It was some night at St James’ Park back in October. Beforehand, looking at Kylian Mbappe and his mates warming up in the Newcastle rain, I wondered how the home team would possibly cope. Jamaal Lascelles has been a great servant and is Newcastle’s club captain but would not place himself in the world-class bracket. Dan Burn and Sean Longstaff also looked as though they may have long nights ahead against the champions of France. This may have been Saudi Arabia versus Qatar but on the field it had the potential to be lop-sided. And it was, towards Newcastle. I can still picture it. The look of disorientation on Mbappe’s face as PSG were swept away on a black and white autumn tide. The sheer overwhelming enormity of what was more than a Newcastle victory but a statement of belief and confidence that spoke for a football cub but also for a city and a region. Newcastle 4 PSG 1. Lascelles was magnificent. Burn and Longstaff both scored. The night that new Newcastle really arrived? Quite possibly yes. I recall this now because as Eddie Howe and his players prepare to go to Paris for the return fixture next week, things feel different. Newcastle haven’t backed up that victory in Europe, are bottom of their group and maybe on their way out. In the Premier League, meanwhile, they are seventh, have injuries to key players and face Chelsea looking and maybe feeling a little vulnerable after a defeat at Bournemouth before the international break that was as bad as anything seen under a manager who recently marked his second anniversary in charge. Eddie Howe's Newcastle side suffered back-to-back defeats prior to the international break It was thought their 4-1 victory over PSG in October would kick-start new life for the Magpies However, Newcastle have struggled recently and now face a tough run of winter fixtures So this feels like a moment to remember and appreciate just how far Newcastle have travelled under Howe and how far yet they may yet journey if he is allowed to build on the achievements of his first 24 months. His transformation of Newcastle from the ragged bunch left behind by Steve Bruce to the team capable of dismantling PSG has at times felt complete. Equally the real challenge, the harder one, is not getting his club in to the Champions League but keeping them there. When Arsene Wenger was going through his difficult final years at Arsenal he would talk about the achievement of persistent Champions League qualification. We laughed at him a little at the time but we can look back now and see that he was right, that in order to be a really big club – to earn money like a really big club – you simply have to sit at that table next to Manchester United, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and the rest. This is the challenge for Newcastle now and it’s daunting. Playing Saturday-Wednesday-Saturday (or a variation thereof) when other upwardly mobile clubs are not places a relentless strain on resources and physical and mental stamina and they say you don’t really get to understand that until you are stuck in the middle of it. In some ways, it would serve a purpose for Newcastle to exit the Champions League early. That may sound twisted but there is a sound argument that what matters now is not progressing through the rounds this season but ensuring they are back in it again next year. And a spring calendar free of European football would help with that. If this balance of where you want to be and where you need to go sounds fragile then that’s because it is. On the field, however, the challenges for Howe and his players are clear. This week goes: Chelsea, PSG, United. Beyond that Newcastle face Everton and Tottenham away and also have games with Liverpool, Manchester City and Aston Villa all in a row in January. The way they emerge from all of that will go a large way to determining the path taken this season. The winter, then, may get difficult and Howe may yet manage his way through it. He did it last season as he rolled his squad through a trying spell in early spring. Howe's side will face giants Chelsea, PSG and Man United within a seven day period Newcastle co-owners Mehrdad Ghodoussi (R) and Amanda Staveley (L) cannot act rashly If he does not, though, then what everybody will need is a little patience and a little perspective. We should all recall that night in October. Clubs owned by Gulf states always wish to travel fast. City did. PSG still do. That can lead to daft decisions and Newcastle must be prepared to buck the trend on that. Howe has already earned the right to take this club through what may turn out to be a season of calibration and readjustment. And Newcastle may wish to keep one thing in mind as they plot their future. The English FA are likely to be looking for a new manager whatever happens at next summer’s European Championships. Newcastle would do well to ensure theirs is bound up pretty tight. Let's get rid of minnows in qualifying Of the ten teams finishing bottom of the qualifying groups for next summer’s European Championships, only one won a game. Latvia beat Armenia 2-0 last month. Between them, the ten nations took 12 points from the 258 available. Five of them – Malta, Gibraltar, Cyprus, San Marino and Liechtenstein – lost every single game they played. So as we look at out-of-tournament international football and how to improve it, let’s start here. Qualifying groups are too big. There are too many games that are not competitive and this serves no purpose for players or supporters. The argument that the smaller nations can learn by playing the more established teams is flawed. You learn nothing by getting hammered. Indeed you could argue the knowledge they are guaranteed the income and exposure from nine or ten qualifying games in each tournament cycle encourages only complacency among the national associations. Where is the motivation to improve your structures, your academies and your domestic leagues if you know you will get your piece of the pie regardless? If the minnow nations were made to play knock-out football in order to make the qualifying stages – as happens in the Champions League every summer - it would drive standards, increase jeopardy and, just as importantly, rid international football of much of the one-sided rubbish we are forced to sit through every time a major tournament appears on the horizon. This will, of course, never happen. European minnows San Marino were one of five teams to lose every Euro 2024 qualifier Uproar over Kavanagh refereeing City is harmful nonsense Chris Kavanagh was born in Ashton-Under-Lyne which is a market town in the foothills of the Pennines. It used to be in Lancashire but was gobbled up by Greater Manchester two years after the Local Government Act of 1972. The same thing happened to places like Wigan and Bolton. GET IN TOUCH We want to hear from refs who have been abused - or parents who have witnessed atrocious behaviour on the touchline Email us at: IAKO@dailymail.co.uk Advertisement Because of his place of birth some people say Kavanagh should not be allowed to referee Saturday’s big Premier League game between Manchester City and Liverpool. They say Kavanagh is from Manchester – which he categorically isn’t – and pedantically cite the fact he was born six miles away from City’s Etihad Stadium as further proof of his unsuitability. Kavanagh is 38 so when he was a kid City were still at Maine Road which means we can add a couple more miles on to all that nonsense if we wish to be accurate about it. Kavanagh is not a Manchester City fan. If he was, PGMOL rules would prohibit him from working their games and those involving closest rivals Manchester United. More importantly, he is a grown man, a professional referee who is trained and paid to make decisions on merit and without bias. I have faith in that and so should all of us. As we continue our discussion this week about referees and how we expect our players and managers to behave towards them, this kind of rubbish only makes things more difficult. Mail Sport has launched a campaign to stop the abuse of referees at all levels of the game Germany's struggles continue Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has made big selection calls this season yet even he hasn’t played Kai Havertz at left-back, as Germany did earlier in the week. Germany aren’t the super power they once were and maybe we are beginning to discover the reasons why. Germany's struggles have seen them utilise Arsenal midfielder Kai Havertz at left-back IT'S ALL KICKING OFF! It's All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football, launching with a preview show today and every week this season. It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube , Apple Music and Spotify
