What should the Newcastle United Football Club supporters expect from season 2012 -13?

                                                                         

In life you can expect, hope or pray for something. For the season 2011 – 12 Newcastle United were expected to finish in the bottom half of the table (general consensus amongst non Geordies), given the squad and skill, Newcastle were hoping to finish in top ten may be top eight and when the club finished fifth ahead of both Chelsea and Liverpool all the prayers of the supporters were answered.

Now when the next season comes rolling around there would be some hopes, some expectations and indeed some prayers for the targets on the pitch. Those targets may already have been decided by the top brass or could be decided taking into account what kind of breakthroughs are made in the transfer market or vice versa setting the target and then starting the recruitment process.

All things being equal or ceteris paribus the supporters will have something in mind and here is our two penny worth as to what it may be. United will be involved in 4 competitions next season, them being the Premier league, the Capital One cup (Carling Cup), the FA cup and the Europa League.

The most important of those four competitions is what you would call the bread and butter for all 20 of the premier league clubs and that is the Barclays Premier league. A good performance in that would show progress. Breaking into the top 4 to qualify for the champion’s league would be tougher than ever before as both the Manchester clubs along with the two London clubs, Arsenal and Chelsea will spend and to live with them will be tough. Then we have Liverpool and Tottenham who would be expected to be in the mix. So, I guess the supporters would be happy with a top 6 place, however that would not be easy, never is.

Alan Pardew has done magnificently with Newcastle ever since he took over but one big blemish has been the displays and the results in the cups. Getting knocked out by the likes of Brighton and Hove Albion and Stevenage borough is a ringing endorsement of that. The last decent cup run that we remember Newcastle United having was in 2004 – 05 season under Graeme Souness when United lost to Manchester United 4-1 in the Semi final of the FA cup at the Millennium stadium in Cardiff. As for the carling cup, it has just been dismal with no performance even worth mentioning. Having said that, the cups are the best chance that exists for ending the trophy drought. Some of the so called bigger clubs may have supposed bigger fishes to fry and united may steal a march. If that were to come to fruition you can rest assure there would not be a dry throat amongst the Newcastle fans.

United will also be expected to line up against some of the top European clubs, barring any disasters. Now united may want to give their promising youngsters in the competition then again they may not all depends on a variety of issues. Some of the real heavy weights who failed to qualify for the champion’s league will be in the Europa league and united too would want to showcase themselves on a global stage, since it would only be the first time that Newcastle would be in the Europa League since the 2006 – 07 season. Playing mostly on Thursdays would be a grueling challenge for the squad that in the recent years has been wafer thin. The supporters will expect the team to enter the group stages after that what happens depends on the draw and a number of non quantifiables.

I personally would be more than happy if the team can finish in a top six may be seventh place and have a good cup run. A bit like what Liverpool did in previous season and take the Europa league on a match by match basis. This of course is the case if united wanted to try their hand in all the competitions, another alternative that can be explored is putting all the eggs in one basket and focusing on one competition and aiming for the champion’s league.

It would be fascinating to see how the season evolves, how the permutations and the combinations work out. Hopefully we don’t come out like Philip Pirrip aka Pip from The Great Expectations by Charles dickens, i.e. the spectre of having everything and ending up with nothing.

Let us know what you would be expecting and hoping for from the season 2012 - 13.