Newcastle United's roller-coaster season in danger of going flat

To describe Newcastle United’s return to the Premier League as a bit of a roller-coaster would be an understatement. Newcastle started the season poorly and got progressively worse through the winter months only to find the form that has lifted us to the heady heights of 10th since the turn of 2018. For the first time in a long time we are looking at finishing in the top half of the Premier League but given our rather lacklustre performances over the last couple of weeks, are we in danger of dropping in to the bottom half before the season ends in just over a week? Is Newcastle United’s season in danger of turning boring?
Newcastle United don’t do boring; we celebrate the good times wildly and put our heads in our hands when things are bad but there is very rarely a middle ground when supporting Newcastle. I don’t think too many Newcastle United fans will be that disappointed with an 11th or even a 12th or 13th place finish this season; we were starring relegation in the face for the vast majority of the season so to finish with a cushion above the bottom 3 is absolutely more than welcome. This season was always about survival and following the home victories over Arsenal and Southampton, survival was all but secured.

I wrote a piece a couple of weeks ago about how Newcastle United should be looking at cementing their spot in the top half but we have somewhat taken our eyes of the ball since survival was achieved. I can’t blame the side too much, I even wrote something last week saying that a lot of fans, myself included, have now started looking ahead at what lies for Newcastle United in the summer rather than concentrating on the games ahead and I suspect the players have suffered the same fate too. There was very little to play for in the game against Everton at Goodison and we faced a WBA side fighting for their lives last weekend. This weekend we face a Watford side hovering around mid-table and the game is in danger of becoming very much a non-event for both sides.

As ever with Newcastle United, the issues off-field have dominated the headlines throughout the season and whilst the months of January, February, March and April 2018 were a welcome distraction when people started to actually talk about the football, it is incredibly hard not to get overly excited about how the squad have performed since the turn of the year when we have a summer of uncertainty ahead.

The match against Watford has taken a back seat in the local press this week as journalists have been looking in to talks between Rafa Benitez, Mike Ashley and Lee Charnley. Discussions of a new contract for the manager as well as the amount Newcastle United have to spend in the transfer window are being negotiated but given our history of spending, or rather lack of and the owner’s penchant for telling the odd porky pie, it is difficult not to fear the worst.

Will Rafa stay? Will Ashley meet his demands? Will there be money to spend? Will that money actually be spent? Does Ashley want to sell the club? Does anyone want to buy the club? Who knows. What I do know is we have a match against Watford coming up and I want to see a vast improvement from a number of players. If Shelvey is serious about pushing for a place in the England World Cup squad, this is the sort of game he needs to dominate. We don’t need to win but a win would give us a lot of momentum going in to our final 2 games of the season against Spurs and Chelsea. Sadly though my prediction for this one is a 1-0 victory to Watford. I hope I am wrong.