Newcastle compared to Rangers on Champions League return as Simon Jordan issues ‘free hit’ verdict
Newcastle returning to the Champions League doesn’t constitute a “free hit” in the way it turned out to be for Rangers last season, according to Simon Jordan.
The talkSPORT pundit said live on the station on 19 September ahead of the Magpies’ first game in the group stage for 21 seasons that they would have to be held to the same standards as the Light Blues if they got their “heads handed to them” in every game.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst presided over the worst group stage campaign in the competition’s history last term, losing all six games, which Jordan claimed was a real “free hit” and got him “booted out of his job”.
Jordan said: “No, a free hit in the minds of whom? Is it the players that think they’ve got a free hit? Do you think Eddie Howe is going in with that mentality? Maybe the media will characterise it that way…
“If they go in there and they get their heads handed to them, and they get beaten every game then you have to deploy the same standards as you deployed to Rangers last year, you can’t sit there and say because everyone likes Newcastle now… that they should be given a different level of dispensation…
“I don’t think those players think it’s a free hit, and I don’t think the manager thinks it’s a free hit. We’ve seen what a free hit looks like. Rangers getting their head handed to them and Giovanni van Bronckhorst getting booted out of his job.”
“True,” said Jim White in response.
Apples and oranges
Newcastle’s goalless draw in Milan on Tuesday night has already prevented them from suffering the same fate Rangers did a year ago.
But in the grand scheme of things it is not the same situation, other than the fact both clubs had been away from the group stage for some time.
The Gers’ absence was around half of Newcastle’s, but while the budget discrepancy point can be held up too quickly when it comes to ties against the likes of PSV Eindhoven it is a world’s difference to the Saudi-backed Newcastle project.
Aside from the psychological barrier of making the step up there is no reason why Newcastle shouldn’t be able to compete given the transfer fees they can now regularly spend.
And they have a number of players who have enough experience in the competition at other clubs all the same, whereas it was clearly a major step up for Rangers last season.
The capitulation game after game, in what was admittedly a tough group, still wasn’t acceptable and was a large part of why Michael Beale ended up replacing Van Bronckhorst, although failure to reach the group stage at all is a negative mark on the current boss’ record too.
In other Rangers news, an ex-referee has admitted he was “really irked” by what he saw in the Old Firm derby.