With the 2015/16 English Premier League season a matter of weeks away, Richard Jolly provides his thoughts on each of the 20 teams and predicts their final league finish. Here he looks at Newcastle United.
After the farce, the attempt to make amends. John Carver’s dreadful reign encompassed Newcastle’s worst run since 1977 and a last-day escape from a relegation United had presumed was impossible.
Enter Steve McClaren, whose Derby team floundered in the final months of the season, but who is at least an experienced manager and a highly-regarded coach.
More significant, perhaps, was owner Mike Ashley’s belated promise to invest. The purchases of Georginio Wijnaldum and Aleksandar Mitrovic show Newcastle are now shopping in more expensive markets.
The promises to target the cups, rather than focusing on Premier League profits, are another indication times are changing; understandably sceptical fans can be forgiven for waiting to see the evidence.
One task for McClaren is to shore up a porous, poor and ageing defence where only Daryl Janmaat impressed last year but the prolific, but temperamental, Mitrovic promises to be the high-class goalscorer Newcastle required.
Wijnaldum’s addition means they have plenty of ability in midfield, but Newcastle have been less than the sum of their parts for most of the past three seasons, partly because of the atmosphere around the club. If McClaren can enable them to realise their potential, he will certainly have justified his appointment.
Key Man: Moussa Sissoko — A high-class player who can set the tone for his team. Last season's senseless sending-off at Anfield was a case in point; so, too, the goal against West Ham which in effect kept Newcastle up.
Pivotal Signing: Georginio Wijnaldum — Newcastle's most expensive signing for a decade, the £14.7 million (Dh83.5m) Dutchman represents a belated indication of ambition at St James' Park. It bodes well that he scored 18 goals from midfield for PSV last season.
Crucial Factor: The mood. Will McClaren be tainted by association with Ashley? Alan Pardew, who has since excelled at Crystal Palace, was in his final year. The ill-feeling at the club gave the players a reason to underachieve under Carver, too.
Prediction: 12th
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