WHEN I was growing up, I always had a bit of a thing for Newcastle United.Though always a Birmingham City fan, I loved watching the Toon on the TV during the eras of Kevin Keegan and Sir Bobby Robson.
Bruno Guimaraes has starred in the Newcastle midfield since joining from LyonCredit: PA
Some of my favourite strikers played for the Magpies particularly Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand.
The fanbase was passionate and the football was thrilling even if, ultimately, they never won any trophies.
When Watford were promoted to the Premier League in 2015, going to St James’ Park was one of the fixtures I was most looking forward to.
It’s a monster football stadium and going there you knew you were in the big time.
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But that was during the Mike Ashley era, so while there were still 50,000 Geordies inside and there was always a decent atmosphere at the start, we always felt we could win – and we usually did.
The Newcastle crowd would quickly grow frustrated and it was obvious why – the club had no sense of direction and no ambition.
In the last year, all of that has changed and I am hugely impressed by the way that Newcastle are managing their influx of Saudi cash.
Remember when Manchester City were the Premier League club to suddenly become super-rich after the Abu Dhabi takeover?
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Sir Alex Ferguson quite rightly called them the ‘noisy neighbours’, they wasted a lot of money on the wrong sort of players and Ballon d’Or winner Kaka was even accused of bottling it for refusing to join them.
Sure, City are a brilliantly-run club and a wonderful team now but, for those first few years, they didn’t handle their wealth too well.
There is none of that with Newcastle, while City were ‘noisy’, this lot are silent assassins in the transfer market.
When it has come to recruitment, her best call was taking sporting director Dan Ashworth from Brighton, where he did such a great job and at the FA before that.
Ashworth is one of the best operators in the business, an intelligent bloke who understands how to build a club. As a result, I haven’t even seen Newcastle seriously linked with ‘Galacticos’ like Kylian Mbappe.
They have got on with recruiting very good players from the next bracket down – Bruno Guimaraes is clearly an absolute star in midfield and I really like the look of Alexander Isak up front.
Eddie Howe is transforming Newcastle into a club that can challenge for EuropeCredit: PA
Newcastle’s defence also looks solid after some cute buys in that department too.
I had reservations about Eddie Howe as manager of this ‘project’ as I’d heard, from people who’ve played under him, that he might not be the man to handle more experienced players, but he is proving me wrong too.
As a result, Newcastle head to Manchester United and it feels like a genuinely big fixture again, more like it used to be when Keegan and Ferguson used to compete for the title.
The Toon have only won once at Old Trafford in the last 50 years but you would not be surprised if they were victorious there this weekend and it would be a massive statement if they were.
I still believe it will take about three seasons before Newcastle break into the Champions League places.
There are already six clubs who feel they ‘belong’ in the top four and pretty soon, Newcastle will be the seventh — that level of competition is extreme and it will be tough to make that breakthrough.
But Newcastle are going about things in the right way — in stark contrast to United over the past nine years.
I like what I see from Erik ten Hag so far but it is clear that he has grave reservations about his backline with probably Lisandro Martinez the only defender he is entirely convinced about.
Erik ten Hag is still trying to implement his style at Old TraffordCredit: AFP
We do not know yet whether Casemiro is up to speed and whether he is ‘the answer’ to United’s long-standing midfield problem and up front it’s clear Ten Hag hasn’t settled on the central striker or the wide-left player he wants.
It will take United two or three good transfer windows until they can truly compete at the very top again.
And then there is the problem of off-loading so many good players, on very good money, who have not convinced at Old Trafford.
If I was in the position of someone like Aaron Wan-Bissaka — who could end up as a forgotten man — I’d probably sit tight, knowing I’m being paid well. Most players would.
But thanks to the intelligent work of Staveley, Ashworth and Howe, that is not likely to be a problem Newcastle are going to face.
Quietly, they are transforming Newcastle into the club they deserve to be — and the club I remember them being when I was a kid. More
