Newcastle United, Bilbao and an idea for a special friendly
Newcastle United moved up to sixth in the Champions League ahead of Eddie Howe's fourth anniversary – but the club's domestic away form is a concern.
Define success for Newcastle United this season.
Will be a top-four finish? Or top five? Or progression in the Champions League? Or a run in a domestic cup?
There was, understandably, a negative reaction to the weekend’s 3-1 defeat to West Ham United.
The result left the club 13th in the Premier League, and Eddie Howe did not hide his frustration after the game at the London Stadium. The team was lethargic, and lacked ideas as well as legs, after a demanding few months on the pitch.
Newcastle are yet to win away from home in the division, and that is a concern with just over a quarter of the domestic season gone.
“I didn’t like the body language of the group,” Howe, tellingly, said.
Yet the Champions League table makes for much better reading.
The club, which has won six of its last eight games in all competitions, is sixth, and level on points with Paris Saint-Germain, after winning three games in a row in the competition for the first time since Sir Bobby Robson’s side memorably recovered from a seemingly-disastrous start in the 2002/03 season and qualified for the second group stage.
Newcastle beat Athletic Club 2-0 at St James’ Park last night thanks to headers from Dan Burn and Joelinton.
This time, there were no problems with the body language.
It was as much of a routine win as you could hope for in the competition. There were not exactly any Bonfire Night fireworks on the pitch as the sound of rockets reverberated across Tyneside, but Burn’s header was a cracker.
So the well-placed club could well reach the knockout stage of the competition for the first time in its history, but progress in Europe would inevitably come at a cost given the demands the extra games would place on Howe’s squad.
Matching or bettering last season’s Premier League finish will be a challenge for the Carabao Cup quarter-finalists.
But the success of this season will not solely be judged on the club’s final domestic position.
Four years of Eddie Howe at Newcastle
Howe will celebrate four years as Newcastle head coach on Saturday.
There has been much to celebrate in that time. The club has finished fourth, seventh and fifth in his three full seasons in charge, qualified for two Champions League campaigns – and won a first major domestic trophy in 70 years.
That is hard to beat, and, in Howe’s time on Tyneside, his fiercely-competitive team has proved hard to beat. That is why the West Ham performance was so hard to take.
There have been downs as well as ups over the past four years, but Howe is already one of the most successful managers in the club’s history.
The midweek win means it will be a happier anniversary for Howe, who took on the job when the club was winless and seemingly heading for the Championship. Eighteen months later, the club was in the Champions League for the first time in two decades.
And there could be more to celebrate this season, despite the club’s underwhelming Premier League away form.
What are the links between Newcastle and Bilbao?
Athletic produced a lovely video for its social media channels ahead of the game.
It celebrated the bond between the two clubs, which was forged when they met in the UEFA Cup in 1994.
There were memorable scenes before, during and after the second leg in Bilbao, which ended in defeat for Newcastle, knocked out on away goals.
Of course, there are cultural and historical links between the North East of England and Bilbao which go back much further, right to Athletic’s inception. Coal from the region was shipped to Bilbao, and iron ore was sent back in the opposite direction.
And the game of football was also exported to the Basque region from England in the late 19th century,
“The game was initially brought to Bilbao by British migrant workers and young Basques who had studied in Britain,” states the club’s website.
The shared industrial history of the two proud cities, each with a strong identity, resonates with fans today.
In the video, one Athletic fan said: “When you mix Newcastle coal and Bilbao iron, you create good steel.”
Athletic fans seemed to enjoy their club’s latest visits to Tyneside, and the bond between the two fanbases was strengthened as they mingled with Newcastle supporters in the city this week.
Let us hope that the two clubs – who met at St James’ Park for a friendly three years ago – can one day meet again at Athletic’s Sam Mames home.
Certainly, the stunning stadium, built on land next to the stadium which hosted the 1994 tie against Kevin Keegan’s side, would be quite a venue for a future pre-season game.
It would be the friendliest of friendlies.
Nice one.