The Reasons Middle Eastern Investment Hasn't Transformed Newcastle into Title Challengers

Eddie Howe is not prone to histrionics or sweeping media pronouncements. Based on his standards, his media briefing after Sunday’s 3-1 defeat qualifies as a angry tirade. Newcastle took an early lead but West Ham were ahead by half-time, as well as hitting the post and seeing a spot-kick overturned by VAR, leading Howe to make a triple change at the break.

“That was the frustrating thing about the first half,” Howe said. “I almost could have taken anyone off and I think that was a reflection of where we were at that stage during the match and it’s very, very rare for me to feel that way. In fact, I cannot recall having done so since I’ve been manager of Newcastle, therefore I believed the team required a significant change at half-time. That’s why I made those decisions.”

Anthony Gordon, Nick Woltemade and Emil Krafth all came off at half-time and Newcastle did stabilise somewhat in the second half, without ever really looking like they could get back into the contest against an opponent that had won only one of their previous nine league matches. Given how packed the centre of the standings currently is, with a mere three-point gap dividing third from 11th, and nine points between the upper and lower ranks, a sequence of twelve points from ten matches has not placed Newcastle adrift but, similarly, they must not end the campaign in thirteenth place.

The Issue of Perception

The challenge partially is one of public view. With the Saudi PIF, the club have the wealthiest backers in the globe. The expectation when the PIF bought 80% of the team in recent years was that it would have a transformative effect, as the former Chelsea owner had at Chelsea or the City Group did at the Etihad. The difference is that both of those investors assumed control prior to the advent of financial fair play regulations (while the current allegations against Manchester City concern if they breached those regulations after they were in place).

Financial regulations limit the capacity of owners, no matter how wealthy, to spend money on their teams and so in that sense probably would have hindered any Saudi effort to raise Newcastle to the standard of Manchester City. But there is no need for the club's expenditure to have been so restrained as it has; they might have spent more and remained within the threshold – or just accepted a fairly minor Uefa penalty since their big problem is more with the European than the domestic regulation.

Infrastructure Spending and Financial Regulations

Additionally, infrastructure spending is exempted from Profit and Sustainability assessments; the simplest way to increase revenue to generate additional financial flexibility would be to expand or redevelop the arena. Given the site of St James’ Park, with listed buildings on two sides, in reality that probably implies building an completely new stadium. There was talk in spring of possibly undertaking the nearby relocation to Leazes Park – opposition from community organizations might have been surmounted with a promise to build a replacement green space on the current stadium site – but there has not been any progress on that proposal. There has been substantial cutbacks from the Saudi fund on a variety of initiatives as it refocuses on domestic affairs; the approach to the football club appears entirely in alignment with that change of approach.

The Alexander Isak Saga

The Alexander Isak saga was born of that tension. A bolder leadership might have framed his transfer as necessary to free up funds for further spending; instead there was a vain effort to keep him. This resulted in Newcastle started the campaign amid a feeling of frustration even with the acquisitions of several new players. The start was mixed: one win in their first six games.

But it appeared a corner was reached. They had won five victories in six matches prior to the weekend, a run that included convincing wins of Union Saint-Gilloise and Benfica in the European competition. This explains the display against the Hammers was so surprising. The problem maybe is that the team's style is extremely intense, high-energy; a slight drop-off in intensity can have profound consequences. Maybe the pressure of domestic, European and cup competition, five fixtures in 15 days, had got to them. The German forward featured in each of those games and looked especially weary.

Reality of Contemporary Football

This is the nature of modern football. Managers have to be prepared to make changes. The manager has been unfortunate that Wissa’s fitness issue has left him short of attacking options but, regardless of how reasonable the reasons, the weekend's showing was inexcusable –especially after taking the lead at a stadium ready to turn on its own side.

The Newcastle boss will wish it was merely a temporary setback, one of those days when everybody is off-colour simultaneously, but if the Magpies are to qualify for the Champions League in the future, not to mention eventually mount an actual championship bid, they must not be as inconsistent as they have been.