Stadium: St. James Park (capacity: 52,405)
Manager: Steve McClaren (first season)
Nickname: The Magpies, Geordies
2014-15 Record: 39 points (10-9-19), 15th place in the Premier League
20 Premier League Previews in 20(ish) Days: Newcastle United
No team witnessed things go awry quite like Newcastle last season and, yet, still survived in the Premier League.
It was a season where Newcastle supporters’ animosity towards Chairman, Mike Ashley, and the rotating cast of managers, reached fevered pitch. The football itself was unwatchable and it was clear that at least some percentage of Newcastle’s team mentally checked out of the season with months left.
Alan Pardew started last season as the manager and was already unpopular for the disappointing 16th and tenth place finishes of the prior two spells. Pardew did not help his cause when the Magpies started the 2014-15 season by only getting four points (on four draws) in their first seven matches, before finally defeating Leicester City 1-0 on October 18th.
By the end of 2014, however, Pardew had Newcastle sitting ninth in the Premier League table after a 3-2 win over Everton on December 28th. He then surprised everyone and left to accept the vacant manager position at Crystal Palace.
Instead of pursuing a manager of some note, the Chairman went his favoured cheap route and promoted assistant manager, John Carver, to temporary head coach for the remainder of the 2014-15 season. Carver was completely outmatched by the job and, at one point during the spring, the Magpies lost eight consecutive matches before finally drawing 1-1 at home on May 9th to West Brom.
Carver also remarked after a match that he believed he was “the best coach in the Premier League”, which seemed rather outlandish. Further, he publicly accused centre-back, Mike Williamson, of purposely getting a second yellow card so he could leave early from a 3-0 defeat against Leicester City.
Miraculously, Newcastle snatched a timely 2-0 win at home over West Ham to guarantee their Premier League survival on the last day of the season. All in all, Carver only won three of his 20 matches in charge, for a paltry 15% winning percentage and was not retained by Newcastle.
The new manager, Steve McClaren, has a wealth of experience; he has previously managed Middlesbrough, VFL Wolfsburg, FC Twente and even the England national team (from 2006-07). Most recently, McClaren managed Derby County in the Sky Bet Championship.
In his first season at Derby, McClaren led the Rams to a third place regular season finish and the Championship Play-off Final at Wembley Stadium. However, Derby lost 1-0 to QPR and were denied a return to the Premier League, despite their opponents being down a man due to a red card.
This past season, McClaren’s Derby side spent almost the entirety in the top six of the Championship. However, Derby failed to win any of their final three matches and finished eighth after a crushing home 3-0 home loss to Reading.
McClaren, however, had a very successful run at Middlesbrough from 2001-06 in the Premier League, and led them to the Europa League and the League Cup title in 2004. Additionally, he also won the Dutch Eredivisie with FC Twente for the first time in club history in 2010. He returned to Twente in 2012, but left a year later without much success.
So, it is safe to say that McClaren has more credentials than the likes of John Carver, but I would be concerned about his lack of success recently at Wolfsburg, Twente and Derby County.
New Faces: Georginio Wijnaldum- attacking midfielder (PSV Eindhoven), Aleksandar Mitrović – striker (Anderlecht), Chancel Mbemba- centre back (Anderlecht).
They haven’t signed a large number of new blood approaching the 2015-16 season, but Newcastle have clearly made an effort to bring in young, but still Premier-League-ready, talent.
Georginio Wijnaldum has been playing in the Eredivisie since he was a teenager, first with Feyenoord and more recently with PSV Eindhoven. Despite being only 24 years old, Wijnaldum has tallied 220 appearances since his senior debut in April 2007. He has scored 63 goals and was club captain when PSV won the Eredivisie last season. In addition, Wijnaldum has 19 appearances and three goals for the Dutch national team under his belt.
Another signing, striker Aleksandar Mitrović, won’t even be 21 years old until this September. Yet, Mitrović scored 28 goals in 51 appearances in all competitions last season for Anderlecht of the Belgian Pro League. He also appeared in the Champions League; English fans might remember that he scored the final goal as Arsenal blew a 3-0 lead to draw 3-3 in the Champions League versus Anderlecht. At national level, he has already achieved 13 appearances for the Serbian national team, and scored against Croatia in a 2014 World Cup Qualifier.
Finally, Mitrović’s Anderlecht teammate, Chancel Mbemba, also joined the Magpies last week. Mbemba has 63 career appearances and six goals since he joined Anderlecht as a professional in 2011. The start of his professional career was delayed by questions of his true age, but was cleared to play in 2013, and unseated established veterans to become a regular in the middle of the Anderlecht defence. He also has made 17 national team appearances for the Democratic Republic of Congo.
There have been rumours that Newcastle are among the favourites to sign much sought QPR striker, Charlie Austin, but nothing is official as of right now.
Familiar Faces: Moussa Sissoko- central midfielder (five goals in 38 appearances), Daryl Janmaat- right back (one goal in 40 appearances), Papiss Cissé- striker (11 goals in 22 appearances), Tim Krul- goalkeeper (31 appearances), Ayoze- striker (seven goals in 39 appearances), Jack Colback- defensive midfielder (four goals in 38 appearances).
While there is some intriguing talent on this team, there is nobody at Newcastle returning that will be happy with how they performed in the prior season.
Papiss Cissé, a Senegalese international striker, led the Magpies with 11 goals in all competitions, but was also suspended for seven games last season, for spitting at Manchester United’s Jonny Evans and elbowing Everton’s Seamus Coleman.
Newcastle signed two young foreign strikers last summer: Emmanuel Rivière and Ayoze, neither of whom were totally prepared for the Premier League. Somewhat surprisingly, the 22-year-old Spaniard, Ayoze, seemed to adjust better, despite only playing in the Spanish Second Division before arriving at Newcastle. Rivière was a complete flop, scoring only once in Premier League play (23 appearances); that one goal was in the second to last match of the season, a 2-1 loss to QPR. Another French new arrival, winger, Rémy Cabella, made a more positive impact, and was voted the fans’ Player of the Month in January.
In the middle of the field, French international, Moussa Sissoko, was a consistent contributor and scored some critical goals for the Magpies last season. Sissoko scored the game-tying and winning goals in a 3-2 win in the League Cup over Manchester City, and the first goal in their 2-0 last day win over West Ham. Jack Colback is an unflashy defensive midfielder who made the rare move of going straight from Tyne-Wear derby foe, Sunderland, to Newcastle before last season.
Yoan Gouffran was fairly dangerous as a winger in his first year onwards with Newcastle, but last season was disappointing with only two goals in 34 appearances in all competitions.
The defence was a major part of Newcastle’s second half collapse last season as well; Fabricio Coloccini had his worst season at Newcastle and was stripped of his club captaincy. There have been rumours of Coloccini re-joining Pardew at Crystal Palace, but nothing has materialised yet.
Dutch international right-back, Daryl Janmaat, has taken over the captain’s armband and appeared in all but one of Newcastle’s Premier League matches last season. His fellow Dutch international, goalkeeper, Tim Krul, has been the first choice keeper at Newcastle since 2011, and has made 176 career appearances.
Mike Williamson has been a favourite target of Newcastle supporters’ ire in recent years, but did appear in 31 games at centre-back in Premier League play last season.
Completely Unscientific, Somewhat Unbiased Prediction: 13th place
While I am someone who has no vested interest in Newcastle succeeding or failing, I will be very interested to see how Wijnaldum and the duo from Anderlecht progress in the Premier League. They are all very young, but have already played some high level football and won’t necessarily be intimidated by this league.
I have more faith in Steve McClaren to know what he is doing at this level than John Carver, but I am not convinced, at this point, he is that much better than Pardew.
Considering how many Newcastle players looked like they’d completely stopped trying by the end of last season, I am actually surprised McClaren and club management haven’t made more changes to the team. There is undeniable quality and aptitude here, especially in the young French players. Yet, talent without desire and a good manager won’t really do much in a league that is this strong and competitive.
The problem starts with Chairman and owner, Mike Ashley, whose priorities clearly revolve around making a profit and slapping the logo of his company (Sports Direct) on anything and everything. If McClaren has the same problems that his predecessors did, then there should really be no doubt about the root cause.
But, if McClaren really is an improvement over his predecessors and all that talent that underachieved a year ago plays better, a top half finish in the league is completely realistic. I am not that optimistic, but I have a hard time seeing the Magpies do as badly as they did a year ago.
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