It was fun while it lasted, but at some stage, the party had to end. After a season of graft and toil, of embracing unity and team-work, of rebuilding ties with supporters, Newcastle have deserved a few weeks of raucous celebration. After years of mismanagement and underachievement, it has been important that fans should be able to attend matches at St James’ Park without dread nestling in the pit of their stomachs.
There have been tipsy smiles plastered across people’s faces and it has been fun to witness, but furrowed brows will almost certainly have replaced them today. With the statement they released on Sunday evening and as only they can do, Newcastle have succeeded in increasing confusion while simultaneously attempting “to send out a clear message". Clarity has seldom felt so opaque.
Quite what the purpose is of explaining exactly what they won’t be saying in the future - when they’ve never said anything remotely useful in the past - is debatable, but the meat of the statement lies elsewhere. “The first-team squad that won the Championship this year will form the basis of the team for next season in the Premier League,” it said. “There is no plan for new capital outlay on players.”
While even this did not break new ground for openness - does “new capital outlay” mean nothing beyond what is already accounted for or absolutely nothing - at least, more or less, Newcastle fans know where they stand: on quicksand. There will be no significant spending, no statement signings, no fantasy football. The effort of this season will have to be redoubled. But they suspected all that anyway.
In the past few weeks, Chris Hughton has spoken about the examples of Wolverhampton Wanderers and Birmingham City, of clubs being promoted to the Premier League, stabilising and surviving. For the time being, that is Newcastle’s ambition, too.
In some ways, there is nothing wrong with that, because arrogance was institutionalised in their boardroom long before Mike Ashley’s arrival and they could do with growing organically rather than frittering away fortunes on ego-driven transfers, but isn’t even that limited goal undermined by a reluctance to spend anything? Is Ashley saying that Newcastle will be the new West Bromwich Albion, solvent bed-hoppers between the divisions? Or, if not, isn’t he risking that?
A focus on their academy structure is also welcome, but these things do not blossom overnight and guff about the “Geordie nation” is just that: guff. As nufc.com, the respected independent website, put it: “Academy talent given squad numbers in the 2009/10 season included only a few locally-born players with most bought in from outside the region. Even the U18s squad that reached the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup was mostly made up of non-North Easterners.”
The real triumph of the campaign just ended has been the continuing perseverance shown by long-suffering fans with their baffling club, the manner in which Hughton and his players succeeded in coming together in the aftermath of relegation, forging a soaring spirit. The essence of Newcastle’s statement is that more of the same must follow. We’re back in the Premier League, but you’re on your own.
