There is a lot riding on the end of the season
08:00, 06 Apr 2026
Sandro Tonali (l) Kieran Trippier and Anthony Elanga
I loved the original 1960 classic western The Magnificent Seven starring the man in black Yul Brynner, king of cool Steve McQueen, old stoneface Charles Bronson, and knife throwing dude James Coburn. I could easily have joined that gang of swaggerers!
Well, we’re hoping that football’s version of The Magnificent Seven is what is awaiting us when action starts up again this coming weekend.
Newcastle have seven more Premier League matches until the end of the season – the Mag Seven – and after our latest couple of humiliations we need them to be magnificent. Eddie Howe certainly does. He has plenty on the line as leader of the pack just like Brynner.
CEO David Hopkinson who had a two hour meeting with Howe before facing the Press upon the release of United’s accounts raised a few eyebrows by refusing to give the manager unconditional support and instead emphasised that the seven-match run was centre piece and qualification for Europe in some shape or form essential. No pressure there then!
If there was any danger of United’s season petering out amid indifference then Hopkinson brought it into sharp focus.
The seven make-or-break games are Crystal Palace (a), Bournemouth (h), Arsenal (a), Brighton (h), Nottingham Forest (a), West Ham (h) and Fulham (a).
Maybe a couple of sides might be willing to run up the white flag if put under intense firepower because they have little at stake but at least three matches will be fiercely contested – Arsenal are gunning for their first championship under Mikel Arteta having regularly finished runners-up while Forest and the Hammers are fighting for their very survival in the top flight. Four of the matches are away to three at home and we know only too well Newcastle aren’t potent on the road.
Overall not easy . . . but then United’s form this see-saw season has made predicting the outcome of fixtures a hazardous exercise indeed. What we need is the spirit, defiance, courage, and shooting accuracy of those Magnificent Seven.
Ironically it was the Barca Seven that sparked all this – the severe leakage of goals leading to our Champions League exit quickly followed by Derby Disaster. Eddie will be hoping it’s lucky seven this time.
Everybody is back in-house after the international break and beginning a full week on the training pitch clearing heads, organising tactics, and rallying to the cause.
It is what Eddie tells us has been desperately required and will hopefully benefit many . . . the coaching staff can work on how best to utilise the considerable talents of Nick Woltemade, sharpen up and lift the sagging spirits of Yoane Wissa, coax the fragile limbs of injury victims Bruno, Fabian Schar and Lewis Miley towards fitness for one last hurrah, and persuade the likes of Sandro Tonali, Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento not to give up the ghost on Geordie life but have a real go and see where it takes us.
We all accept this will be a summer of great change with outgoings as well as incomings. We agree too that we want a better transfer window than a year ago.
However when discussing the merits of individual transfers I often look back to one which took place as long ago as the summer of 2024 because to me it is the biggest mistake the modern United have made in the land of bring and buy.
We sold local boy Elliot Anderson to Nottingham Forest for a modest £35m because we needed to balance the books and see off a possible points deduction. What a mistake that was. Could we not have jettisoned someone less talented after giving ourselves more time to think about it and work on it?
I know I was biased on Elliot’s departure because his grandfather Geoff Allen is a dear friend of mine and I know he developed much quicker than he would have here because Forest could offer him regular first team football while we would have had him dip in and out like another talented local kid Lewis Miley.
However Anderson was always a star in the making and now he’s carrying England’s hopes in the World Cup finals this summer. We got £35m but within a couple of years his worth has just about trebled to £100m.
Elliot has outgrown Forest and will move on. United would love him back but has he outgrown us as well and will he instead sign for a club who regularly participate in Champions League football despite his love for the black and whites?
In my opinion the lad would be the perfect replacement for Tonali this summer.
As I say, selling Anderson was a dreadful waste from our point of view. Just like when we sold another three budding Geordie stars Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle and Paul Gascoigne back in the day and they went on to become world class.
One guy who is leaving does so with our grateful thanks for a huge contribution in black and white. Kieran Trippier is calling time at the end of the season, a decision at 35 years of age I think is right for both him and the club.
Tripps was the signing who set the pattern for a new Newcastle after the takeove . . . a La Liga winner prepared to bring his considerable talent and driving passion to our cause. We will remember him with great affection.