With Newcastle getting their first home win since October 21st on Sunday, and against second-top Manchester United, we are now just 3 points out of 10th place and AFC Bournemouth – our next opponents away on February 24th.
A win in that game will take us above Bournemouth (on goal difference) who currently have 31 points – 3 points more than Newcastle at the moment.
And if Newcastle can do well in our final 11 games of the season then it will be judged as a (very) successful season.
And that’s without the club giving much money to Rafa to spend on new players last summer or in January.
Just how well we could have done if Rafa had been given say £70M to spend last summer – we can only guess.
But a lot better than we will have done by May for sure.
Rafa Benitez – after the game on Sunday
After the way Newcastle and our players played on Sunday, the team is getting massive praise from fans and pundits alike.
When Rafa first came to the club he got one point from his first four games, and things didn’t look good – we had only 25 points from 32 games.
But then we finished with three wins, and three draws to get a decent 37 points, but we were still 3rd bottom and 2 points behind Sunderland.
We are hoping that Rafa can get the lads on a good streak now – with more wins than draws – and if he can do that we could finish somewhere in the top 10.
That’s especially true if Islam Slimani starts to play well for us and score some goals.
Kenedy has looked an excellent player on the wing, and Martin Dubravka made an excellent start to his Newcastle career against the Red Devils with a magnificent performance.
He’ll never forget that start at Newcastle – now he has to keep it up.
For Dubravka to be able to do that when he was so short of match practice and just arrived at the club says a lot about the temperament and character of the 29-year-old Slovakian.
We are hoping Kenedy and Dubravka can continue to do well for us and that Slimani comes in and does a terrific job for us too.
We may surprise ourselves where we finish this season if our three loan players play well.
And if that happens we have to quickly try to sign all three players, with Dubravka the only one to have an option to buy in his loan contract.
His transfer fee would be round £3.5M, and we are paying about £1.7M for his loan spell.
What a bargain buy he could become!
Here’s how we stand in the league at the moment and we are now 4 points better off than two years ago after 27 games played.
Howay The Lads!!
[table “68” not found /]Comments welcome.
13 comments so far
c-dog
Feb 13, 2018 at 1:44 PM
Comment #1Bournemouth, Southampton, Huddersfield, West Brom & Watford. These are the big games for us.
cyprus
Feb 13, 2018 at 1:48 PM
Comment #2I too don’t remember it being so close, from tenth down any team can go on an unwanted run and be in the mix.
The fact alone that three points rocketed us to 13th from a relegation place says it all.
Nice that we have three players in team of the week, could’ve been more.
magscar
Feb 13, 2018 at 1:59 PM
Comment #3Aggh moved on
Repost
Dig and Jib
Never saw him in B & W but recall the hairy version well! I know many men die young and before their time ( including my dad) but am always surprised at footballers passing early (as opposed to say actors) given their generally better health routines. However disease is no respecter of anyone unfortunately and Liam Miller just the most recent – RIP
dig-n-dig22
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:00 PM
Comment #4C Dog
Everton got a first half battering by C Pal , Everton won but with better finishing from Benteke it could have been a different story. It’s also the time of year when Arsenal bottle it, so pencil those 2 in too.
barkel
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:13 PM
Comment #5There are an awful lot of if’s in that!
I do love the optimism but lets not get carried away. We should do as Rafa keeps saying, take it one game at a time.
lochinvar
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:20 PM
Comment #6West Brom owner has had enough and sacked I think their M.D. and another Director reinstating a previous Director to run the club.
Pardew could yet be made to walk the plank. Perhaps they really really want McLaren who’s available.
Their players must be in despair and need to signal to Wolves or Villa come and get me as I want to stay in the Midlands and close to home.
hibbit
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:24 PM
Comment #7worth a read from today’s Chronicle
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/imminent-new-tv-deal-important-14283988
martoon
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:25 PM
Comment #8I’ve been watching NUFC long enough to know that a brilliant performance like the one against Man U is normally followed by a poor performance! Hopefully this team under Rafa will be more consistent but let’s not get carried away with talk of a top 10 finish!
lochinvar
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:26 PM
Comment #9West Brom have sacked chairman John Williams and chief executive Martin Goodman as owner Guochuan Lai responded to the club’s poor run of form.
I forgot . Perhaps they’ll promote John Carver as interim Head Coach for the rest of the season to take over from Pardew if he’s shown the door.
hibbit
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:30 PM
Comment #10just staying up will be an achievement this season never mind talking about a top ten finish especially with the hand Ashley delt Rafa
martoon
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:42 PM
Comment #11Re WBA – I would have thought changing the Chairman/CEO is more a long term strategy and not have much effect on their current plight – although I bet Pardew is feeling the heat!
Bigjim67
Feb 13, 2018 at 2:50 PM
Comment #12hibbit @10. Yes agree staying up will be a massive achievement regardless of where we finish, the new TV deal has got to mean that decent transfer funds will be made available whether Ashley is still the owner or not? He couldn’t withhold all that cash again. Could he???……….
9
Feb 13, 2018 at 4:38 PM
Comment #13martoon@8: my original thought was the same as yours – top 10 you’re having a laugh. But think on for a minute, we are in a vastly better run of form than earlier (when our captain wasn’t available) and to finish 10th – which, clearly, is “in the top 10” won’t require very many points. It’s entirely possible, maybe even likely (assuming we don’t go and blow it immediately, like the last time we had a notable victory over Man U!)