Pod On The Tyne: an independent NUFC podcast

Newcastle's new manager, Matthias Jaissle, has now arrived in town and had a tour of his new home. He has also met the local press pack, shaking each of them by the hand at his first home press conference.
No sooner had he arrived, though, and he had to leave again, taking his team up to Edinburgh's Murrayfield stadium for a pre-season friendly against Everton. Defeat there only served to reinforce ideas that were already in the air about squad depth.
We expect that the squad itself will now be reinforced with a little over two weeks...

Vamos... a thorough PotT round-up of Newcastle United's pre-season tour in Spain as Chris visits La Manga to get a first sight of the new first-choice goalkeeper, Lukas Hornicek, and a semi-proper sit-down with Matthias Jaissle, the man who has now officially replaced Eddie Howe.
We also look over the details of the match against Valencia at the Mestalla as Hornicek played 90 minutes, Anthony Elanga escaped serious injury, and Yoane Wissa gave a positive indication of his form going into the new season. Will their captain be Malick Thiaw? The german centre half pulled on the armband on his...

Matthias Jaissle is the new broom at Newcastle United; following Eddie Howe will be a tough gig, but the German is no shrinking violet and has a shining recommendation from the top. CEO David Hopkinson fires the starting pistol on the project he's calling Newcastle 2.0.
Jaissle's new goalkeeper beat the manager into the building by a matter of hours; Lukas Hornicek arrives after Newcastle activated his release clause at Portuguese side SC Braga. Does that mean Nick Pope will be leaving? It certainly looks like captain Bruno Guimaraes will be joining Arsenal, is there a succession plan for him?<...

It's just shy of five years since Eddie Howe arrived at Newcastle with the team flailing at the foot of the Premier League. What followed is little short of miraculous and the man who drove it all will be remembered as one of the club's greatest managers.
But, with a punishing season just gone and another chaotic summer underway, he has decided to call it a day and all interested parties reluctantly accept it's time for a new start.
What next, then? Well, it looks like Matthias Jaissle is the man to follow the toughest of acts...

Newcastle's senior (and junior) men drew 1-1 at Gateshead in their first pre-season outing. Sean Steur impressed in his first appearance before fans but we're still very much at the shaking-off-cobwebs stage.
Eddie Howe did speak, briefly, to the assembled press and that was inevitably dominated by transfer talk, especially the clear-as-mud Bruno Guimaraes Arsenal transfer rumours.

Click here to get a ticket to the Podcast All Stars event at the Gosforth Civic Theatre in late August.

Kevin Keegan died on Monday at the age of 75. He will be remembered by fans of Liverpool, Hamburg, Southampton, and Scunthorpe as one of the greatest players in history, but no fans will feel his loss more keenly than those of Newcastle United.
He first joined the club his father supported in 1982, bringing the dynamism and work ethic that helped turn a relegation battle into a promotion campaign. He then did the same almost a decade later when he returned as manager, before assembling the most famous team in Premier League history.
Nobody in the modern era...

Another week, another transfer target does a u-turn at Scotch Corner and heads off in another direction. This time, Swiss midfielder Yohan Manzambi looks like he's joining Villa.
The early birds in Newcastle reported for pre-season training and, while Bruno wasn't scheduled to be among them, his future is still the source of some speculation. Less speculation about The Lasses' new signings, more reality.
Cheering us up, and doing a helluva job at it, is Big Dan Burn. He put in another super-sub appearance as England beat Norway in their World Cup quarter final... next up, a trembling...

How can you mend a broken podcast? With the show in the can, Bruno fired the starting pistol on 24 hours of headlines, and here we are with a second attempt.

Still digesting Sandro Tonali’s exit, and the destination, we were suddenly having to deal with the potential departure of club captain, star player, and frankly the driving force of the team. Bruno Guimaraes has apparently registered his desire to join Arsenal with club officials, but what does that mean exactly? Will it happen? Can we cope?

Meanwhile, there have been incoming transfers as well. Wi...

It's an unscheduled transfer podcast as Tottenham Hotspur FC, who have finished seventeenth in the last two editions of the Premier League, agree to pay up to £100m for Sandro Tonali.
Meanwhile, Newcastle United have agreed to pay something like £40m to Bundesliga side Hoffenheim for left-winger Bazoumana Toure.
What do these moves, if and when they go through, mean for Newcastle's summer?Chris joins Ollie at the witching hour to give an instant reaction to an interesting evening.

The summer had been going OK; Newcastle's first two transfers (one in, one out) had been conducted, seemingly with the minimum of fuss and in good time. It couldn't last.
As the Premier League transfers are announced for next season, we get the inevitable opener against a side who has swooped late, once again, to clinch the signing of one of our transfer targets.
If that was bad, a transfer of Sandro Tonali to the basket case that is Tottenham Hotspur would really stick in the craw. We think about why that link has emerged, consider life without...

Newcastle have signed Ewen Jaouen, a french U21 goalkeeper from FC Reims, and the lads have been recalled from their summer break for an emergency(-ish) reaction pod.
Chris has a rundown of all the key details, but with a fairly hefty price tag for the highly rated young stopper, how much of a risk is this move? And what will it mean for Newcastle's goalkeeping department?
We also get a bit of expert testament from one of Jaouen's mentors, the former Chelsea coach Christophe Lollichon.

Right, that’s the end of that. Frankly, thank f**k it’s over.

2025/26 held much promise for Newcastle United, even after the I**k transfer saga ruined the summer. In the end, despite some creditable performances and results in cup competitions, it ends with a stale smell hanging in the air.

Join us as we use a series of award categories to make some sense of an epic campaign in a marathon review. From Bruno’s standard bearing (mostly in vain), through soft underbellies, to unexpected tears (and Osula), it’s been a strange old time

It's a hastily assembled triple-headline Pod on the Tyne for you this week...
Thomas Tuchel selected three Newcastle players in his England squad, will he be disappointed when only two turn up? Dan Burn and Tino Livramento are the two who will, Lewis Hall is NOT the third who won't; he wasn't picked.
The third selection, who WILL turn up, is Anthony Gordon. However, he is no longer a Newcastle player, having transferred to Barcelona. We discuss the deal, which hopefully heralds a more organised summer for the club.
Gordon's off, then, but Lewis Miley is in...

That was the season that was, bloody miserable.
Newcastle rounded off their Premier League campaign in the fashion that has become depressingly routine most of this term: toothless, feckless, listless... maybe even witless.
Bruno Guimaraes's recent return to the team brought some direction and purpose, but even he had an off-day in his last appearance before the World Cup. There's work to do to get this ship back on course.

We all love a stadium update; twice a year there's some sort of contractual shenanigans with ten square feet of concrete being transferred from one shell company to another. Is it any different this time?
The long answer is, we don't know, but there is a long (albeit not overly complicated) explanation of why the purchase of a large portion of Leazes Terrace and rumours of external investment may be a little more interesting(asterix) than usual.
On the football front, we will end the Premier League season with a game at Fulham (as always). Sadly, Europe...

It's the last home game of the season and relegation contenders West Ham serve as the opposition in a game with very little riding on it for Newcastle.
Hopes of European qualification are real, but miniscule, and with Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth departing the club this was a chance to say thanks to them before looking to the future.

Eddie Howe's starting team at Nottingham Forest featured the return of Nick Woltemade in a no. 10-ish role and Lewis Hall at right-back. Has the head coach decided to try out a few ideas and, if so, how much can we read into them?
Dan Burn has been talking to George about a new venture in Newcastle's public parks; we get the lowdown on that with an extended interview available to Extra Tyne subscribers later this week (find out more at podonthetyne.supportingcast.fm).
Two more local heroes to acknowledge as well. Congratulations and a hearty salute to...

When the season officially comes to a close, it will be a blessed relief. Newcastle's ability to throw away winning positions means they are never safe and it's exhausting.
This time it was Elliot Anderson who arrived late and forced the ball home with the sort of drive and belief that is testament to his qualities and highlights the frailties of his former team.

It's been 84 years, but Newcastle United finally won a game in the Premier League. Previously in-form Brighton were seen off by Eddie Howe's 'trusted' lieutenants with Bruno bringing back his much-missed drive and passion.
It won't mean much, though, if we just go on to lose the remaining three league games so how can Eddie Howe and his squad build on that result?
Will Will Osula start up front again? He's found added self-confidence (if that's possible) since his Man Utd winner and plays the right way for this team. Maybe Forest's European exploits on Thursday night...

It wasn't pretty, it wasn't fun, it wasn't three hours long (but it sure felt like it). Newcastle United took a two-goal lead into the second half against Brighton and emerged with the same margin.
Will Osula and Dan Burn were part of a "troll-ish" starting eleven from Eddie Howe but both scored in the first 45 for a deserved advantage.
At half-time, nobody was expecting a smooth route to victory and when Jack Hinshelwood reduced the Gulls' deficit many feared the worst. But, in a frantic closing spell Harvey Barnes succeeded where Yoane Wissa and Yankuba Minteh had...

As Newcastle's executives prepare to report to a delegation of the majority owners we're primarily concerned about coming up with tabloid-style puns.
Foremost among the departments presenting to Chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan, you may think, will be the coaching, talent identification, and transfer sections. Squad building conducted last summer continues to have a significant effect on the pitch.
No more so than in attack. Big money was spent on Yoane Wissa and Nick Woltemade and, while the german has ten goals, neither has settled in. So much so, that young forward Will Osula has taken the centre-forward starting spot...

Please enjoy this Extra Tyne episode with our compliments; we hope you will support the great work of everyone at The Alan Shearer centre. For more information, go to https://www.alanshearerfoundation.org.uk/.

George Caulkin has been training to run the London Marathon on behalf of The Alan Shearer Foundation. To find out more, he recruited the man himself as a personal tour guide before sitting down to reflect on 20 years of work and what Alan would like to achieve next.

Eddie Howe's rather dramatic team selection brought about a lively start from Newcastle at the Emirates Stadium (what might we be saying had Will Osula buried his opportunity in the first minute?!).
But, ultimately, this was another defeat. No shame in losing to a team locked in a title fight, you might think, but Arsenal were up against themselves as much as Bruno & co.
Bruno brought quality, purpose, and drive back into the midfield. With four games left to stave off the (still quite remote) relegation worries, we'll need a more tangible improvement next time out.

Newcastle United's Premier League form has nosedived; actually, it's worse than that, it has come to an abrupt halt, set itself alight, all the wheels have fallen off, and it's sitting in the middle of the runway covered in soot.
The situation feels impossible, the damage irrepairable; but is it? We break the club up into three areas of investigation; the ownership, the manager, and the team. Then we try to decide whether each of them can be fixed or needs replacing.
With a trip to Arsenal this weekend something will have to change pretty sharp-ish or Saka-absence...

We've already asked for reactions, resets; we've asked about the manager, the players, the executives. We've asked "where do we go from here?", and "is Europe still do-able". Today, we asked "can Newcastle be relegated?"...
St James's Park may have reached resignation levels with this team in its current incarnation. The problem is, there are five games to go.

Defeat at Crystal Palace, particularly the nature of it and especially the closing half hour, have left us in no doubt that significant changes are needed and it seems they are on the way. But, what will those changes look like? We consider the options.
The Bournemouth game now carries weight; not only as one Howe's team must win to regain any momentum in their pursuit of European football. There is added spice with news that opposition manager Andoni Iraola, an appealing prospect to many fans, has decided to leave the Cherries this summer.
Les Ferdinand will be...

What kind of blurb do you want here?
Newcastle had three weeks off; loads of the internationals had a rest, one or two good players returned from injury, and the squad had plenty of time on the training pitch...
...and then the same thing happened. Time to worry.

Three weeks without a Premier League fixture may have been a little excessive but we're fully refreshed, hydrated, and ready to resume hostilities at *check notes* Selhurst Park *groan*.
Kieran Trippier is now in the closing stages of his time as a Newcastle player having announced his departure at the end of his current deal, this summer. What an impact he has had in his time with us!
Unfortunately, The Lasses(TM) are facing up to another season in WSL2 after a draw at home to Nottingham Forest left their promotion hopes hanging by a thread.

Newcastle’s financial results were published on Monday with a press briefing held at St James’s Park held by CEO David Hopkinson and CFO Simon Capper. The headline story was the transfer of the leasehold of the ground; have NUFC joined the creative accounting collective?

Whenever senior club officials speak to the press footballing matters dominate the questioning and, after a terrible week on the pitch, this time was no different. We consider some of David Hopkinson’s answers, not least his response on Eddie Howe.

Newcastle’s Under 15s won a Premier League tourname...

That wasn't the week that was in the script. Two huge games, two miserable collapses, several thousand angry geordies.
Will Eddie Howe carry the can for those performances? For the first time in his Newcastle career, there are real concerns about whether he can take the team forward with a squad that lacks the drive, nous, and unity that have been hallmarks of his tenure.
Or, will he finally be given the significant overhaul of playing staff that feels long overdue. European qualification would be a positive step forward, but it feels a distant hope.
Elsewhere, TheLasses...

A friendly set of Premier League results on Saturday had presented NUFC with an opportunity to get themselves back into the Champions League picture and we all know what that means this season.
After a positive start, Howe's men proceeded to stink out St James's Park, particularly in a second-half that horrified even the most ardent context-hunters. Did anyone in black and white emerge with credit? It's going to be a loooong three weeks until the next league game.

Newcastle United emerged from the Camp Nou dressing rooms a goal behind in the Champions League last 16; twenty minutes later their hopes were shattered, with shards strewn amongst a debris of defensive calamities.
What could have been Eddie Howe's greatest ever managerial achievement will be remembered as an evening of embarrassment. There's only one way to redeem that, along with a sterile performance at the Stadium of Light in December, and that's a derby win at the weekend; ideally in some style.
Different story for TheLasses(TM) who vanquished Birmingham City to boost their promotion hopes with Crystal...

Usually, when you win at a ground for the first time in a decade (second time in four decades!), you'd be thinking limbs, cans, maybe even can cans.
Newcastle's away end certainly enjoyed today's victory at Stamford Bridge, but there was no great spectacle or sense of an event.
Reporting from Fulham Broadway, Chris Waugh is joined by a competition winner to recap a job well done, even if we're all thinking about Barcelona already.

Newcastle's hopes of progress to the Champions League quarter finals had a huge boost with Harvey Barnes late goal in the first leg of their last 16 tie against Barcelona...
...and then took an equally large hit with Lamine Yamal's late penalty. Was it the best performance of the season? Were Barca a little complacent? Where will Lewis Hall finish in the Ballon d'Or list?
We also consider the small matter of Chelsea away in the league, we hear from Jemma Purfield as The Lasses resume hostilities in WSL2, and there's a brief reaction to the news of...

Newcastle United are out of the FA Cup, having been thoroughly beaten by Pep Guardiola's Manchester City 3-1 at St James's Park. Chris and Luke Edwards analyse a deflating evening.
With the cup exit, dreams of domestic silverware will have to wait, but Barcelona are the visitors in Tuesday's Champions League last 16 tie and Eddie Howe is certainly not underestimating the scale of that fixture.

Manchester United have been through some tough times recently but an unbeaten run under interim boss Michael Carrick brought them to St James's Park full of confidence.
Yet, on a clear Wednesday night, Newcastle United defied their own dodgy league form, yet more questionable refereeing, and anyone else who wants some, to hold firm with ten men before a true moment of inspiration.
Spring is in the air, and there was a spring in Will Osula's step as he first won possession from Bruno Fernandes before speeding onto Trippier's through ball and curling home a delicious winner...

Newcastle's form has seen a slight uptick in recent games, but absolutely not in the Premier League.
Newcastle have lost five from six in the league, and this defeat makes it three successive league games at home for the first time under Eddie Howe.
Having twice overcome their own attacking difficulties to equalise, they quickly gifted the lead back to Everton, who were also grateful to Jordan Pickford for a magnificent save late on.

Today's title is three things Eddie Howe has built his team around, but are desperately lacking from the podcast as we lurch from gaffes to factual errors via hungry cats.
Yes, Newcastle are through to the last 16 of the Champions League for the first time since we did it before in a different format, which technically wasn't the last 16, it was the second group stage... anyway, it's a great achievement.
Of course, the play-off tie with Qarabag was all but over after the first leg, and it WAS all over eight minutes into the second. The game at...

Newcastle's mileage has topped 5,000 this week and they added a few hundred more with a journey to Manchester to take on City, who have had a week off.
Confidence was rock bottom going into this one; the team's record at the Etihad Stadium is woeful but, while another defeat goes on the list, there were a fair few encouraging aspects.
Chris Waugh is joined by the Daily Telegraph's Luke Edwards for analysis of our best attempt yet at breaking the Etihad duck.

Newcastle's agony at missing out on direct passage to the Champions League last 16 was eased slightly as they made light work of their play-off tie.
Five first-half goals, four from centre forward Anthony Gordon, effectively put the tie beyond hosts Qarabag.
Next up, Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.. it's a graveyard of geordie hopes and dreams, can three consecutive away wins trigger a change of fortunes? Things are on the up for Newcastle's women as well going into the international break.