Pod On The Tyne: an independent NUFC podcast

Newcastle United travelled to Fulham for a Premier League Saturday 3pm kick-off and put in an improved performance from the twin disasters against Everton.
"Some mean feat" we hear you cry; well, yes, but there were signs of life. The second half, in particular, was the most dominant Matthias Jaissle's men had been so far this season and when Jacob Murphy put a beautiful left-foot finish past Bernd Leno, it looked a lot like a win was on the way.
Not to be in the end, as the lead lasted just three minutes, but a draw is better...

Last week we tried to think of a few ways Matthias Jaissle could repair his strategy and tactics to build on an ugly win at Crystal Palace. Seven days later, so chaotic and disjointed was the display in both defeats against Everton, but particularly on Monday night in the Premier League, we're now asking what the plans is at all!
The first 45 minutes at St James's Park was among the worst we've seen, albeit George has seen some things. Unrest in the stands was audible and this squad must surely now be involved in a fight for Premier League...

Jacob Whitehead returns to the pod for our preview of Everton week; a double header against a club who, like Newcastle, sit just outside the real battle for honours right now.
A win at Selhurst Park, while providing a genuine boost, can't sit in isolation for Matthias Jaissle, who will now take on the Premier League's most Premier League-y manager, wily old fox David Moyes.
We also have news of a new recruitment chief and a report from St James's Park, where Chris Waugh watched the U21s get a great win and some valuable big-match experience in...

Matthias Jaissle's Newcastle United headed to Selhurst Park in, if not desperate need of a result, then pretty close. Chris and George set off early to compare horrific views from the away end and the press box.
With bold calls in selection, Jaissle turned to experienced campaigners in search of three points against Crystal Palace, who are having a similarly wobbly experience with their new manager.

Three defeats in four Premier League matches for Newcastle United and fans are quite quickly getting restless. Why have tempers started to flare already?
There's no doubt we have big problems... or is there? Here at PotT we don't believe in problems, only opportunities for improvement. Taylor, Chris, and George each take a specific footballing issue and bluesky think outside the box to manifest solutionments. 

Newcastle United followed up the Premier League loss at Coventry with another against Villa at home; a much stronger opposition, it's true, but this was no less worrying.
Of course Johan Manzambi got the goal; if only Newcastle's defence had been as wary of his presence as the fans! And it could have been a lot worse had Sven Botman seen red for a reckless challenge on Nicolas Jackson.
How dangerous might a run of defeats be for new manager Matthias Jaissle with a squad blending youngsters with those elevated to first-choice?

Newcastle United away from home in the Premier League on a Monday night is becoming the stuff of nightmares.
A second consecutive 4-1 defeat in such a fixture, the match against Coventry was the same as the trip to Leeds, albeit very different, and it was just as bad, while being much worse.
Get your head around that as we try to map out Matthias Jaissle's options. A wobbly defensive line and misfiring forwards may need to be rotated, but the imbalance in midfield seems just as pivotal.

It's been 84 years... OK, it's only been two and a bit weeks, but it feels like an age since the last Premier League game.
In that time, Lewis Hall has established himself as England's first-choice left back and Newcastle United have completely revamped the club badge (is this right? ed.) One thing is the same, though. TheLasses(TM) have retained their 100% record in WSL2.
This week also marks five years since the PiF-led takeover and we think about what that means going into a 'transitional' period under new manager Matthias Jaissle. Next up, Coventry.

Last...

It's the international break but the number one story in football, nay sport, is a Premier League story, and it's not good. Luckily, it's not Newcastle, but the whole division will be affected by the fall-out from the Manchester City 'financial doping' decision which leaked this week.
Closer to home, there's been a bit of a charm offensive from NUFC. Manager Matthias Jaissle, or "Matty Ice" as CEO David Hopkinson has christened him, hosted the press at 'The Knox', aka the training ground. We're running out of 'inverted' "commas".
Meanwhile, 'The Lasses' (TM) scored four for the...

The Daily Telegraph's Luke Edwards stands in for George Caulkin as we reach the first international break of the season, and it's a long one!
Luckily, Newcastle got their first home win of the Premier League season by beating Hull City on Saturday and the squad can enjoy their three week hiatus from the top half of the table.
But, is the positive start sustainable? We checked in to Opta's excellent website, https://theanalyst.com/, and found some interesting stuff (with the enormous caveat that it's far too soon to form any concrete opinions).

Newcastle made a lightning start as they looked to correct the wrongs of Monday night's humbling at Leeds. 2-0 up in the first ten minutes, they had chances (including a penalty) to put the game to bed by half-time.
However, as young legs tired, a resolute Hull pulled one back and made the closing stages a nerve-shredding affair. Taylor and Chris review the finer details.

Monday night was officially chastening for Matthias Jaissle and his young Newcastle United squad as Leeds gave them the full Wetherby Whaler treatment.
With quite a few injuries already on the books, fresh ones were deeply unwelcome and it will be very interesting to see what the manager does for the visit of in-form Hull this weekend.
The Lasses(TM) remain unbeaten, though, thanks to Kath McGovern's first Newcastle goal away at Bristol City; good start, there. And, Jacob Whitehead did us proud in the GNR alongside Peter Reid!

Donate to Peter's GNR fund for...

Matthias Jaissle named a near-full-strength team for the Carabao Cup third round tie at Millwall and, with the opponents suffering an injury crisis, smooth passage was expected... you be the judge.
Meanwhile, the team of senior executives who lead the club have been meeting a contingent of the press. Under discussion, the recent transfer window which saw a raft of changes in the squad (and one manager), as well as the financial impact of the business done.
The Lasses (TM) opened their WSL2 campaign with a relatively comfortable 2-0 win at home to promoted Wolves.

Newcastle United, even when they are flying, don't tend to beat Bournemouth, so perhaps a draw should be viewed as a positive result. Certainly, with Marco Rose's Cherries swarming us in the first half, many would have taken a point.
But, is there a fragility to NUFC in the defensive third, especially in central areas? And, can we get Fernandez-Pardo and others properly up to speed to maintain the momentum from the good start to the new Premier League season.
NUFC's women get their WSL2 campaign underway on Sunday with the visit of Wolverhampton to the Gateshead International...

Pod on the Tyne brings you an exhaustive review of Newcastle United's transfer business on Premier League deadline day.
A few weeks ago, fans were tearing their hair out with Bruno Guimaraes set to follow Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali through the exit door and only Ewen Jaouen coming in.
Today, things feel very different. Matthias Jaissle has replaced Eddie Howe and is unbeaten in his first three games in charge. Lille's Belgian forward Matias Fernandez-Pardo has just become the club's eighth senior signing.
Have NUFC successfully un*****ed themselves?

Had Tottenham's headline midfield signing been aware of the midweek PotT debacle that was "Sand-no Tott-nali" he must surely have thought things couldn't get any worse for him. And they didn't, but it was close.
While Nico Gonzalez immediately showed the qualities that made him a primary target for Newcastle United, his opposite number (ish) suffered a torrid first afternoon in front of his new supporters.
Anthony Elanga and Yoane Wissa have started the new season with a bang-bang and they provided the goals as Matthias Jaissle's men were good value for three points with a textbook away...

Here we are then, the first* epic-length Pod on the Tyne of the Youtube era.
Newcastle United beat West Bromwich Albion in the Carabao Cup 2nd Round on Wednesday night in a game that was, ULTIMATELY SPEAKING, fairly comfortable. Yes, there were uncomfortable moments, but to paint the whole game with that brush would be nitpicking of the most annoying order.
Before the game, new signing Nico Gonzalez was paraded before the crowd at St James's Park. 'Mini-Rodri' as he was once called, albeit that may be a bit overblown, possesses real passing quality, of the sort...

Sunday afternoon at St James's Park, it's the return of the Premier League, it's the return of football, it's the return of George's literary diversions; this time, the duality of man. Wor Flags tribute to Kevin Keegan didn't disappoint, and the expected hostility to a certain Swedish striker was also on display.
Once the football started we saw a terrific game; it was a very encouraging performance from a Newcastle squad featuring youth in the engine room, pace up top, but built around a splendid showing from Yoane Wissa.
This being Newcastle, of course we also saw a...

Here we go, then. Newcastle United 2.0 will be a reality when Liverpool come calling this weekend and the rubber will hit the road... better that than the 5**t hitting the fan.
Proverbs aside, Amar Dedic has signed and with Nico Gonzalez the latest "PL experience" candidate, the transfer business probably isn't done.
How optimistic are we, then? George has been writing about this across the Premier League for The Athletic, and there are some unusual findings.

Read about the hope-o-meter here.

Bayer Leverkusen, Internazionale, and FC Strasbourg provided the opposition for the men and women of Newcastle United as St James's Park hosted three games on the VisitMalta Weekender.
We'll hear from women's team manager Tanya Oxtoby on our midweek pod but George and Chris witnessed all the action, if you can call it that, as the club recorded two pre-season defeats and a draw (followed by a catastrophic penalty shootout).

https://www.gosforthcivictheatre.co.uk/whats-on/pod-on-the-tyne-live

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...