Toon’s giant strides were a mirage – now the size of the task is clear

IN qualifying for the Champions League, Newcastle United created an illusion. The Big Six was now a Big Seven. The Saudi-owned club had arrived. In reality, the train had not long left the station.

What Eddie Howe and his players achieved last season was a mirage. Look towards Tyneside from afar, and there was a shiny new superpower fuelled by Saudi petrodollars. Get close and you realise that the decaying club the owners inherited has, for now, been given a polish and some minor repairs. The major renovation work remains in its infancy.

In the first 18 months of Howe and the new owners — led on the ground by Amanda Staveley, Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Jamie Reuben — the club got almost everything right. They worked the financial fair play rules in a way beyond recrimination — simply by being good. Good at coaching. Good at recruitment. So good, in fact, they made it look easy. The mistaken belief was that Saudi money had enabled their success. Aided, yes, but not enabled. The enabler, primarily, was Howe.

In three transfer windows between the takeover and finishing fourth in the Premier League — the team were 19th when Howe was appointed — Newcastle spent £250million on new players. In the same period, Chelsea spent £500m and went from third to 12th. Manchester United invested north of £200m and stood still, at best.

For Newcastle, the presence of their Public Investment Fund ownership (valued at £700billion) meant assumptions were too easily made — they had bought their way to the top and that is where they would remain. Given their standing start, however, there was little sense to them journeying as fast and as far in such a short period. The true scale of Howe’s influence was never fully appreciated. He had taken the club way beyond where the bare numbers should ordinarily have allowed.

To that end, the biggest danger to Howe has always been Howe himself. In raising the bar, the head coach has further to fall, at least through the lens of those beyond the city. But here, in Newcastle, there is patience and understanding. The manager will be supported through a storm that has brought a winter of eight defeats in 11.

For Howe (right) and his team to repeat what they did last season Newcastle would need to stay ahead of a financial curve that has their revenue at nearly half that of Tottenham (the poorest relation of the Top Six) and they would again have to get everything right. And, in football, such competence and luck is the exception, not the rule.

Recruitment, this time, has gone wrong, and for a variety of reasons. Sandro Tonali’s gambling ban has, as one source put it, ‘killed our season’. Harvey Barnes has been injured since September. Tino Livramento has been impressive but has made just six league starts. Lewis Hall is not yet at the standard required and has been kept in reserve. In 12 months that quartet could well look like smart additions but, in the isolation of this season, their impact has barely been felt.

Add to that, injuries that have long since numbered double figures and a schedule limiting exposure to Howe on the training pitch, and Newcastle have fallen to mid-table. If a positive can be taken, it is that the misfortunes of this campaign should serve as a reality check.

They are better than mid-table, of course. But their recovery could be incremental, as opposed to the giant strides that gave the false impression of a new giant in town.

There will be a need for one step back to take two forward and player sales could hinder progress in the short term.

This month, for example, they are at their FFP limit and, should Bayern Munich return with a sizeable offer for Kieran Trippier — a loan approach was rejected yesterday — he will likely be allowed to leave.

Joelinton, whose wage demands are way beyond what the club are willing to pay, is a likely contender to be sold this summer if no renewal is agreed on a contract that has 18 months to run, especially as his £40m transfer from 2019 has nearly cleared in terms of amortisation. That means the bulk of any fee received would be booked as profit in FFP calculations.

As Howe said earlier this month, ‘the richest club in the world’ means nothing if you’re not allowed to spend the owners’ money. Newcastle are not the super club cast in light of their top-four finish and smashing Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 in the Champions League. The magic of Howe had created a trick of the eye. Only now the stardust has cleared are we seeing the size of the task in front of them.