Newcastle 2, Tottenham 3: New owners witness false start to Saudi era
Out with the old, in with the new. That was meant to be the theme as Newcastle United played their first game under Saudi ownership today.
In the St James’ Park directors’ box, the club’s new rulers – chairman Yasir Al-Rumayyan and Amanda Staveley, the public face of the £300m takeover – took their seats to a rapturous greeting, while fellow board member Jamie Reuben tweeted about “a new era”.
But on the pitch – and despite Callum Wilson giving Newcastle the best possible start – it was more of the same.
Tottenham responded with alarming ease through Tanguy Ndombele, Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min as they exposed a team who look rudderless and remain winless after eight Premier League games.
The new regime has been warmly embraced by the Newcastle faithful, despite some serious ethical questions, on the grounds that they are: a) not Mike Ashley; and b) capable of investing the sums it might take to make the club competitive again.
If they were under any illusions as to just how big a task that may prove to be, however, then this was a game that laid it bare.
It had all started so well, with the euphoric pre-match atmosphere propelling Newcastle in front after just one minute. But the revolution only lasted 15 minutes until Spurs levelled, and the hosts were largely wretched for the rest of the contest.
Al-Rumayyan is governor of the Public Investment Fund, which now owns 80 per cent of the club and manages a portfolio worth $400bn. On this evidence, the rebuild maye be far more expensive than he imagined.
If one team was revitalised here then it was Tottenham, who recovered from conceding straight away – and looking decidedly ragged – to take control.
Ndombele was given room to duck and dive around the edge of the penalty area and took advantage for his equaliser.
It was a confidence-boosting afternoon, too, for Kane, who lobbed Karl Darlow for his first league goal of the season in a goal eventually awarded after a video review.
Kane then set up Son for the visitors’ third before half-time and they should have scored four, five or even more in the second period, but for complacency in attack.
Eric Dier’s hapless late own goal briefly injected some undeserved jeopardy, but Jonjo Shelvey’s dismissal had already neutered Newcastle.
Up to fifth in the table, stability has been restored and those consecutive defeats to Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Arsenal now seem long ago.
The takeover context made this a faintly surreal occasion, and that sense was only heightened by a lengthy suspension to the game late in the first half.
Spurs left-back Sergio Reguilon spotted a spectator in distress and urged referee Andre Marriner to pause proceedings. Equally alert, Dier ran over to the bench to demand that club doctors take defibrillators to the scene.
After several minutes of uncertainty, Marriner took the players of. They returned to play seven minutes, in which Son scored.
Newcastle reported later that the spectator had been stabilised and taken to hospital.
Having spent all week faced with reports of his imminent sacking by Newcastle’s new owners, manager Steve Bruce did, after all, get to take charge of his 1,000th game as a manager.
To what extent the experience whetted his appetite for another 1,000 only he knows, but it does seem inevitable that, sooner or later, the board will pool their collective football knowledge and choose their own man.
By half-way through the second half, Newcastle fans were singing “We want Brucey out”. Out with the old, in with the new.