Newcastle United's Struggles Under Matthias Jaissle: A Far Cry from Glory
Thirty years on from ‘Entertainers’ glory, Newcastle United find themselves staring at a far less romantic reality.
On Tuesday, the club’s social media team rolled the clock back to 1996, reminding 2.8 million followers of the night Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle tore Manchester United apart 5-0 at St James’ Park and sat proudly on top of the Premier League. It was a deliberate jolt of nostalgia, a reminder of what this club once was.
Right now, that feels a long way off.
A new era, a flat beginning
Matthias Jaissle arrived on Tyneside with a winning CV and a clear reputation. Success in Austria with Red Bull Salzburg, back-to-back Asian Champions League titles with Al-Ahli, and a compensation fee of £9.5m to prise him away. Newcastle did not bring him in to tread water.
Seventy-nine days into his reign, his Newcastle look stuck in the shallows.
Last weekend’s limp home defeat to Aston Villa was not just another bad result. It was the soundtrack that followed it. Boos rang around St James’ Park at the final whistle, a raw verdict on a side with eight points from seven league games and just two wins – away at Tottenham and at home to newly promoted Hull City.
The numbers behind that form are even more stark. Three defeats in their last four league matches. Back-to-back 4-1 thrashings at Leeds United and Coventry City. One shot on target against Villa, and that from centre-back Sven Botman. By the end, Jaissle was using Dan Burn as an emergency striker.
“The pressure will seriously be on if they don't get a result at Palace,” says Charlotte Robson of the True Faith Newcastle United podcast.
She is not alone in that view.
Identity lost, questions piling up
The concern around Newcastle is not just about results. It is about what this team is supposed to be.
Supporters talk about a lack of identity under Jaissle. After five years of Eddie Howe – and a first major domestic trophy since 1955 – the shift has been jarring. Howe’s Newcastle were intense, cohesive, and easy to recognise. Jaissle’s side, so far, feel disjointed and oddly anonymous.
Chris Sutton, watching the Villa defeat for BBC Radio 5 Live, did not sugar-coat it. Newcastle, he said, look “chaotic” under their new manager.
“There is not enough in the final third in terms of creativity and they have a vulnerability at the back,” Sutton adds.
Both ends of the pitch are a problem. Newcastle have gone 16 home games in all competitions without a clean sheet, the longest such run in their history. They are conceding an average of two goals per Premier League match; only Crystal Palace (17) and Ipswich (15) have let in more than their 14.
At the other end, they barely laid a glove on Villa. One shot on target at home – and from a defender – is a brutal statistic for a club that once prided itself on attacking football. No wonder fans are asking how, 14 months after Alexander Isak’s British record £125m move to Liverpool, the club still look short of a proper replacement.
There is a similar debate around Callum Wilson. He left in the same summer as Isak. Yoane Wissa was brought in as his replacement, Nick Woltemade as the Isak successor. Woltemade, signed in a club-record deal worth up to £69m in August 2025, is now on loan at Juventus. Wissa has struggled for rhythm since returning from injury.
“Newcastle fans have every right to be a little bit concerned,” Sutton says. “They didn't look like scoring against Villa and that is what really concerns Newcastle fans.”
Shearer’s warning, a summer of upheaval
None of this has come as a complete surprise to Alan Shearer.
Three months ago, as Howe walked away at the end of July, the club’s record goalscorer looked at the direction of travel and sounded the alarm.
“Speaking purely as a fan, I think we have to get ready for a tough season and some very challenging times ahead,” he told BBC Sport.
By then, the spine of Howe’s side had already been ripped out. Anthony Gordon, one of England’s brightest forwards, had gone to Barcelona in a deal worth more than £69m. Sandro Tonali, the marquee midfield arrival of a previous window, had been sold to Tottenham for up to £100m.
A week later, Bruno Guimaraes joined Arsenal for £75m.
“You cannot keep on selling your best players and then hope to be in contention at the top of the table,” Shearer warned.
Seven games into the season, his words hang heavy. Newcastle sit with eight points, an awkward mix of promise and regression. The departures did not stop on the pitch either. Kieran Trippier, 36, the vocal, experienced right-back who helped change the culture at the club, also left in the summer.
“If you had said at the end of last season Newcastle would lose Gordon, Guimaraes, Tonali and Howe, you would probably get this [eight points from seven games],” says Rory Smith, football correspondent of the Observer.
Big spend, young faces, slow returns
Newcastle did spend. Around £250m across the summer window. But they spent with one eye on the future rather than the immediate present.
Many of the arrivals were 21 or under. Talented, yes. Ready to drag a team up the table, less clear.
Ivory Coast winger Bazoumana Toure and French midfielder Aladji Bamba have yet to start a Premier League game despite being available. Sean Steur, an 18-year-old who caught the eye when he started against Hull in September, has not played a minute since.
“The profile of the players Newcastle signed in the summer, and it may well bear fruit in time... they went very young and relatively inexperienced,” Smith says. “They didn't go out and sign a load of established Premier League players.”
That is the tension at the heart of Newcastle’s current predicament. The club is trying to build a squad that can last, while a fanbase that has tasted progress wants proof that the present is not being sacrificed.
Inside the club, there is no sign of panic. Chief executive David Hopkinson and sporting director Ross Wilson project calm. Jaissle, just 38, is expected to be given time to reshape the side after Howe’s long tenure.
But patience in football is rarely unconditional. It has to be fed with signs of life.
Selhurst Park and a crucial spell
Sunday at Selhurst Park feels bigger than a routine early-season fixture between a struggling Crystal Palace and an uncertain Newcastle.
Lose, and the narrative hardens. A run of three defeats in four becomes four in five. The “chaotic” label sticks. The questions about Jaissle’s methods, selections and in-game decisions grow louder.
“The pressure will seriously be on if they don't get a result at Palace,” Robson repeats, echoing the mood on Tyneside.
Newcastle’s schedule offers little room to hide. After Palace, they travel to Everton in the last-16 of the Carabao Cup next Thursday. Then it is Everton again in the league at St James’ Park on 2 November, followed by a trip to Fulham five days later.
Jaissle will not want to go into the international break without a win in six league and cup games. The optics of that, at a club that has just spent heavily and talked openly about aggressive, front-foot football, would be brutal.
“There are more questions being asked now,” says Robson. “At the start of the season it was made clear in interviews we wanted to be an aggressive attacking team. We are not there yet, we're still working it out.”
That is the crux of it. Newcastle sold leaders, cashed in on stars, bet heavily on youth and handed the keys to a coach unproven in the Premier League. The project might yet come good.
But as the memories of Keegan’s 5-0 fade back into the archives, the reality is sharper: Newcastle need answers now, not just promises of what this team might become one day.
