 24 goals in 22 games last season most of which Gosia was involved in and 12/22 games were clean sheets for her now former side. Her last goal for Dijon was in a 4-2 Win against Montpellier.

Development for the Women’s team

Newcastle United Women’s academy has also been awarded a category one professional game academy licence. The under 21s will be full time and compete in the PGA League's well as other cups throughout the season. As Part of having that licence the women’s academy will receive support from full time staff in various roles and aim to create pathways for players to compete successfully both domestically and internationally.

Fixtures announced

On the fixture side of things, it was overshadowed slightly by the Gateshead announcement but still an interesting schedule. Ultimately, we must play everyone, but we can start to map the season out at least in our head.

September and October look a difficult start on paper. We kick the season off against Nottingham Forest away at the city ground who have made some good signings. Our 1^st game at the GIS will be against Sheffield United, mirroring our 1^st home game from last season and will be a game we are expected to win after the Blades relegation reprieve.

Following that (Not in order) we play Birmingham and Palace away and Charlton and Bristol City at home. I won’t complete my deep dive into all our opponents until late August so without doing that yet, I still have the basic view that those 4 will be in the top 6 battle next season. If we can get 12-15 points from our 1^st six games, then the promotion talk may well be in full flow again.

We Play Sunderland during the men's November International break so will likely be played at St James Park with the return game, again likely to be played at the Stadium of Light in March. We finish our season at home to Durham which has the potential to be a massive occasion. if it turns out we are in an all of nothing game, there is the possibility that Amber Keagan Stobbs and maybe other former players could be the ones to stop us being promoted.

The Subway League cup Groups have also been announced, and the Lasses will play Everton, Nottingham Forest and Manchester City. We do not know the fixture order yet but with the games also coming early in the season it will only elevate the tough start to the season in September and October. There is a realistic chance that we could look to Qualify as the best runners up but if we make a strong start in our first six league games I do wonder how much of a priority the league cup will be.

The Academy

Newcastle Under 21s beat South Shields 5-0 this afternoon. Goals were scored by Joe Brayson, Kacey Wooster with two, Trevan Sanusi, and Baran Yildiz. 

I continue to await the Premier League 2 Fixture announcement for the Under 21^st but the young Magpies will be in the EFL trophy again this season as they play Huddersfield, Mansfield and Harrogate in the Group stages.

With the continued frustration around the shackles that PSR has put on us, I believe that even more focus should be on our Under 21s side and how that development is going. Finding the diamonds on a consistent basis will be difficult but even being able to develop half a dozen players each season that we can sell on to championship level teams at minimum would be make a difference in the long run. The same for signing players from abroad cheaply developing them within our academy.

Lee from NFTV is going full time with the channel and has already revealed a desire to cover some of the academy games so hopefully seeing that coverage from a fans point of view will be enlightening as well.

The Under 18s kick off the Under 18s League at home to Blackburn on the 16^th of August and their final game of the season will be away to Middlesbrough in May. The Under 18s will play Sunderland under 18s in October and March this season.

Preseason Chaos

Preseason for Newcastle this summer has been stressful to see unfold.

 On the pitch we are yet to win a game in front of a crowd. We got battered 4-0 against Celtic, had a competitive game with Arsenal but still lost 3-2, We lost to a K league 11 in a woeful performance in tough conditions and drew 1-1 with Spurs in Son’s final game. The draw against Spurs was a much better performance than the previous games so that’s a positive but the desperate need for a striker is there for everyone to see.

Alexander Isak

I added a comment to a video a few weeks back “I can’t see Isak forcing a move” That opinion did not age well at all. Liverpool showed their interest, and it has been a circus ever since. Isak didn’t travel to Asia and has been training on his own in Spain, which apparently Eddie Howe found out about through the media, Rumour of discontent with other players, an official bid from Liverpool rejected and Isak is due to be back in Newcastle for training tomorrow.

Isak is world class and if he is still our player come September 2^nd I wouldn’t be upset but also if he wants to leave and we get a sensible amount for him then it needs to happen this week. I’m not talking about 100 now 50 if Liverpool win the champions League, rubbish like that, for us to be able to try and replace him we need at least 80% up front. If Isak is still a Newcastle player at the end of the window and ends up getting us 20+ goals again next season that would be great but the most important thing either way is to make sure we are protected long term. Isak will be hard to replace, and it may not be possible, but I hope we can somehow turn this whole farce into our favour.

Signings and Possible Targets

Ramsdale has joined from Southampton on Loan with an option to buy and although he may not be a blockbuster signing that gets the FC25 “Glitz” cut screen, I think it is a sensible low risk signing that adds competition for Nick Pope. We currently have 6 1^st team goalkeepers, so I expect two or three to leave this month.

We have reportedly made an official bid for Sesko, which would be a good signing. We cannot hang around with this deal and hopefully can get it done before the game against Espanyol on Friday night. We need to get some signings done with no fuss and almost out of nowhere to try and rebuild a bit of confidence in our recruitment strategy.

I would like Sesko think that would be an excellent signing. We need a second striker as well, whether that be Wissa or a younger striker from Europe. Would like to see a Centre back to come and add depth at the very least. I saw someone mention Van Hecke in Lee’s Q&A recently and agree that could be a good option. I would also like another midfielder because when we get injuries/Suspensions in that position we could be light now. Harvey Elliot is a player I would really like to see sign for us and if Liverpool value him at 40/50 million then 100/110 plus Elliot could be a good deal for us. I will let other people decide if that’s unrealistic or not.

I understand this isn’t football manager, if it was, I would have signed Roony Bardghji on a free this season, NFTVs Joe would have signed Cherki before Man City (I’m Presuming) and that’s just signings for the long term but we are currently being left behind some of our top 7 rivals.

A Critical two Weeks coming up

The next 2 weeks will be vital. I’m not going to make any predictions about Isak but regardless we must have a stronger squad than our last Champions League qualification. Following the transfer window I also hope there are some updates from the club about where things are behind the scenes. The fans need proper communication about the new stadium, training ground, the rationale behind how things were done with the GIS move and just a general outline of what the next 1-2 years off the field could look like.

I am still excited to be back in Newcastle this Friday. Will be walking early to get my coach at 3.30 in the morning Friday but can’t imagine hearing my alarm is going to be a problem. It is the 1^st time I will be seeing the 1^st team play since Crystal Palace in the cup in 2022, so friendly or not I am buzzing to be back at St James Park and seeing 3 games in 24 hours will be great.

Hopefully plenty of positive news with transfers and who knows a major new signing will be on show as well.

HOWAY THE LADS AND LASSES.

Matt L