Richard Keys loves stirring it, the prince of mischief.
A week ago he was predicting (see below) the sack for Eddie Howe before we reached November.
Now after the history making 8-0 demolition of Sheffield United, Richard Keys changing his tune…
“I enjoyed the weekend. The North London derby was a really good watch whilst Newcastle were ruthless at Bramhall Lane.
“I felt for The Blades mins you and I’m pretty sure when the dust had settled Eddie Howe would’ve felt for Paul Heckingbottom and his staff as well.
“The win was something for the history books and the thousands that follow the Toon to away games.
“Good luck to them. They’re as loyal as they come and it was a fantastic week all things considered, but professionals don’t really like inflicting harm like that on a set of pros at another club.
“The shot of Stuart McCall summed up Sheffield’s misery.
“But take nothing away from Newcastle. They were terrific.”
‘How about this for a call?
One of the top six managers will get the sack before November. And right now it’s a pretty good race.
Three of them are very firmly in the frame – ten Hag, Howe and Pochettino.
Guardiola, Klopp and Arteta are as safe as houses.
Let’s go through the first list.
It might surprise you that I’ve included Eddie Howe and I very much hope I’m wrong.
Howe did a fantastic job last season, but this time round it’s very different.
Newcastle haven’t made a good start but back to back games v Man City and Liverpool was a tough ask.
Having said that – if you’ve got ambitions to be a top club you’ve got to be competitive in games of that nature – and certainly win games at home against other top 6 teams.
Newcastle should’ve beaten Liverpool.
And they should’ve got at least a point at Brighton.
Top teams don’t get beaten in those games. The very best teams win them.
They were lucky v Brentford. Gordon throwing himself at Flekken should never have resulted in a pen – so Newcastle got away with one there.
Now comes the CL – a wonderful distraction that they didn’t have last season.
There’s no reason why they can’t beat Milan in the San Siro, but if they don’t, do the owners start to get a bit edgy?
It’s Sheff Utd at the weekend, then City in the Carabao Cup – Burnley and PSG after that.
If they’re only scratching results – or worse – I can see one or two questions getting asked.
Again – I hope not, but we live in a realistic world – not a romantic one.’
The truth of the matter was that at the very least, you had to give it at the very least until the end of October before even beginning to make any early judgements on Eddie Howe and his players for this season.
The opening five NUFC Premier League games were all against teams who finished top nine last season, whilst starting on Sunday with Sheffield United, it was/is two promoted clubs followed by three who ended up bottom half of the PL last season.