Newcastle
The £3million Benitez gift, O’Neil gets shirty & clear sign Joelinton will stay
Newcastle United looks like a happy camp again just one week on since they were beaten 4-1 by Arsenal as Toon stars celebrated their first win since mid-December at St James’ Park.
This was a day in which everything clicked for Eddie Howe and co as he slightly altered the team’s approach to the clash against Wolverhampton Wanderers and caused a slight storm in the post-game press conference. The suggestion was that Newcastle had allowed Wolves to see more of the ball before hitting them on the break with some devastating counter-attacks.
It was a take that Wolves boss Gary O’Neil disagreed with when he said: “There’s no way Newcastle let us have the ball. I know Newcastle, I know Eddie Howe. The reason we had the ball was because of how good we were on the ball. I thought our structure was better than theirs, caused them more problems than theirs did ours.”
But Howe responded with: “It was a slight tweak from our normal way of playing. We analyse our opposition, like we do always, and I know there’s a lot of people that say we play the same way every week, but I can assure you that’s not the case.”
Regardless of O’Neil’s comments, Newcastle played with confidence and looked a million miles away from the team that had surrendered at the Emirates Stadium just a week before.
The £3million signing that could be the bargain of all time at Newcastle United
Eddie Howe was left purring over Fabian Schar’s display against Wolves after the Swiss centre-back played his part in all three goals with pinpoint vision and accuracy with his passing. The ball for Tino Livramento was a sumptuous pass to seal the game but the 32-year-old’s performance left Howe to say: “He can see things and execute things that I don’t see many other centre-halves capable of doing, and that’s why he’s so important to us.”
It’s hard to believe that the old guard at Newcastle were once reluctant to pay the full transfer fee to activate his release clause from Deportivo La Coruna for his signature. Back then former transfer chief Lee Charnley tried to haggle over the price but Rafa Benitez eventually talked some sense into club officials.
Just as incredibly, Steve Bruce at one stage opted against playing Schar and he almost left the club in 2020! But now playing his best stuff, you’d struggle to find a pound for pound better signing than the centre-back.
Joelinton does not look like a man who wants to leave the party yet
The Brazilian is still injured for another couple of months with a thigh injury but has been back on Tyneside for a few weeks now since having an operation in Barcelona. Howe stated last week that it was imperative that he stays and is handed a new contract.
And fans pray that a resolution will come quickly because Joelinton has been badly missed. But while he wasn’t on the field against Wolves, he was certainly there in spirit on Saturday afternoon.
Joelinton waited patiently to greet his team-mates off the pitch and took part in the post-game celebrations. He does not look like somebody who wants to quit.
With his contract talks ongoing, co-owner Amanda Staveley and Eddie Howe will be keen to get this deal signed off sooner rather than later.
