After a frustrating start to the season, one ex-chairman has taken aim at Newcastle United and PIF for what they did for one of their big-money players in the summer.
Howe: Newcastle looked "jaded" in Arsenal defeat
If any 10-minute period could sum up Newcastle’s season so far, it was against Arsenal as the Gunners turned the game on its head with two late goals. The Magpies thought they had done enough.
They had their lead courtesy of Nick Woltemade, who rose highest to head home in the first-half. For the most part, it looked as though they had stifled any Arsenal threat, too. But then Mikel Merino and a last-gasp Gabriel arrived on the scene. With one win in six games, Eddie Howe was forced to reflect on another disappointing evening at St James’ Park.
“Two really late goals here at home hurt. We have to reflect and acknowledge that we weren’t at our best. From a footballing side, it wasn’t quite there.
“We looked jaded. Sometimes, you will have days when you are not physically at your best, and you have to find a way to win, and we weren’t able to do that. We defended the set-pieces pretty well until the end.
“I thought we tried. We gave everything to the game. It was really physical. We took the lead, and we were desperate to try and hang on to that lead. That was probably the key thing, the number of corners. The weight of pressure eventually told. No lack of effort, but the little details have cost us.”
The Magpies’ poor start follows a difficult summer, in which Alexander Isak finally got his move after a lengthy saga. They’ll be desperate for a change in fortune in Tyneside, but they’re receiving no sympathy from one former chairman.
Rummenigge slams "idiot" Newcastle after Woltemade saga
Despite the fact that he’s now scored twice in three Premier League games, former Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge has slammed Newcastle and PIF for their decision to spend a club-record fee on Woltemade in the summer.
He told reporters in a brutally honest assessment:
“I’ll be honest. When this story with Woltemade and then the demand from Stuttgart came up, I, as well as Uli, Herbert Hainer, Jan Dreesen, and Max Eberl, said – folks, we’re slowly getting to a level that I simply don’t find acceptable anymore.
“We shouldn’t fulfil every demand to make someone happy, especially the financiers at VfB Stuttgart. I can only congratulate those in Stuttgart for finding – I’ll use quotation marks here – an idiot who paid that much money. Because we certainly wouldn’t have done that in Munich!”
Of course, this comes just months after Newcastle hijacked Bayern’s deal to sign the towering forward in impressive fashion. Whether Rummenigge’s criticism is fair or simply as a result of the sour taste left behind by that saga is certainly something to ponder.
So far, Woltemade looks likely to pay back the £69m fee that the Magpies paid out in the form of goals and prove that they were right to pay his £132,500-a-week salary demands.