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What a difference 12 months can make.
This time last year, Newcastle United were entrenched in a relegation battle.
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Although the mood surrounding off-field ventures was buoyant thanks to the recent takeover led by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, as well as the appointment of Eddie Howe as manager, on-field matters were more pressing.
Going into the second half of the 2021/22 campaign, the Magpies had secured just one Premier League victory: a 1-0 win over Burnley.
What has transpired since is nothing short of remarkable.
From 36 league games in 2022, Newcastle have won 21.
Nine of those have come in the 2022/23 campaign alongside eight draws and only one defeat from 18 fixtures, placing the Toon in an unlikely bid for a Champions League spot.
Turnarounds don’t get much bigger than that.
The easy answer to how Newcastle have manoeuvred this is to point to the deepest of deep pockets the new owners possess.
But a glimpse behind the scenes into Howe’s obsessive mindset, the unbreakable camaraderie in the squad, a steely defence and a team all too willing to embrace the dark arts of football provides some insight as to why St James’ Park is rocking once more.
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THE SYMBOLISM BEHIND THE SMILES
One glance at Newcastle’s social media channels after a win and you’ll see a picture with over 20 faces all sporting a beaming smile.
For opposition fans, it’s easy to cringe at the images and many do.
But for the Toon Army, the photos of Howe’s team and staff represents so much more than simply capturing a moment in time.
The post-match victory picture was a tradition Howe implemented during his time down south with Bournemouth and has brought to the club at the other end of the nation.
According to The Telegraph’s Luke Edwards, the photos are a symbol of “unity, togetherness and the excitement about what the future holds”.
It is perhaps easier to say the smiles were wider in those first few photos after Howe took over given the dearth of victories before his arrival.
But for a team that had been accustomed to mediocrity for an awfully long time, those grins don’t look like shrinking anytime soon.
As results have shown, Howe’s desire for the post-win team photos has served its purpose, with a watertight bond in the team evident with every passing match and picture.
THE $376M SQUAD FACELIFT … AND THE DUO WHO CHANGED THEIR TOON FORTUNES FOREVER
There’s no question that the new faces at St James’ Park since Howe’s arrival have played their part in turning the ship around.
That’s the bare minimum one would expect from an outlay of approximately $A376 million on eight players across the January and summer windows in 2022.
But in each window, Howe has operated with a meticulous plan and every signing has brought value on and off the field.
Kieran Trippier was the first to arrive under the new regime, from Atletico Madrid, and offered an instant hit of proven international quality as well as vital leadership skills for a team that desperately needed it.
Former Burnley striker Chris Wood was next and although some took the view it was simply a transfer to weaken their relegation rivals at the time, the Kiwi offered something different up front and was an outlet to help alleviate the pressure.
Towering centre-back and local Geordie Dan Burn joined from Brighton on deadline day to offer his huge aerial presence.
But it was the $70m outlay for Lyon midfielder Bruno Guimaraes that truly proved Newcastle were at the big boys table from here on out.
Then came the 2022 summer window, where Howe brought in Sven Botman ($61m), Nick Pope ($17m) and Alexander Isak ($110m) to once again demonstrate their financial muscle.
Yet it hasn’t just been all about the incomings at Newcastle, with Howe working his magic on several players already at his disposal.
And no two players encapsulate the club’s turnaround quite like Miguel Almiron and Joelinton.
The latter, signed from Hoffenheim for a then-club record fee of $A70 million in 2019, had struggled to make his mark as a forward.
Brought in to score goals, Joelinton had just six goals from 69 Premier League games across the 2019/20 and 2020/21 seasons.
He remained in the front three for Howe’s first five games at the helm, but a red card to Ciaran Clark against Norwich City forced the manager to shift Joelinton into a midfield position.
Despite having never played in such a role, it changed Joelinton’s course at Newcastle.
He took to the positional change like a duck to water, throwing himself into tackles and displaying a phenomenal gas tank to last.
But, as The Athletic’s Chris Waugh notes, the turnaround isn’t solely down to Howe giving Joelinton a new lease of life.
“If Howe deserves credit for Joelinton’s turnaround, the player warrants far greater recognition because he has shown the desire, work rate and mental fortitude to transform himself from a laughing stock into a firm fans’ favourite,” Waugh wrote.
As for Almiron, his transformation took a little longer to play out on the pitch.
But once he kicked on, the left-backs across the Premier League have been twisted and turned into pretzels trying to keep the Paraguayan at bay.
Howe knew Almiron could run for days on end and had pace to burn, but he had struggled to put it all together under former manager Steve Bruce.
Yet the 28-year-old has finally found an end product to his constant running, culminating in an epic run in October when he scored six goals in as many games.
Some may say the winger’s form has been inspired by his boss, others may point to Manchester City star Jack Grealish’s insult when he described a poor performance from Riyad Mahrez as if he “played like Almiron.”
With nine league goals and an assist to his name this season compared to Grealish’s one goal and three assists, the Paraguayan is proving that playing like Almiron is a good thing after all.
THE BIG SHIFT IN DEFENSIVE MENTALITY — AT THE BACK AND AT THE FRONT
One of Howe’s most pressing issues to fix upon his arrival was Newcastle’s defence that was carved through time and time again like a hot knife through butter.
It wasn’t just an isolated issue last season when Howe got to St. James’ Park.
In the 2019/20 season, Newcastle conceded 58 goals, the seventh-highest figure in the Premier League.
That ballooned out to 62 goals conceded in 2020/21, the fifth-highest.
The Magpies conceded the same amount last season, but a direct comparison of Steve Bruce and Howe’s spells paint a different picture.
Under Bruce, who oversaw the first eight games before being cast aside not long after the new owners came through the door, Newcastle conceded 19 goals at a rate of 2.4 per game.
Although Howe had a larger set of fixtures — 27 games compared to Bruce’s eight — and conceded more (38), it was at a notably lower rate of 1.4 goals conceded per game.
That number has been drastically reduced this season.
With 18 fixtures on the board, Newcastle have conceded just 11 goals all season at a rate of 0.6 goals per game.
Yes, that statistic is significantly boosted by the revamped backline of Trippier, Fabian Schar, Botman and Burn.
But plenty of praise must go to Howe for plugging the several holes that had long existed in a backline that had been notoriously leaky for a number of years.
The 11 goals conceded is also the lowest in the Premier League, with Arsenal and Manchester City next with 14 and 16 respectively.
It’s not just keeping them out where Newcastle have excelled without the ball.
Howe has also got his team pressing relentlessly and winning the ball in dangerous positions high up the field too.
Per The Analyst, Newcastle have secured 175 high turnovers, described as a sequence that starts in open play and begins 40m or less from the opponent’s goal.
That figure is an equal-best with Manchester City, a team renowned for their ability to snatch the ball off the opposition.
More importantly, Newcastle are making the most of their high turnovers with four ending with the ball in the back of the opposition net, the second-highest rate in the league only behind Brentford who have five.
The Magpies’ revitalised defensive game — both in their back four and when defending from the front — is just another element of the on-field and off-field product Howe has revolutionised since arriving.
HOWE’S SECRET TRIP TO MASTER FOOTBALL’S DARK ARTS
We’ve all heard it a million times before: “nice guys finish last.”
Just as well for Newcastle, because they’ve developed a nasty streak that infuriates opposition players, managers and fans all at once.
Speaking after the feisty 0-0 draw with Arsenal, defender Burn revealed the club has undergone a complete mindset change and it’s largely down to the man in the hotseat.
“A big thing about the team is that we won’t get pushed over easy,” Burn said, per The Times.
“We’re a good group of lads and we stick with each other and we will give as good as we get.
“We spoke about trying to control our emotions. It’s all good and well getting angry and stuff, but you need to keep a lid on it because that can cost.
“We believe in the philosophy the gaffer has brought in. A couple of years back, we could have got battered here.”
For a manager who had all the surface attributes of being a nice guy when managing Bournemouth, it’s a complete heel turn for Howe.
So, where did the boss develop his dark side?
Perhaps it came when he was between jobs having left Bournemouth in August 2020.
In the time Howe was without a gig, he took a trip to Atletico Madrid where he meticulously studied the methods of Atleti boss Diego Simeone, widely considered the modern godfather of the dark arts in football.
In particular, The Times’ Martin Hardy notes Howe was “fascinated by Simeone’s ability to challenge Real Madrid and Barcelona, with significantly less finance.”
Not only that, be he also “admired the collective spirit Simeone has produced at Atletico, where the team have repeatedly pushed the rulebook to breaking point” throughout the Argentine’s lengthy tenure in the Spanish capital.
Exploiting the dark arts of football is something Newcastle have clearly embraced.
From assistant manager Jason Tindall throwing a ball onto the field and not to an Arsenal player when the Gunners had a throw-in to defender Jamaal Lascelles messing with Oleksandr Zinchenko before his throw-in, every figure is doing their part.
The players are also wise enough to hit the stop button when needed during matches.
Whether that’s taking their time on set pieces or going down for treatment, Newcastle will do whatever it takes in the pursuit of three points.
This is reflected in their average ‘ball-in-play’ time, which currently sits at 51 minutes and 36 seconds out of 90 minutes plus stoppage time.
That figure leaves Newcastle with the second-lowest ‘ball-in-play’ time across the league, with the average sitting at 54 minutes and 47 seconds.
For opposition fans, it is infuriating to watch rivals kill the clock with tactics like these.
But for the Toon, they’re laughing all the way home with the result in tow.
Newcastle has 20 games left this season and, as it stands, they’ve got a spot in the Champions League waiting for them next season if they maintain their form.
There’s plenty of twists and turns to go and there’s a chance Howe’s side may fall out of the top four.
But in his first full season at the helm, the Magpies’ boss has galvanised a city in desperate need of their football club to have a working heartbeat once again after several lifeless seasons.
And with the cashed-up owners able to provide what seems like endless funds, the so-called ‘Big Six’ might have to make room for one more sooner than they think.
