During its formative years, Manchester United vs Newcastle was one of the Premier League’s most thrilling fixtures. Between 1993/94 and 2003/04, there were just three scoreless draws between the two sides in the Premier League, while five of their 22 meetings in that time produced at least five goals and three produced seven or more. Even as recently as Boxing Day 2012, the Red Devils and the Magpies partook in a seven-goal slobber-knocker.
But those attending Old Trafford this weekend or tuning in from home will be lucky to see anything like the end-to-end action that once made this fixture amongst the most lauded on the Premier League calendar. Tellingly, bookmakers Paddy Power are offering even odds for under 2.5 goals in Saturday’s 5.30pm kickoff, while over 3.5 goals stands at 11/5.
Although that’s as much a consequence of two managers in Rafa Benitez and Jose Mourinho who have forged careers from setting up their sides not to concede, it’s also a statement of how the Premier League has drastically changed since the days of Newcastle hitting Manchester United for five and vice versa. Amid the Premier League’s increasingly corporate money-driven era, results have inevitably taken precedent over the fairy-tale football of yesteryear.
Indeed, these are two clubs with completely polarised season aims and transfer budgets, one spending without restriction as they eye the Premier League title and the other limited financially in their hopes of comfortable survival, both accepting the need for pragmatism over performances that would instantly excite their fans. Newcastle need to keep the points tally ticking over by any means possible, and Mourinho would happily win every game 1-0 if it meant beating Manchester City to the English crown. While we can focus on the managers, results were the fundamental reason both were hired.
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That mindset epitomises how the soul of English football has steadily changed. The Premier League was once the home of cult heroes and Roy of the Rovers rises from obscurity, such as Newcastle’s under Kevin Keegan. These days, those characters, those spell-binding ninety minutes of gung-ho free-for-all have been traded for overpaid players expected to put in routinely professional performances. Heart, passion and excitement remain secondary to victory.
Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. Manchester City have been relentless going forward this season and perhaps that emphasis on attacking verve is what the Premier League needs to return to the days of clubs like Newcastle and Manchester United regularly duking it out in expansive, unpredictable affairs. But the fundamental problem is that most clubs can’t reproduce what Pep Guardiola has made at the Etihad Stadium; they don’t have the money for the players and coaches required. In any case, Guardiola is a rare talent.
The pinch is most felt by those closer to the bottom of the table. There were just six points separating eighth and 17th last season and any of those clubs at any time could have been dragged into the relegation scrap. Newcastle, more than anyone else, know that even the most talented sides don’t have a divine right to avoid relegation because they’re ‘too good to go down’. The margins are now so fine outside the top six and the TV revenues are so incredibly lucrative that the risk of playing the kind of open football that can lead to relegation is far outweighed by the reward of simply staying in the Premier League.
For the fans, that’s only bad news. But in many ways, the trend harks back to the Keegan era at Newcastle. The Magpies’ mantra of outscoring the opposition may have produced some unforgettable Premier League games, but failing to win the silverware their ambitious football arguably deserved provided an invaluable lesson to the rest of the Premier League – one that coincided with the rise of the corporate age. Entertaining football may be what supporters crave, but it doesn’t bring the same revenues as regular trophies and titles – or these days, the revenues for simply staying in the division.
When the final whistle is blown this Saturday, it might be hard to remember that Manchester United vs Newcastle was such a magical, unpredictable fixture. That’s not a criticism of either team, the approaches of their managers or for that matter the quality of the Premier League; the players are better than ever before overall. But it’s nonetheless a statement of how priorities have changed in the top division, and how in turn they’ve changed what we perceive as acceptable football.
Neither United nor Newcastle will give too much thought to how much the fans were entertained if they come away from Saturday’s game with all three points, and the supporters likely won’t be too concerned either. That’s a sea-change from the days when both clubs once prided themselves on scintillating attacking football.
