danmcconnell1

November 2025 October was a perfect month for us with plenty of goals scored and a very good defensive record, so all I can ask for is for the lads to carry on what they've been doing. It's not quite been as good this month, however there have still been some very good results. We began with an unfortunate 3-2 defeat away at Tottenham, Guimaraes and Bellingham scored our goals however a Son brace and Osimhen winner we fell to a defeat. We responded well in Europe though with a 4-0 win at home to Olympiacos. Messi got 2 while Isak and Hudson-Odoi got our others all before half time. We then followed that up with another win at home this time in the Premier League against Manchester United. Pino got one and Immobile managed 2 and despite Garnacho getting one back for the visitors, we held on for a momentous win over one of our biggest historical rivals. However we couldn't continue the winning form as we lost to West Ham after the international break, Jarred Bowen scoring the winner in the 94th minute despite only 3 minutes being added on which was disappointing. We couldn't have come back better though as we absolutely trounced Bodo/Glimt 9-0 in Norway. Mathys Tel managed to score a double hat-rick, Hudson-Odoi a brace and Messi also added one as we scored our 31st goal in 5 Europa League matches so far this season. We ended the month with another win against one of the big boys at home as we beat Chelsea 2-0, Bellingham and Isak with our goals at home as we ended the month well. We still sit in 2nd in the Premier League with a game in hand over City at the top which if we win, we'll go 6 points behind the leaders. Immobile still sits in 2nd in the Golden Boot race, however he's joint 2nd now with Evanilson on 10 goals, 9 behind leader Haaland. The Europa League table looks very healthy after playing 5 matches. Again, 31 goals scored with just the 1 conceded so far, I'm ecstatic with our European form at the moment and feel like we're the favourites to win the competition, which would in turn result in automatic Champions League qualification, regardless of where we finished in the league. One final piece of news is slightly expected after he didn't renew his contract beyond this season, it's the impending retirement of Lionel Messi. He's 38 now and has won pretty much everything of significance and at least one trophy at all club's he's been at, including Inter Miami when we won the US Cup and here on Tyneside with last season's FA Cup success. What a story it could be if we can help him sign off his playing career with more silverware at the end of this campaign.

October 2025 Just the 2 Premier League matches this month with European and Carabao Cup action to come too, we're hoping to continue our good form. Our form continued in the best possible way. In all matches this month, we've scored 24 goals and only conceded 1 in 5 matches. We began with a 7-0 drubbing of Sparta Prague in the Europa League, Isak scored 4 while Bellingham, Lacroix and Gravenberch all got on the score sheet too to get the month off to a flyer. We backed that up with another big win, this time at home to newly promoted Blackburn at home in the Premier League, beating them 4-0 thanks to goal from Todibo, Isak, Bellingham and Immobile. Another win came after a 2 week break for internationals away at Elland Road against Leeds, beating them 3-0 with the goals coming from Immobile and Bellingham again whilst Mathys Tel scored his first goal for the club too. Our 2nd Europa League match of the month was at home again, this time against Sassuolo and we managed another very big win, beating them 6-0. Isak managed another hat-rick while Lacroix, Pino and Henderson rounded off the goals, the latter 2 both scoring their first for the club after joining in the summer. We ended the month by progressing in the Carabao Cup against Liverpool at St. James' Park, beating them 4-1 in the 4th round to progress to the quarter finals. Jota gave Liverpool the lead however we fought back brilliantly thanks to a Ciro Immobile hat-rick and Tel getting his 2nd of the month off the bench to send us through. We'll face Burnley in the quarter final. After only playing 2 league matches this month, we have managed to keep pace with City and remain in 2nd place with a game in hand, just 3 points behind the leaders. Immobile remains 2nd in the scoring charts with 8 league goals already as well, I've been delighted with his start. The Europa League table looks great for us currently after 3 matches. We've scored 18 goals in 3 matches, conceding just once so far. The final piece of news this month is that the board have agreed to expand St. James' Park, taking the total capacity to almost 60000. The work to the stadium should be completed around a month into next season.

September 2025 After a positive start to the new season, I was hoping we could continue our unbeaten start as well as getting our Europa League campaign. We did lose for the first time in the league this season at home to Manchester City, however I feel as though we threw away 3 points here. Ciro Immobile gave us a 2-0 lead after an hour but a Haaland brace and late Ruben Dias winner clawed things back for City as they took the points home. We did however respond brilliantly with a big win in Belgrade against Partizan. Immobile continued his outstanding form with a hat-rick in Serbia while Lacroix and Bellingham also got on the score sheet as we won our first match in the Europa League since the 12/13 season. Our winning form continued as we travelled this time to the Midlands to face Wolves. Immobile scored again while Gravenberch doubled our lead which turned out to be the winning goal as Fabio Silva did get a consolation for hosts however we held on for the win. Another win came next, this time in the Carabao Cup 3rd round at home against Cheltenham Town. A 5-0 thrashing was completed by another Immobile brace, a Bellingham brace too as well as a late Isak penalty to round things off and send us into round 4 where we'll welcome Liverpool next month in what will be a tough game. The final match of the month was back in the Premier League down on the south coast at Brighton. It was another high-scoring game for us as we beat them 4-1, Joel Veltman scored an OG and then Bellingham scored for us a minute later to see us 2-0 up, Mitrovic did halve the deficit for the hosts however another double for Immobile sealed the points for us again. We remain in 2nd after 7 matches played, just 3 points behind City who beat us earlier in the month. Immobile has had a great start for us scoring 6 league goals already, putting himself 2nd in the race for the Golden Boot already. Messi and Immobile have fantastic average ratings too, Messi averaging 7.88 and Immobile 7.85. Ciro also has 2 MOTM awards in his first month with us too. One piece of bad news though as Declan Rice is already joint top of the bookings chart with 5 in 7 matches. Speaking of Immobile, he's been named the player of the month. 6 goals in total so far, however his first full month for us has seen him score 5 league goals in 3 matches with 10 goals scored in the month in total. Despite being 35, he's adapted to English football with a breeze and certainly could prove to be an absolute bargain if he carries on banging them in in this fashion.

Thanks mate, really appreciate the kind words as always. I've always felt that, regardless of age, if a player can still contribute effectively then they should be on the pitch. With some of the signings this summer, the likes of Henderson and Immobile for example, they're players that have been around the block and won major trophies throughout their career. For us to get to the level we want to be at, their experience will be vital in helping the younger lads through to become the world beaters they absolutely can become. A blend of experience and youth, I feel is vital. Again though, appreciate your kind words so thanks again

August 2025 With the slight disappointment of losing the Community Shield against Arsenal, the Premier League gets underway next and we'll be hoping to get off to a good start. However, we'll begin with the remainder of the transfer business we concluded. The next man out was Sven Botman who joined Juventus for £35m, the same amount we paid for him back in 2022. He did well for me in the 7 months or so I was in charge however with the signings we've brought in this summer, I felt as though he was someone we could afford to lose. The final significant outgoing was Miguel Almiron. Again, he did really well for me in my time here, however being the wrong side of 30 and not quite playing as well as I would like, a good offer came in from Al-Ittihad of £15m which I felt was too good to pass up, so he also left. We now move onto the final incoming players of this summer transfer window. The next incoming player was veteran striker Ciro Immobile from Lazio. He's been like a fine wine in Rome, getting better and better as the years have gone on. He's scored 202 league goals in 322 matches and leaves Lazio their record goal scorer for a final challenge you would imagine in English football. He's not going to be the first choice striker with Isak in such good form, however he'll certainly get game time again with more games to play this season. He was signed for £8m upfront with the potential to rise to £9.5m. The final player to join us this summer was Yeremy Pino from Villarreal for a fee of £50m upfront which could rise to £65m. Pino is a sought after talent throughout Europe so to bring him to St. James' Park is somewhat of a coup. He'll certainly get his fair share of game time this season and with whispers of Messi considering his retirement at the end of the season, Pino could be the one to take over the mantel. That's exactly what we did. Our first league match was at home against Nottingham Forest and after a few good results following my arrival last season, we carried on that record with a comfortable opening day 3-0 win with Isak bagging a brace and Hudson-Odoi scoring the other. We followed that up, just about, with a 3-2 win against Everton on Merseyside. Messi scored early on before the Toffees took the lead with 2 quickfire goals not long after the hour mark through Edouard and McNeil. We then defied the odds and scored two late goals for ourselves through Gravenberch's equaliser and then soon after Immobile scoring the winner on his debut. We then won again at home against Burnley with Isak, Messi and Todibo all getting the goals. We managed another win, this time in the Carabao Cup 2nd round away at Burton Alboin, Immobile managed a double with Kuol and Isak getting the others to send us into round 3 where we'll face Cheltenham at home next month. Our final match of the month was at Villa Park against Aston Villa. We dropped points for the first time in the league as we could only manage a 1-1 draw, Isak scoring for us and Gusto managing a late equaliser for the hosts. We end the opening month of the Premier League season in 2nd place. Isak is the joint top scorer with 4 in the league too, however there's still a very long way to go. Moving onto the Europa League, this is my first experience of what the future of European football looks like as we'll play 8 matches, then I presume there's a knockout stage after that. We'll face Partizan Belgrade, Sparta Prague, Sassuolo, Olympiacos, Bodo/Glimt, Zrinjski and then Ferencvaros and Marseille in the new year.

Cheers, really interesting in Tel long term, seems to be a real talent, appreciate the kind words again!

Pre-Season Update With last season's successes still fresh in our minds, it's time to cover what business has been done during the summer transfer window so far. We'll begin with the outgoings; First to leave was backup GK Nick Pope. He didn't make too many appearances for me due to the form of Alex Meret, so it made sense to cash in and try to bring in somebody younger as the number 2. Bournemouth signed him for £7m. Joelinton was next out, officially on loan for the season at Wolve, however the deal will be made permanent next summer for a fee of £23.5m but the deal will become £36.5m with further instalments. He was a Steve Bruce signing, initially as a striker however never showed the pedigree required to be a striker. Under a resurgent Eddie Howe Newcastle, Joelinton found a new lease of life in midfield. He's not quite hit the mark for me since I arrived though and to recoup most of the fee Newcastle paid for him, I'm happy with the deal. Matt Targett was the next man out, joining Leeds for £11.5m. He spent the 2nd half of last season playing in Belgium as we looked to sell in January, so we're happy to do the deal for him to leave now. Maximo Perrone was the final man (so far) out of the club who we don't have a use for going forward. I would have much preferred a permanent deal, however a loan was the best we could do this summer, with Sheffield United taking him. He'll spend the season there as we will now look to try and sell next summer now. We'll now move onto the incomings this summer. The first player in this summer was Jordan Henderson. There were some murmurs of discontent with the signing as Jordan's made no secret that he is an avid Sunderland fan, however, his experience and know how could prove vital for us in what we're hoping will be a successful season. He's not going to be the first name on the team sheet every week and I think he knows that, but with a much busier schedule this year with European football to contend with as well as what I hope will be a successful league campaign, experience as well as numbers will prove important. I'm very happy with the signing of Henderson and at just £4.3m from Liverpool he could prove to be a bargain. One of our bigger signings this summer was Sergino Dest. He's come in from PSG in a deal worth £36m and will be the automatic replacement for the recently retired Kieran Trippier. Dest's delivery from wide positions is pretty good, as is his pace, so if anything he could be seen as somewhat of an upgrade to Trippier, so I'm happy with the deal again. Dest has flitted between some of the big clubs in Europe including Ajax, Barcelona, Milan and as mentioned previously, PSG, so certainly has the pedigree, I'm hoping he's now found a home and can settle in the north east. The second Henderson to join us this summer was Dean from Manchester United. He'll be our number 2 goalkeeper this season. He's on a very good contract for a number 2, however I will expect that when he's called upon, he'll deliver. I'm yet to decide as to whether to put Henderson in goal in the group stages of the Europa League to give him a chance to prove himself as our continental GK, then keep Meret for the league, there's still plenty of time to make that decision though. In comes another goalkeeper in Freddie Woodman. He's no stranger to Newcastle after beginning his career here and, if I'm honest, has been brought in not only to be the third choice, but to class as a homegrown player in Europe. As Newcastle are still pretty new to this stage, young and homegrown talent usually don't stay at the club. Obviously I'm hoping this will change in the future, however at the moment we'll struggle to name a 25 man squad in Europe, so Woodman coming in will definitely help us with the European registration rules. At just £4.5m from Preston, it's another deal I'm happy with. Declan Rice was our second biggest signing of the summer. He needs no introduction after a stellar career at West Ham so far with him not far away from reaching 300 Premier League matches, he'll certainly be a mainstay in our midfield for years to come. West Ham wanted £65m to prise him away while he was more than happy to join an up and coming club, he's another player I'm very excited to work with. Our biggest signing of the summer was Josko Gvardiol from RB Leipzig. Signed for an initial £80m which could rise to £90m, it's a lot of money for a defender, however we didn't have to activate his release clause which stood at over £160m at Leipzig, so I was pretty happy with this deal too. He's a versatile player who can play at CB and LB, he'll certainly be a player I'm expecting to help take us to the next level. He's a great defender who I hope can slot right into our back line. The final man in so far this summer is Mathys Tel, on loan from Bayern Munich. He's a special talent who's been scoring goals at Bayern since he was 17 and whilst he's still just 20 and on the back of a very good season on loan at Stuttgart last time out where he scored 16 league goals in 29 appearances, I'm hopeful he can be a great option up top for us as an alternative to Isak. As mentioned before, we will have a lot more games to play this season so Tel will absolutely get his chances, I just hope he can take them as he did last season in Germany. There may well be more transfer activity before the window closes with plenty left both in the transfer and wage budgets, however it'll depend on who's available and whether they're available for the right prices. Moving onto our pre-season record, it was almost perfect. We drew our first game back at home to Brugges, however won all 4 matches of our tour of the USA with wins coming against Hartford, Pitsburgh, the Indy Eleven and Greenville. We did however lose the traditional curtain raiser in England, the Community Shield at Wembley against Arsenal by a goal to nil, Ruben Neves scoring on his Arsenal debut from the penalty spot with just over a quarter of an hour left to play in what was a tight but entertaining game. It would have been nice to lift another trophy of course, however if I'm honest, this isn't the trophy I'm most interested in. This season, it's the Europa League. I really feel we can have a good crack at Europe while attempting to get into the Champions League next season by finishing in the top 4 of the Premier League. We'll see how things go but with this squad of players, I feel this could be the start of something special for Newcastle United.

May 2025 The final month of the season is where heroes and villains are made. We have a fantastic opportunity to reach the top 6 and to potentially lift silverware for the first time since 1955 as we contest the FA Cup final against Leeds. We had the perfect end to the season. We got things underway with a win against Leeds at St. James', beating them 2-0 thanks to an own goal by their keeper Brenno and Ryan Gravenberch scoring his first Premier League goal and 2nd since his arrival from Bayern Munich in January. We then followed that up with another win in our final away match of the season on the banks of the Thames against Fulham, winning 1-0 with Wilfred Ndidi scoring the only goal in the first half. Our final Premier League match of the season was back at home against Aston Villa and we finished with a flourish, beating them 5-0 on the final day. Bellingham and Isak got 2 each while Messi scored the other. The final match of the season overall was of course the FA Cup final at Wembley against Leeds United. We had of course just beaten them in the league earlier this month, however the FA Cup final is a completely different occasion. However, it's an occasion we dealt with best, and managed a solitary goal to nil win over the side from Yorkshire. Alexander Isak's 19th minute goal was the only one of the match and we lifted our first major silverware for 70 years. Since my arrival it's been, on the whole, a positive season and we can be very proud of what we've achieved as a team in such a short space of time. The FA Cup win of course means we have now confirmed a place in next season's Europa League, despite finishing 7th in the table. It's a very odd season in terms of European qualification in England. The top 3 have qualified for the Champions League, title winners Arsenal, 2nd place Liverpool and 3rd place Chelsea, as well as Southampton who, despite finishing 16th in the Premier League, incredibly won the Europa League, meaning they'll be in the Champions League next season. That meant West Ham, who'd been outstanding all season and finished 4th, drop to the Europa League alongside ourselves, while Manchester City fall into the Europa Conference League. Manchester United, despite finishing 6th, have been denied a spot in Europe due to ours and Southampton's respective cup wins, something I'm sure they'll be disappointed with despite finishing above both of us. Alexander Isak was brilliant for me since I arrived and ended the Premier League season finishing runner up in the Golden Boot race, however was still a whole 12 goals behind the winner Erling Haaland. Bellingham and Messi both dominated matches for us, the former finishing with the highest rating of all in the league, averaging 7.7 per game while Messi was a fraction behind, averaging 7.64. The squad is a relatively thin one and we've been lucky not to pick up any serious injuries. Isak finished the season with 30 overall, an outstanding total. Bellingham scored 14 in 19 appearances since his arrival, including 5 assists too, which in turn results in a goal involvement per game for Jude. Lionel Messi was also outstanding, scoring 10 and creating 14 goals in 21 appearances, that's more than one goal involvement per match. Special mentions go to Alex Meret who was brilliant in goal and made some vital saves for us, Kieran Tripper who's retiring this summer and lifted the FA Cup in his final appearance as a professional and finally, Bruno Guimaraes who was a warrior in midfield, barely missed a minute after I arrived but for a suspension and was a creative genius in the middle of the park, assisting 5 and getting on the score sheet once himself.

April 2025 We've reached the business end of the season and whilst we're still a part of the chasing pack in terms of European football, there's still plenty to play for both in the Premier League and the FA Cup. Apart from the start, we've had an outstanding month. We began away at Old Trafford, losing 3-2 against Manchester United, but we gave them a very good game and made them work for their win. Bruno Fernandes scoring 2 within the opening 11 minutes however Isak and Messi had levelled things up within 21 minutes, so it was a frantic start. Eriksen then scored after 37 minutes and that's how it ended, but it was a brilliant game to watch for the neutral. I thought our league form was going to continue in the same vein as we welcomed league leaders at the time Liverpool to St. James' Park next, however how wrong was I? We thrashed them 5-1 at home despite Mo Salah opening the scoring within the opening 2 minutes. A double for Isak and Hudson-Odoi, his first for the club, Messi and another for Bellingham well and truly put the Reds to the sword. That confidence boosting win was perfect just ahead of an FA Cup semi final which we were already favourites to win. Leeds had beaten Arsenal the day before on semi final weekend after a penalty shoot out, so the incentive to face a side of similar calibre to ours in the final was great. We absolutely demolished Ipswich Town 7-0 at Wembley, showing why we will arguably go into the final as favourites. Hudson-Odoi got another one, Isak bagged a hat-rick while Messi, Bellingham and Lacroix all also got on the score sheet at Wembley, sending us to our first FA Cup final for 26 years. Our final two matches this month were against struggling sides towards the foot of the table. We beat Leicester at home 3-1 with Bellingham, Isak and Messi all scoring, then travelled down to Norwich 3 days later and beat them 3-0, Hudson-Odoi scoring his 3rd goal of the month and Messi scoring a brace of penalties in the 2nd half. With just 3 Premier League games to go, I think it's safe to say the Champions League is now out of reach. However we are in pole position to try and snatch a Europa League or Europa Conference League place, if not from the league, then perhaps if we won the FA Cup. We have a dress rehearsal for the FA Cup final coming up next as we welcome Leeds in the Premier League in our penultimate home match of the season. Isak is now joint 2nd in the goal scoring charts with 17 in the league, 25 overall, while Messi has come into the Premier League and been the best player in the division. His average rating of 7.64 makes him the highest rated player in the league this season. Jude Bellingham also won his 2nd young player of the month award since joining at the back end of January too. He's scored 2 and assisted 2 in 4 appearances this month, continuing his brilliant start playing just behind the striker in the number 10 position. One final note, Messi and Isak finished 2nd and 3rd in the player of the month award behind Salah, while I finished 2nd behind Guardiola for the manager of the month award.

Cheers, appreciate the kind words!

March 2025 With our form not at it's best and the European places starting to slip away, we need to get back on track and win some games to make sure we can bring European football back to St. James' next season. We only played 4 matches this month and 2 of those were in the FA Cup due to the international break at the end of March, so I can provide this update a little earlier than usual due to the Premier League now breaking until 4th April. We began March with a 3-1 win after extra time in the FA Cup 5th round away at Bournemouth. Guimaraes gave us the lead after 10 minutes before Sayyadmanesh equalised just 2 minutes later for the Cherries which is how it finished. Ryan Gravenberch then scored his first goal for the club 4 minutes into extra time before Callum Wilson secured our place in the quarter finals with a goal in stoppage time at the end of extra time against his former club and make it 3-1. Our first Premier League match of the month was away to West Ham who're playing very well this season, however we beat them at the London Stadium 2-1. Soucek gave the Hammers the lead but a Lionel Messi brace before half time turned things around and we held on for the 3 points. We then travelled back to the capital 5 days later to face Tottenham for the return fixture of my first match in charge. Unfortunately though we couldn't replicate the result as we fell to a 3-2 defeat. Otavio gave Spurs the lead just before half time after Kristiansen was sent off on the half hour mark for us and that's how it stayed until the final quarter of an hour when the game was turned on its head by Almiron's equaliser. Bentancur and Son then scored in the 86th and 89th minutes respectively before Joelinton got one back for us in stoppage time but it wasn't enough. We ended the month with a convincing win at the City Ground against Nottingham Forest, beating them 4-0 in the FA Cup quarter final. It was the 2nd time we'd put 4 past Forest on their own patch since I'd arrived. Isak and Bellingham both scoring 2 each to send us into the FA Cup semi finals where we've certainly been given a kind draw. We'll face bottom of the Championship Ipswich Town at Wembley. Stranger things have happened and we'll certainly not be taking them for granted, however the other semi see's Arsenal face Leeds, both sides that are above us in the table, so if I could have hand picked our semi final opponents from the final 4, Ipswich would certainly have been the ones I'd have chosen in order to try and get Newcastle to their first FA Cup final since 1999. We remain in 9th place with just 7 games remaining. We're also still 11 points away from the Champions League places so it doesn't look like we're going to manage that this year, however the Europa League and Europa Conference League are still very real possibilities, not only just in the league but if we won the FA Cup too, but let's not get too ahead of ourselves.

February 2025 With all of our transfer business done for this season, it's time to see how these new signings can gel into the first team and hopefully improve us as we head toward the business end of the season. We got off to a great start in February with a 4-0 win over Burnley. Bellingham managed another 2 goals while Isak matched Jude's 2 giving us a comfortable 4-0 win. We followed up that win with another, this time in the FA Cup 4th round against Leicester, Bellingham continuing his fantastic start with us while Isak and Wilson completed the rout to set up a 5th round tie on the south coast against Bournemouth. Unfortunately though, our month was only going downhill from then on. 3 defeats in a row began with the visit to Southampton as we lost 2-1 there, Bednarek with the opener before Joelinton equalised for us, but the winner was scored by Mariano for the Saints. We then were really unlucky to lose at the Emirates against Arsenal 3-2. We led twice in the match thanks to goals from Bellingham and Kim, however a Dominic Calvert-Lewin brace and a 94th minute winner by a player we almost signed in January, Mykhaylo Mudryk, saw Arsenal snatch the points from us. Our misery was compounded at home in our final match of the month against Watford as we fell to the struggling side 2-1. Joao Pedro got both for the visitors early on inside 12 minutes while Bellingham continued his good start for us, halving the deficit just past the half hour mark. We huffed and puffed but couldn't break the Hornets down again and fell for the 3rd match in a row. Whilst the month has been a damaging one in terms of results, it hasn't affected our league position. We remain in 9th with 9 league games left to play, as well an an FA Cup 5th round tie against Championship side Bournemouth, so there's very real potential for a quarter final place this season in the FA Cup. We really need to arrest this dip in form though as the Champions League places are starting to look out of reach now with an 11 point gap between ourselves and 4th placed West Ham. However, we are just 3 points outside the European places still, so plenty of time to try and pull that gap back, but we do need to start picking up results quickly. Kieran Trippier has decided to retire at the end of this season. The 34 year old RB has been brilliant since I arrived so I did attempt to talk him out of it and stay on for another season, however his mind was made up and he'll leave us this summer. We'll miss his outstanding set piece delivery going forward, and a RB will be a priority this summer to replace him, either as backup to Wan-Bissaka, or a new starter for next season. And finally, Jude Bellingham's outstanding performances have earned him the Young Player of the Month award this month. 4 goals in as many appearances this month, as well as 7 goals in 6 since he arrived has seen Bellingham quickly endear himself not only to me, but to our adoring fans too, he's been phenomenal so far.

January 2025 The January transfer window is always a difficult time of year to do business with some players available for cut prices which means more demand, or others available for inflated prices making deals more difficult to confirm, however we did manage to complete quite a bit of incoming and outgoing business to freshen up the squad heading into the second half of the season. Again, we'll concentrate on those who've left the club first before moving onto those who've joined. Jeremy Marquez left to go back to his native Mexico with Leon. He was signed before I arrived for £3m from Atlas and we sold him for a profitable £4.2m. He made just 21 appearances in his 18 month spell on Tyneside scoring 1 goal. Ivica Ivusic was another man who left the north east for the sunnier climes of Mexico joining Tigres. The 30 year old Croat was decent back up, however was 3rd choice for us so wasn't going to get much game time and when an offer of £3.6m came in when we signed him for £1.5m, again, the business made sense. He made 5 appearances in his 18 months at Newcastle conceding 3 goals. Mehdi Taremi was a player I didn't really want to part ways with, however when Real Madrid, Juventus and Porto all came knocking, he set his heart on leaving for one last payday at an elite club, which unfortunately we're not quite yet. He signed for us 2 summers ago for £28m (which will rise to £30.5) from Porto and was sold for an initial £30m to the Spanish giants with another £15m coming in over the next 2 years and with him reaching 33 this summer, I feel this is good business. He had a very fruitful spell in England, making 68 appearances in all competitions scoring 31 goals in his 18 months here, he'll be a miss, however I feel like we have more than adequately replaced him, which I'll get onto shortly. Argentine Federico Navarro was another player to leave this month for £12m, joining Borussia Dortmund in Germany. He made 29 appearances for Newcastle in his 18 month spell, failing to score. He's a very decent midfielder, however, again, others have come in that eclipse his talent so he was never going to get near the starting 11 regularly so it made sense to cash in. Signed for £6.25m from the Chicago Fire, we've almost doubled our money on him after a less than impressive spell, so again I feel this is good business. The penultimate first team player to leave us was Matt Targett. He's a solid LB and while he's only left on loan to join AA Gent, I would have preferred a permanent deal if I'm honest. He's a dependable figure however in his 4 year spell at the club he never really held down a first team berth, so we made the decision to sell pretty late in the window to try and raise some more funds. We couldn't get a buyer, however AA Gent have come in and taken him on loan until the end of the season and we'll re-assess then. Finally, Dan Burn has joined Everton. Initially it's a loan move with the Toffees picking up half of his wages, but he'll move to Merseyside permanently in the summer for an initial fee of £4.4m with an instalment coming 12 months later of another £3m, taking the fee to just shy of £7.5, which for a 33 year old by the time the transfer takes place, again I feel is good business. His versatility will be a miss at the back as he's a good option, however he's never going to be a permanent option for me. 104 appearances and 2 goals for Burn in his 4 years on Tyneside. Now we move onto the incomings, and I'm very excited about these. Next through the door was Aaron Wan-Bissaka from Manchester United. At just £13.75m, I feel it's a very fair price for a RB who hasn't quite hit the heights many thought he would ahead of his move to Old Trafford. He'll initially provide backup to Kieran Trippier, however absolutely has the ability to overtake him in the pecking order. He made 122 league appearances for United scoring 2 goals. This is the signing I'm most excited about. Jude Bellingham has joined from Borussia Dortmund after we activated his release clause which stood at £94m. With the outgoings we had, and the money we made, I feel like this deal could be a game changer for us. Yes, it's a very big fee, however Bellingham has shown during his time in Germany that he can become, and possibly even already is, the best central midfielder in the world. He's had an outstanding start to his Newcastle career too, as you can see, scoring 2 on his debut, which I'll get to shortly. He already has a European title winning pedigree too after Dortmund won the 2024 Europa League, something that I hope will elevate this team onto hopefully a much better finish this season. He is now, pretty obviously, our record signing. Victor Kristiansen is the next man in, a LB to replace the 2 outgoing, older LB's Targett and Burn. Kristiansen is Danish and joins after we activated his release clause too of £9m from FC Copenhagen. He can become a vital player for us if he carries on developing the way he is. The final man in this window was Ryan Gravenberch from Bayern Munich. A very talented central midfielder, Gravenberch was never really given too many opportunities in Bavaria, making just 36 first team appearances in his 2 and a half years there which seems to have halted his progress, however I'm hoping he'll get more first team chances here and go on to become the player he's capable of being. He was available for a very decent price too of just £11.25m, making it a relatively low risk deal if things don't go to plan. Now we move onto January's results. We began the new year against Wolves, a club I spoke to before joining Newcastle, and we beat the comfortably 3-1. Isak, Taremi and Kim-Min Jae with our goals. We then followed that up with a very impressive 1-1 draw with Manchester City. Isak gave us the lead in the 1st half however City had to rely on an 88th minute Rodri equaliser to nab a point, so I was disappointed not to have come away from the Etihad with a win, however it shows we're making great progress. We then comfortably beat Crewe Alexandra in the FA Cup 3rd round 4-1, with lot of fringe players getting a game with Maxence Lacriox scoring while Callum Wilson helped himself to a hat-rick to send us into round 4 where we'll welcome Leicester. Our only defeat of the month came at home to Everton where Erik Botheim scored 3 minutes before the break to seal the 3 points for them. The last game of the month was also at home, this time against Brighton. It was also our best result too as we beat them 4-2. Bellingham scored less than 90 seconds into his debut and went on to score a brace while Isak and Messi also scored for us, Messi also getting his first in black and white. This month's results see us drop a place to 9th in the league, however it's a pretty false table currently. We have a game in hand over most of the teams around us while Manchester City have 3 in hand and Arsenal 2, so there will definitely be changes in how this table looks once all of those teams catch up in terms of games played. If we can win our game in hand by 3 or more goals, we would move up to 7th ahead of Leeds on goal difference, so there's an incentive to winning that game, as well as keeping pace with the top 4 too. From ourselves upwards, at this stage, I feel like Champions League qualification is fair game. Isak's goal scoring this month has seen him move into the top 3, sitting in 3rd with 11 league goals now, he has 15 in total.

Early January 2025 Update With the transfer window now open, we have confirmed some incomings and outgoings following my arrival. Firstly, we'll concentrate on the outgoings. First out of the door was Erick Sanchez. He made 12 appearances in his 18 months at the club, however only one of those came this season and that was off the bench. He's a decent midfielder but was never going to take us where we want to be. Signed for £1.7m and sold for £2.4m, I'm happy with the £700k profit made on him when he didn't appear to do much. Isaac Hayden was next out. He'd been a loyal servant to Newcastle in his 9 years at the club, making 162 league appearances and scoring 6 goals in that time. He's a solid defensive midfielder but again, for where we want to be, he's not going to be good enough. Despite his versatility coming in handy (he played RB against Forest last month), we got just shy of £5m from Brentford for him so I'm happy with the deal as was he. The next player leaving us was Joe Willock. He was a revelation when Steve Bruce signed him on loan back in 2020 when he scored 8 goals in 14 matches, Newcastle then made the deal permanent the following summer for £25m. However since then, he'd scored just 2 goals in exactly 100 appearances for us. Again, another player who just wasn't going to cut he mustard when it came to where we want to be, so he's been moved onto Sassuolo for £10m. He'll actually join them on January 2nd so is still eligible to play in the New Years Day fixture against Wolves. There are some more potential outgoings being worked on, but we'll now move onto incoming deals that have now been confirmed following the opening of the transfer window. The first deal we confirmed was to sign Callum Hudson-Odoi from Chelsea for a cut-price £11m which could rise to £13m over the course of his contract. He has never quite hit the heights many thought he would at Chelsea and despite a successful loan spell in Germany with Leverkusen a couple of seasons ago, he's been a bit part player in his 9 years at Chelsea, making a combined 128 appearances and scoring just 9 goals. I'm hoping this move can be a fresh start for him and be a catalyst for him to show what he can really do on a consistent basis. The next signing needs no introduction. I took a chance on Messi thinking we'd have no chance due to the club not currently being in the Champions League, however I must have left some kind of mark on Lionel following our time together in Miami. I did have to make the promise that the club will reach the Champions League next season, which does give us some time to build the squad not just in this window but in the summer too, so I was appreciative of him being reasonable during the negotiations. He's on a decent contract again, exactly the same as his Inter Miami salary, however I know he'll prove his worth. Similarly to when he joined PSG, his trademark number 10 shirt is already in use, so he'll wear 19, just as he did at Barcelona after he vacated the number 30 shirt there. There will more than likely be more new arrivals and potentially more outgoings too, in which case I'll cover those in the the full January update.

December 2024 After the euphoric start with the win over Tottenham, I was hoping we could go on a run to try and challenge the top 7 as well as pick up some big scalps along the way in what would be a busy December. Things didn't get off to the best of starts with a 2-1 defeat in my first away match in charge at Burnley. Wout Weghorst scored a brace for the hosts and while Isak got one back with 11 minutes left to make it interesting, the home side held on and we suffered my first defeat in charge in just my 2nd match. We did however respond very well with a goalless draw against league leaders Manchester City. They'd been in very good form both domestically and in Europe so to keep them, and in particular Erling Haaland, out was pleasing. We then travelled down to Watford and picked up the 3 points thanks to a 2-1 win, Isak and Almiron with our goals against the Hornets. Our first back to back wins of my tenure came as we overcame Everton, again away from home at the Bramley-Moore Dock Stadium. Again, Almiron and Isak got our goals literally on Merseyside. The traditional Boxing Day fixture was at home to Chelsea however we couldn't make it 3 wins on the bounce as we fell to the Blues 2-1, Callum Wilson opened the scoring for us but goals from Mount and a Lukaku penalty sealed the points for the visitors. Our final match of the month was away at Nottingham Forest. We thrashed Forest 4-1 with a depleted side, youngster Garang Koul scored a hat-rick on his first Premier League start while Jeremy Marquez opened the scoring in the 6th minute for us. Awoniyi did pull one back for Forest however we held for a big victory. These results have seen us end the month another place higher in the league table in 8th. We're just 3 points outside the European places now so I'm certainly hoping we can continue this good form heading into the new year and beyond.

November 2024 Only one game this month under my stewardship after joining, it would be great to get off to a good start. We did exactly that. In the time after the previous manager's departure, the side beat Liverpool last weekend then my first game in charge, in front of a raucous St. James' crowd, was a resounding success. We beat Tottenham 1-0 with Isak getting the only goal in the 51st minute, I was ecstatic with how we defended as Spurs have some fantastic talent in forward areas with the likes of Osihmen, Kane, Son and Kulusevski. Trippier was brilliant against one of his former clubs despite getting booked, his set piece delivery will be vital for us going forward. Ndidi was also a warrior in midfield and played really well. Callum Wilson picked up an injury that'll keep him out for around a month just days after my arrival which has highlighted the need for reinforcements at the top end of the pitch. Fortunately, I should be able to add some players of real quality with a transfer budget of over £90m to spend in January. England of course has far less strict rules regarding squad registration compared to the MLS, so I'm much less restricted in players I can attempt to sign. Due to Brexit however, some players may be out of reach when it comes to work permits, however there will be plenty of top talent available who'll be open to joining a club that is hopefully on the up after many years of mediocrity. The win against Tottenham saw us move up 1 place into 9th in the Premier League. We're now only 4 points outside the European places, however the fight for the top 7 will be a frantic one. The regular top 6 are all in the battle, as are Leeds United who're surprising many with their form after only just avoiding relegation last season. West Ham are another side surprising many as they sit in 2nd currently. They've managed to hold onto a lot of their top talents including Declan Rice, Gianlucca Scamacca and Jarred Bowen and are reaping the rewards at the moment. There's obviously a very long way to go though and things will absolutely change at both the top and bottom ends of the league, I'm hoping we can build on the 2 good results either side of my arrival though and kick on as we look to qualify for Europe.

Cheers, appreciate it!

Update After much deliberation and multiple job interviews, beginning with Wolves and ranging from Leicester to Newcastle too, it's the latter I have decided to join. I leave sunny Florida to join the north east outfit in England and arguably one of the world's richest clubs. The club of course play at St. James' Park, right in the middle of the city. The stadium holds 52305 and is one of English football's cauldron's when it's rocking. As you can see, quite a few of my staff have joined me on this venture into English football including my assistant Jason Kreis, Mark Mason and multiple others to bring some familiarity to my new role. Work permits shouldn't be a problem for those who I've asked to join me. The squad is a big one, with plenty of options available all over the pitch, I couldn't fit in Mehdi Taremi, Alex Isak and Callum Wilson into the screenshot, however none of them are pulling up trees so far this season with just 13 goals between the 3 of them so far, Isak scoring the most with 8. It'll take a little while to sort out the deadwood from the squad, which still remains as a consequence of the takeover back in 2021. How some of these players that were here before the takeover are still here is beyond me. The likes of Hayden and Willock, looking at their attributes and stats in recent seasons are very poor and aren't befitting of a team that should be knocking on the door of the European places as a minimum. The club currently sit in 10th place after 14 matches this season, recording 5 wins, 5 draws and 4 defeats. On the face of it, it doesn't look like the team are doing too badly, however expectations are much higher these days in Newcastle, therefore improvement is needed and quickly. I hope I can be the man to bring success to Tyneside.

Update Fresh from posting the above update, I clicked continue to see the following message appear. I'm going to attend this and see what happens.

November 2024 The final month of the domestic season is upon us, now it's do or die. Unfortunately our season crumbled. We lost 3-2 to Charlotte in the Eastern Conference final, Pozuelo and Robinson scored goals for us but it wasn't enough to send us to the MLS Cup final, however it is our best MLS play-off performance in the club's fledgling history, so that's something to be proud of despite the immediate disappointment. We had to get over the heartache quickly as we faced a NACL North American Zone Play-off against Cruz Azul for the right to face Santos Laguna or Portland Timbers in the next playoff, however we were thoroughly beaten 3-0 which could have been 4 had it not been for an offside flag. Obviously, the end of the season has been a disappointment, however it's been a season of promise overall with some of the drafted players getting minutes and goals under their belts, our senior pros showing why they're still some of the best in the business and our stalwart players also showing why they're so loved. In goal, Drake Callender was again our number 1 this time around and showed why he's such a good keeper. In 42 appearances, he kept 10 clean sheets for us. C.J. dos Santos did get a run of games midway through the season due to an injury to Callender and made 7 appearances keeping 3 clean sheets for us. In defence, our go to CB's were Mabika and Sailor. The latter has unfortunately decided to see out his contract with us and move to Denmark in January, something I was disappointed about. However Mabika has stayed on and will be first choice going forward. Fray, Caceres and Lowe were our backup CB's making a number of appearances between them. Yedlin was our first choice RB for this season with backup provided again by Caceres and Lowe as well as the drafted Campos making a few appearances also. At LB, Gibbs was predominantly the first choice however Noah Allen didn't disgrace himself and even became first choice as the season came to a close. Our midfield was arguably where I was happiest this season. Kranevitter and Mota were the first choice CM's, with Mota having an outstanding season scoring 8 goals and assisting 7 in 45 appearances for us. Kranevitter only scored one but provided 10 assists also. Hyndman joined midway through the campaign and did well too, scoring 1 and assisting 2. Kelyn Rowe did okay too, providing cover in lots of positions in midfield, he scored 3 and assisted 2. Aaron Ramsey was our DP signing last summer and did okay too, scoring 3 goals and making 7 in 42 matches. Rob Taylor was predominantly the backup winger to both Messi and Pozuelo and made 29 appearances in total scoring 4 goals and nabbing 7 assists. Speaking of Pozuelo, he had a good campaign with 8 goals and 9 assists in 36. Moving onto our star man, Lionel Messi made 33 appearances also, scoring 13 goals and assisting a very impressive 20, averaging 7.48 per game. Even at the ripe old age of 37, he's still a cut above the rest in this team. Special mentions to Ricky Aviza and Ricardo, 2 of our drafted players, Aviza got 1 each in terms of goals and assists while Ricardo did well scoring 4 goals and assisting 1 in 30 appearances. Moving to our strikers, Corentin Jean had another decent campaign scoring 11 goals and creating 2 in 34 matches for us. Our top scorer though was, again, Robbie Robinson. He made 45 appearances for us this time around and scored 25 goals in all competitions, creating another 6. He's arguably one of the best players in the league and consistently punches above his weight considering my coaches belief in his ability. He also averaged 7.1 all season, making him the first choice striker by a mile.

October 2024 After an outstanding month last time out, the business end of the season has come, domestically at least. And it's been a good month overall for us. We began with a defeat against Monterrey in the NACL losing 2-0 which wasn't a great start, however our final regular season match in MLS was at home to NYCFC and we drew 1-1 with them, Robinson got our goal that day. We then thrashed the other New York side, the Red Bulls 5-2 in our first play-off match in the Eastern Conference with Taylor, Messi, Mota and Robinson with 2 scoring our goals to send us into the Eastern Conference play-off semi final where we would be facing D.C. United again at home. Before that though, our NACL qualification group concluded with another defeat, this time 1-0 away in Canada against Toronto. We did still progress to the play-offs and will face Cruz Azul next month after facing Charlotte in the Eastern Conference final for a chance to play in the MLS Cup final. We finished 3rd in the Eastern Conference in the end as well as 5th in the Supporter's Shield table which equalled our best finish in the Shield table.

September 2024 With our league form falling off a cliff currently, we desperately need to do something to arrest the downslide. And that's exactly what we did. All 6 matches were in the MLS and we remained unbeaten throughout the month. We began with a 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City with Pozuelo getting the only goal, then followed that with another win against CF Montreal. We beat the Canadian side 3-2 with Jean getting a brace and Rob Taylor scoring a late winner for us. A 3rd win on the spin came against struggling Seattle Sounders as we managed another 1-0 win with Robinson getting the only goal. We then managed a 2-2 draw with D.C. United, Robinson and Pozuelo scored our goals. Robinson then scored a hat-rick as we thrashed St. Louis City 3-0 before rounding off the month with another high scoring match beating Atlanta United 4-1. Robinson managed another brace with Jean and Rowe scoring 2 more late on to seal another victory. This almost perfect month has seen us fly up both the Eastern Conference table into 3rd, securing a play-off spot too as well as up into 5th in the Supporter's Shield also. San Jose have already been confirmed Supporter's Shield champions as they're 8 points clear of anybody else, but we can still finish 3rd in that table if we win our final MLS match and other results go our way. Back to the Eastern Conference, we can leapfrog Columbus Crew if we win our final match and they lose due to our superior goal difference. Robinson was named MLS player of the month after his exploits scoring 7 goals in 6 matches and 1 assist too. His average rating this month was 7.78.

August 2024 August will be a month full of cup competitions with the Leagues Cup continuing as well as our NACL qualification campaign getting underway. We got off to a great start with a win against Chivas in the Leagues Cup West quarter final, beating them 2-0 after goals from Pozuelo and Messi. We then followed that up with a win in the NACL against Atlas too by the same scoreline, Mota and Taylor with the goals there. However we then suffered defeat to San Jose in the Leagues Cup West semi final, losing 3-2. Robinson and Messi got our goals but it wasn't enough as we crashed out. We then managed a highly entertaining draw in our NACL group stage match away to Austin FC, finishing 4-4. Robinson bagged a brace while Pozuelo and Messi also scored to nab a point from the proceedings. Our only MLS encounter this month was away to Toronto, however we lost again in the league, meaning we've now lost 5 of our last 6 league matches. We found ourselves 2-0 down at half time and despite an Ian Fray 2nd half goal, we couldn't find the equaliser to stop the rot. Again things don't look great in both the Eastern Conference and the Supporter's Shield, with us sitting outside the play-offs down in 9th in the Eastern Conference and not even in the top half of the Shield table. We are however top of our NACL group with 4 points from our first 2 matches. The group resumes in October when we face Monterrey then concludes 3 weeks later away to Toronto.

Of course; Not my strongest line up due to injuries etc. currently, however a pretty standard 4-2-3-1. The versatility of Jean and Robinson really helps as they can both play out wide and through the middle, which has given opportunities to rookies Ricardo and Aviza this season. Messi predominantly plays RW but has played a lot through the middle too. My favourite signing so far though has been Kranevitter, he's a real engine in midfield and starts lots of attacks for us.

July 2024 After last month's hive of activity in terms of matches with 9 matches played in total, July was somewhat more restrained with just 5, however there were 3 competitions in which we played. We began with another MLS defeat, that's 3 in a row now, at home to Minnesota, losing by a goal to nil. We did stop the rot though with an important win over LAFC, beating them 3-1 with Ricardo, Fray and Kranevitter all getting on the score sheet. They did beat us 4 days later though, this time in the US Cup quarter final, bringing to an end our defence of the competition and knocking us out. We followed that defeat with another in the league, that's 4 in 5 now, losing 2-0 away to Real Salt Lake in Utah. We did however respond well with a good win in our first Leagues Cup match of the season against Puebla, beating them 2-0 with Messi and Mota scoring for us at the Estadio Cuauhtemoc in Mexico. We were there again just 4 days later to face the New England Revolution, who were in our group last season too, and were 3-1 up with 20 minutes to play and somewhat cruising to victory thanks to goals from Robinson, Mota and an Andrew Ferrell OG, however 3 late goals for New England won the game for them and we were shellshocked. All in all, it's been a poor month for us, particularly in the league. We've dropped to 7th in the Eastern Conference, the final play off spot, and 11th in the Supporter's Shield. We really need to sort out our league form before it's too late. We face Chivas of Mexico in our Leagues Cup quarter final shortly, before our NACL qualification campaign gets underway, we're in a group with Atlas and Monterrey, both of Mexico, Austin FC and Toronto. The last time we faced Austin it finished goalless so they'll be tough opponent. We haven't faced Toronto yet this season however did do the double over them last time out, so I'm expecting a good result against those. Atlas are somewhat of an unknown quantity to us, however after looking at their side they do have some decent players that include Darlington Nagbe, a player I looked to sign last summer following his release after a stellar season with the Columbus Crew finished 2nd in the MVP rankings, as well as former Norwich man Kenny McLean. Monterrey are another unknown to us, however have the likes of Jesus Gallardo, the Mexican LB not far off a century of caps for his nation, and Rogelio Funes Mori, a rangy striker who's spent time in Europe and can definitely cause us problems.