I am, I admit, someone who expects to be disappointed. Which is why supporting Newcastle United has always been a perfect fit. Selling Paul Gascoigne in 1988 set the tone. A period of disorientating optimism in the 1990s – concurrent with an uplift in national mood – inevitably had the life squeezed out of it by the departure of Kevin Keegan and the vandalism of a brilliant squad.
Any moment of optimism was eventually corrected: Four times I went to Wembley to watch Newcastle United and four times I came home disappointed. So when the takeover happened, people like me tried to look ahead so we could anticipate where the disappointment would come from this time. What bad news should we prepare for?
The failure to appoint Unai Emery was not it. That was quickly fixed by the appointment of Eddie Howe, who immediately revealed himself to be the correct choice anyway.
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No, the disappointment was forecast for January: Who in their right mind would sign for a club destined for the Championship? Nobody who would improve the squad, that was for sure.
So the arrival of Kieran Trippier required a psyche reset: an England international who won La Liga and was still wanted by his Champions League club had signed for Newcastle United? There were factors in Newcastle’s favour, plus luck, but it confounded pessimists like me.
Then another four players came through the door, including a Brazil international. There was nothing to be disappointed about, except maybe a worry about goals. Chris Wood had been out of form at Burnley, so who was going to score the goals that would get Newcastle some much-needed wins? Yes, we were still heading for relegation.
But then came these incredible, puzzling, unexpected results: wins against Leeds, Everton, Aston Villa, Brentford, Brighton and Southampton. The minds of pessimistic Geordies were blown. Each one of those matches was a slog and a fight and a chess match, and somehow it was Newcastle United who succeeded. Maybe things were really going to be different?
Then last night. A lot of people thought Newcastle were safe anyway, but for pessimists there was an ominous feeling that a loss was on the cards against a team trying to get into Europe, and by the end of the weekend other teams’ results would leave Newcastle at risk once again.
Instead Newcastle beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0. Chris Wood won a penalty, scored a penalty, won the game. At the time of writing, the result left Newcastle in 14th place on 34 points, level with Brighton – unthinkable a few months ago. Bottom club Norwich City have 18 points; second-bottom Watford are on 22 points, third-bottom Burnley are on 24 points.
Even the most pessimistic of pessimists had a mood swing by the full-time whistle: we are safe, we can start to enjoy this, we can start to think about the summer. It’s flip-flop time.
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