Newcastle United had not played a game under their new ownership group last October when Amanda Staveley confirmed a desire to win the Premier League on Tyneside.
"We have the same ambitions as PSG and Manchester City in terms of trophies," the co-owner added.
Newcastle were winless and in the bottom three, where they would remain until February, so this seemed an optimistic target, even given the wealth of Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund.
The Magpies are highly unlikely to challenge City for their title this season either, but they are at least looking up now.
From the date of the takeover until the end of the season, Newcastle earned the sixth-most points in the division (46); in 2022, they have earned the fourth-most (38); in points-per-game terms, Eddie Howe's men are third for the calendar year (2.0).
Howe – appointed a month after Staveley arrived at St James' Park – has since had the benefit of a pre-season, while Newcastle have again invested in the transfer market following January's world-leading £90million outlay.
So, how far can Newcastle go in 2022-23? And which of the established big boys might be under threat?
'Europe is definitely a goal'
Staveley's aims appeared quite modest by the time Bruno Guimaraes took to the podium in his introductory news conference following a £35m switch from Lyon.
"We want more, we want to win the Champions League," the Brazil midfielder announced.
Let alone winning the Champions League, Newcastle have not played in the competition since 2003; their last appearance in any European tournament came back in 2013.
But the Magpies now have a squad determined to end the club's absence from continental action after 10 years.
"I believe we can challenge for European football this season," Joelinton told FourFourTwo. "It might be hard to qualify for the Champions League just yet, but why not? We want to at least compete for a Europa League spot."
Sven Botman, a new signing from Lille, added to Mail Online: "Europe is definitely a goal this season. I believe we can achieve that."
If Newcastle can maintain their form to date under Howe, Europa League qualification should be comfortably within their reach.
But the coach, perhaps understandably, is a little more guarded than his ambitious stars, offering only: "As long as expectations are controlled, then we'll be fine.
"This season is about progression, improvement. We want to evolve into the team we want to be in the future."
Better even before buying
Newcastle's evolution to this point has primarily centred around their defence – understandably, given they shipped 80 goals in 2021, a Premier League record for a calendar year.
It was this sort of worrying statistic that prompted doubts about Howe's suitability as the man to turn the Magpies around, with his stint as Bournemouth boss seeing at least 60 conceded in each Premier League season.
Yet in 2022, just four sides have let in fewer than Newcastle (20); only three have kept more clean sheets (seven).
Three of the five players signed in January were defenders, while Botman and goalkeeper Nick Pope have since followed, and the pre-season focus on maintaining possession should ease the pressure on that back line considerably.
It is now at the other end of the pitch where there are slight concerns.
Howe has openly discussed the need for offensive recruits, with the week before Saturday's opener at Nottingham Forest bringing reports of two failed bids for Leicester City playmaker James Maddison.
There clearly remains an over-reliance on Allan Saint-Maximin, who created 50 chances last season – two more than Maddison but also an alarming 21 more than his next team-mate (Joelinton).
Getting on the end of those passes, Newcastle also need Callum Wilson to stay healthy. He has scored 20 goals from just 84 shots over the past two seasons; of the Premier League players to tally 20 or more in that time, only Son Heung-min could better Wilson's conversion rate of 23.8 per cent.
That Wilson's fitness record was so poor last season actually suggests Newcastle could get better without significant reinforcement, though.
Not until the final two matches of the season, in wins over Arsenal and Burnley, did Guimaraes, Saint-Maximin and Wilson all start together.
'Big six' in Howe's sights
With all of the 'big six' pursuing a top-four finish, there are not enough Champions League places to go around even before considering the league's third-best team this year.
Newcastle will not catch City or Liverpool this season – even if Stats Perform's League Prediction model, calculated using betting market odds and Stats Perform's team rankings, counts the Magpies among seven potential title winners (albeit just a 0.03 per cent shot) – but the teams below the top two might all be within Howe's sights after warning shots were fired last term.
Chelsea ended a nine-game unbeaten run for Newcastle in controversial circumstances in March, snatching a 1-0 victory, while Tottenham capitalised on a rare off-day to win 5-1 the following month, but only after trailing to a Fabian Schar free-kick.
Arsenal were not so lucky, seeing their top-four hopes dashed on a brutal evening at St James' Park when Guimaraes, Saint-Maximin and Wilson teamed up from the start for the first time.
Manchester United are yet to play Newcastle in 2022 but were fortunate to escape with a draw from Tyneside in the final game of the previous calendar year.
Spurs and Arsenal are at least widely considered to have improved since the end of last season, spending well, but the same may not be true of Chelsea and United.
In the 2022 standings, Chelsea are sixth, and their transfer window has not panned out quite as they hoped. United have been frustrated, too, and they are a distant ninth since the turn of the year – nine points shy of Newcastle having played a game more.
If the team from Tyneside continue to go from strength to strength, two of English football's giants may have to improve merely to make the Europa League, let alone the Champions League.
Northern Ireland’s young squad have everything to play for – Michael O’Neill
Michael O’Neill believes Northern Ireland still have everything to play for in their bid to reach Euro 2024 even as injuries hit hard during the qualifying campaign.
With a trip to Denmark and a home match against Kazakhstan up next, O’Neill has named a 28-man squad that includes five uncapped players and a total of 15 with fewer than 10 caps.
Although Jonny Evans returns from the hamstring injury that prevented him from adding to his 100 caps in March, Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas, Corry Evans, Liam Boyce, Josh Magennis, Conor Washington and Shane Ferguson remain sidelined, forcing O’Neill to rely on youth.
When O’Neill returned to the Northern Ireland job in December there was an opportunity to capitalise on a favourable qualifying draw, and although that remains possible, the absence of his most experienced players is making it a much tougher ask.
Northern Ireland began with a 2-0 win in San Marino in their group opener, but a 1-0 home defeat to Finland highlighted the difficulties.
Asked if the job had been harder than envisaged, O’Neill said: “I suppose it depends on what the expectation is for this campaign going forward as well. I still think we have got everything to play for in this campaign.
“The next two games are going to be very important and then obviously we have a double-header away in September (against Slovenia and Kazakhstan) which will be difficult, so we are going to ask a lot of a number of young players in this group.
“The senior players that we have with us, we really can’t afford to lose any more. I think we have eight players out who could all equally play for us, who have all been established players with a high number of caps.
“That is the situation that unfortunately we just have to deal with.”
It has meant O’Neill has been juggling the need for results with the need to nurture young players, with Conor Bradley and Shea Charles in particular asked to take on significant roles.
“It is a different approach from taking a team and saying ‘Right, how do we qualify? What is our route to qualification? How do we get enough points?’” O’Neill added.
“Of course, that is always in the background but I think it is more about the integration of the younger players and they will have to learn very quickly on the job if we are going to take that next step.”
O’Neill has hosted a series of training camps with senior players and under-21s in recent weeks, aiming to keep fitness levels high after the end of domestic campaigns while running the rule over younger faces.
Nottingham Forest defender Aaron Donnelly, West Ham teenager Callum Marshall and Larne forward Lee Bonis have all used the opportunity to earn their first senior call-ups.
While the return of Evans is a major boost, the Leicester defender will come into camp dealing with the disappointment of relegation and facing uncertainty over his future.
“He is very disappointed for them to go down and he is in a situation where he is out of contract as well,” O’Neill said. “I am sure if he was playing his football elsewhere next season he would have liked to have left Leicester in a slightly different way but he was just unfortunate this season.
“Probably, I think by his own admission, he pushed very hard to get back because I think he does make a difference to Leicester’s team. I think you saw that in the final three games that he was fit to play in. But I know he is keen to be a part of this squad and play.
“It is big for us to have him back, obviously we missed him in March and I believe that Jonny still has a lot of football left in him, both with Northern Ireland and wherever he chooses to play his football next season.”
West Ham fans line streets to toast Europa Conference League champions
West Ham enjoyed a heroes’ welcome as fans lined the streets of east London to celebrate their Europa Conference League glory.
The Hammers won their first major trophy since the 1980 FA Cup, and a first European title since 1965, when they beat Italian side Fiorentina 2-1 in Prague on Wednesday night.
And their jubilant supporters, decked out in the famous claret and blue on a warm and sunny evening in the capital, packed the pavements as the Hammers paraded the silverware on an open-top bus.
The squad’s journey started at the site of their former home at Upton Park and finished at Stratford Town Hall, where they enjoyed a reception.
Only West Ham fans of a certain age will ever have seen their side celebrate success like this, with a similar parade being held after that 1965 European Cup Winners’ Cup victory, where the likes of Bobby Moore, Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters got the taste of winning trophies.
But the younger generation made the most of it, climbing on lamp posts and bus stops to get the best vantage point of their heroes while also letting off flares.
David Moyes may have joined Ron Greenwood and John Lyall in earning immortality as managers to win a major trophy with the Hammers but he initially endured a lessened role on the bus, taking pictures of his players as they posed together.
But he was soon joining in with the celebrations, dancing and jigging with the trophy on his head.
View this post on InstagramLifting the trophy appears to be a fitting way for captain Declan Rice to bow out, with chairman David Sullivan confirming the England international will be allowed to leave the club this summer, with a bidding war expected to commence soon.
Rice was emotional on top of the bus, admitting it does not feel “real”.
“This is absolutely incredible, when you’re a kid and you love football as much as I do, and the lads do, you see teams having trophy parades,” he said. “I was once a kid watching teams do trophy parades and now to be doing one and captaining the side is just so, so special, I can’t even put into words.
“We knew it would be exciting and the fans would come out, I am just trying to take it all in, we don’t get to experience this ever. These moments don’t come around very often.
“I’ve seen top captains over the years lift trophies and it was my time at West Ham to lift the trophy. It doesn’t really feel real.
“At 24, captain of West Ham lifting a trophy in a European competition, I don’t think it is going to hit me for a while, but I am going to enjoy it and be as happy for as long as possible.
“Bobby Moore, Billy Bonds, I am seeing messages that I am now in that category, I don’t really know what to say. Bizarre.”
Moyes spent much of the season under pressure following a disappointing Premier League campaign, but Rice believes he is now the club’s best-ever manager.
The England midfielder added on Sky Sports News: “I think he goes down as the best manager West Ham have ever had. The circumstances, when he first came in, kept us twice, European competition, we finished fifth, sixth, a semi-final (Europa League) and now we’ve won this, he deserves all the credit he gets.
“He’s a top man and as you can see he is buzzing.”
Jarrod Bowen was West Ham’s hero in the final as he scored a 90th-minute winner, capping off a remarkable turnaround in his career having been playing at non-league Hereford nine years ago after being rejected as a youngster by Aston Villa.
“I love the game and these moments make it all worth it, the rejections and not going the way you want it,” he said.
“You fast forward 10 years and you are on an open-top bus parade for winning a European trophy so from where I have come, my mum was crying on the phone, my dad was there.
“It is a bit surreal to say I have won a European trophy from where I have come from. I love it.”
Jonny Evans back in Northern Ireland squad for Euro 2024 qualifiers
Jonny Evans is back in the Northern Ireland squad for next week’s Euro 2024 qualifiers but Michael O’Neill will once again be relying on youth with a long list of senior players still injured.
Evans – out of contract at relegated Leicester this summer – was unable to add to his 100 caps in March when he was forced to pull out of O’Neill’s first games back in charge of the national team due to a hamstring injury, but is in a 28-man squad to play Denmark away and Kazakhstan at home.
But with Steven Davis, Stuart Dallas, Corry Evans, Liam Boyce, Josh Magennis, Conor Washington and Shane Ferguson all still sidelined, O’Neill has included five uncapped players, with 15 of the 28 having fewer than 10 caps.
Nottingham Forest defender Aaron Donnelly, West Ham teenager Callum Marshall and Larne forward Lee Bonis have all received their first call-ups, with the uncapped Sean Goss and Eoin Toal again included after not featuring in March’s fixtures.
Blackpool striker Shayne Lavery returns after a hamstring injury kept him out of the last squad, although there will be a question over his fitness levels as he has managed only one appearance, as a substitute away to Norwich on the final day, since being sidelined in February.
There is also a return for Ethan Galbraith, who earned the last of his two international caps back in 2020.
The 22-year-old is a free agent this summer after leaving Manchester United, having spent last season on loan at Salford.
O’Neill has been working with several players from both the senior ranks and the under-21s at a series of training camps in recent weeks, aiming to keep his players sharp following the end of their domestic campaigns.
Northern Ireland travel to Copenhagen to face Denmark on Friday June 16 before taking on Kazakhstan at Windsor Park the following Monday.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
