Eddie Howe will probably look back on the 2023/24 season for Newcastle wistfully. A case of what might’ve been.
All the positivity that the club began the season with started to ebb away with their Champions League hopes, and the succession of injuries they’ve had has really hampered their ability to get any sort of consistency in their performance levels.
One player that was injured earlier in the campaign was Harvey Barnes, though the former Leicester City man has come back into the side with a bang.
Harvey Barnes will get games for Newcastle now
He won the game for the Magpies against West Ham, coming off the bench to totally turnaround the match.
Barnes also provided the assist for Bruno Guimaraes to win the match against Fulham, and now that he’s back to full fitness, it appears that Howe is ready to let him loose.
“Harvey has done very well for us but there is no doubting his quality. There is no doubting his quality; he is a quality player,” the manager was quoted as saying by Chronicle Live.
“Again a player that succumbed to injury early on but he has come back into the team and made a difference. He gave us real energy, purpose and quality when he entered the pitch and there’s no doubt he will get plenty of game time between now and the end of the season, he is a big player.”
His form could well be the difference between finishing higher up the division or not.
One man doesn’t make a team of course, but when he hits that sweet spot when everything seems to come off, it has a galvanising effect on team-mates.
Considering how bad some of Newcastle’s results have been over the last couple of months, it’s a wonder that they’re still within touching distance of a European place, but that’s credit to Howe and his backroom team for seeing the squad hanging in there despite everything appearing to be against them.
Newcastle have seven games left with which to earn as close to 21 points as possible, and though they don’t only depend on themselves, a great end to the campaign could see them end up with smiles on their faces after all.