What does the future hold for Newcastle United?

Newcastle United are one of the ‘biggest’ football clubs in
England though you might not have known it when you consider the clubs recent on the field activities. In terms of capacity, the club regularly gets a sell-out 50,000+ home crowd. Indeed, only Arsenal and Manchester United have a higher average attendance of the current Premier League teams.

Newcastle United are also a ‘One-city’ team which further helps its brand. Unfortunately, in recent seasons,
Newcastle haven’t lived up to their potential, though the team has done well in the last few years. The dark days of the Championship are at least a thing of the past and the club looks set to spend another year in English football’s top division which will bode well for the club in the future.

Key to the clubs recent turnaround have been the host of French footballers brought into the club, with Ben Arfa and Yohan Cabaye in particular being key to success, along with Cheick Tiote and Fabricio Coloccini. With the January signings Yoan Gourcuff and Moussa Sissiko, this could be the start of a promising new era for the club.

Credit must be given to the current manager, Alan Pardew. Such has been his impact that the board have given the Englishman an unprecedented 8-year contract as they look to Pardew to bring back the glory days to the city. Progress has been steady, though this season hasn’t always gone to plan. The club have been playing in the Europa League this campaign after last years excellent season and although they are unlikely to qualify for
Europe this time round, the taste of European football will surely bode well for the club.

This season, the squad has been tested by injuries and disciplinary issues with the added European commitments ironically having a negative knock-on affect on their league form. Key players such as Cabaye and Ben Arfa have been out with niggles throughout the campaign and Pardew has further found it difficult to get the two Senegalese strikers, Pappis Cisse and Demba Ba linking up together. Ba has since moved on to Chelsea with Gourcuff brought in, the team has more balance now and look like they could be successful once the squad has molded together.

Pardew was particularly busy in the January transfer window bringing in no less than 6 new signings which will help with future squad rotation.

For now, Pardew needs to get the new arrivals settled and possibly strengthen even more in the summer transfer window where he will also be hoping to keep most if not all of his players. If he can do that, then there is no reason why Newcastle United cannot finish in the top-6 next season, what should be the ultimate objective for Pardew.