Newcastle United supporters would be forgiven if they are not feeling particularly ’lucky’ right about now.
The last 15 years or so have been a slog at best, a never-ending nightmare at worst. The 2021/22 campaign, barring the champagne-swigging celebrations that marked the end of the Mark Ashley era, the dreams of a brighter future, the ‘#cans’, has been, for the most part, more of the same old misery.
But look at it this way.
Newcastle have won just two out of 21 Premier League games this season. In almost any other campaign, the bookies would be paying out already.
Newcastle would be done and dusted, those long-suffering supporters checking out the prices of the Bristolian branch of Premier Inn, Stoke’s Savoy, Hull’s very own Hilton hotel.
As it stands, however, Newcastle are not bottom of the table. They are not cut adrift. They are 18th. A win next time out, to back up Saturday’s hard-fought 1-0 win at Leeds United, could airlift Eddie Howe’s side out of the drop zone, to within one point of Everton.
All is not lost. Not yet anyway.
Thanks to the hapless trio of Burnley, Watford and Norwich – plus Everton’s seemingly unrelenting demise – Newcastle still have their fate in their own hands.
As one agent told The Athletic following Jonjo Shelvey’s dramatic winner at Elland Road, Newcastle will find it a whole lot easier to lure prospective transfer targets to Tyneside if they believe that survival is a genuine possibility, rather than merely a hopeful pipe dream.
Unfortunately, Donny Van de Beek doesn’t seem to share, say, Diego Carlos’s stance.
Will Donny Van de Beek join Crystal Palace after Newcastle snub?
While Carlos is more than receptive to the idea of swapping a La Liga title fight for a relegation battle in Britain, Van de Beek is taking a glass-half-empty approach to Newcastle’s current predicament.
According to The Telegraph, Manchester United’s £35 million misfit turned down a loan move to St James’ Park last week.
Flash forward to January 25 and Crystal Palace are hoping to succeed where Newcastle failed and lure Van de Beek to Selhurst Park (Fabrizio Romano).
The former Ajax star is not exactly keen on the idea of joining a club in the relegation zone, it seems. One in the goose-feather-safety of mid-table, you’d imagine, would have a much better chance of twisting Van de Beek’s arm.
There are nine points separating Patrick Vieira’s Palace from the drop zone.
Hardly an unbridgeable gap but, given the way they have performed throughout much of this season, it feels more likely that Crystal Palace will push on towards the top half rather than get sucked towards the relegation plughole.
If Van de Beek says ‘yes’ to Palace, one week after saying ‘no’ to Newcastle, this may serve like something of a reality check as far as the more optimistic members of the Magpies fanbase are concerned.
It’s one thing having all the money in the world. Convincing players to take up your offer, in the midst of a gruelling survival fight, is another matter entirely.
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