Ticket news:
TBC

Project Restart:
Newcastle FA Cup
tie live on BBC

While details of the Premier League schedule and TV listings are awaited, the FA Cup Quarter Final channel selections have now been confirmed.

Exact dates and kick-off times are yet to be announced, but the BBC will show Newcastle's home tie with Manchester City and the Norwich City versus Manchester United match live over the weekend of June 27th and 28th.

BT Sport meanwhile will televise Sheffield United versus Arsenal and Leicester City versus Chelsea over the same weekend.

The Semi Finals are set to be played at Wembley over the weekend of July 18th and 19th, with the Final at the same venue on August 1st.

Project Restart:
PL TV breakdown:
further update

With confirmation received that all 92 outstanding Premier League games are to be televised live in the UK, preparations to release the confirmed schedule continue.

Amazon Prime have four of those games and have now confirmed that they will be free to air and can be viewed without the requirement to take out membership.

The BBC will also broadcast four games without additional charge, while Sky Sports have announced that 25 of their games will be free to air, making a grand total of 33.

Those free to air Sky games are expected to appear on the free-to-air ‘Pick’ Channel (159 on Sky and 144 on Freeview.)

The Football Supporters Association have conducted a survey of the refunds offered by all 20 Premier League clubs to holders of match tickets online here

They confirm that Newcastle remain the only side yet to publish any guidance, contact with them yielding only a "plans yet to be confirmed" statement, mirroring unsuccessful attempts by the Newcastle United Supporters Trust to get an answer.

At stake are season ticket refunds for five PL home games and one-off ticket purchases for the Manchester City home cup tie, the Bournemouth away PL game and both the Sheffield United and West Ham PL home games.

In addition, the club have continued to take direct debits since March for some 2020/21 season ticket holders - an action that no other top-flight club has emulated.

Latest:
Matt finish?

Writing in The Times on Tuesday, Martin Hardy reports that Newcastle midfielder Matty Longstaff has received a five year contract offer from Italian side Udinese.

The 20 year-old is in the final weeks of his current deal at SJP after failing to reach agreement on an improved one, with any new club obligated only to pay United a nominal compensation fee for his development.

Speculation over a move has ramped up in recent months, with press claims of interest from overseas clubs including Borussia Dortmund, Marseille, Atalanta and Inter Milan and rumours of Everton more recently.

Repeating the story, Sky Sports claimed that Udinese had offered Matty a weekly salary of £30,000 - rather more than the claimed £800 he's currently on and an amount that his present club failed to match (their final offer said to be less than £15K).

Academy product Matty made his senior debut under stand-in coach Matt Dawson at the Asia Trophy in China last July, rounding off pre-season with a fine goal against St. Etienne at SJP before Steve Bruce.

Making a competitive senior bow against Leicester City in the League Cup soon after, the younger of the two Longstaff brothers then had a memorable introduction to the Premier League, scoring the winner at home to Manchester United.

On target again in the return game at Old Trafford and netting against Rochdale in the FA Cup, his twelfth and most recent appearance came during the FA Cup replay victory at Oxford back in February.

Matty continues to train with Newcastle, but given the possibility of incurring an injury in the limited time that he may have left as a Magpie , it doesn't seem likely that he'll add to that figure when the Premier League resumes later this month.

His seemingly inevitable departure will increase speculation over the future of Sean Longstaff, under contract until 2022 but not a regular starter under Bruce.

Whether the takeover paralysis has played any part in Matty's unfolding contract situation is unclear, but it does look to be the same muddled thinking that has made our recruitment policy so inconsistent.

The failure of our Academy to develop young English talent meant that we once bought in Jermaine Jenas and Darren Ambrose - and a continuation of that issue resulted in our taking a punt on Jacob Murphy.

Through the Academy then comes Matty, who quickly moves up to the reserve side and more than holds his own, before jumping straight into the Premier League without a loan move to a smaller club.

Rather than fatten up the golden goose to make a killing in a couple of years though, it seems that we lack the belief, desire or talent to actually fashion our raw material into something more valuable.

Almost inevitably we'll spend money on a replacement signing and pay him more, but get less value for money and end up recouping a fraction of the outlay.

Conversely, the extra benefit of having a hometown player in the side rather than some imported mercenary has always been persuasive for us, but that hardly came to pass with Killingworth's own Jack Colback did it? Local isn't always better, but potential is beyond geography.

In terms of a knock-on effect on younger players joining the Academy or staying, Matty's likely loss arguably makes the argument to join United stronger: unlike previous times, there is a route to senior football from Little Benton - it's just not the Newcastle first team....

If you're just a breeding ground for other clubs though, what's the point in funding an Academy? Better then just to take other people's players - or borrow them.

Like much of what has happened at Newcastle since 2007, it's difficult to see what the point is - another reason that we desperately need a change of ownership, regardless of the merits or otherwise of the Saudis.

Matty might still leave under a different administration, but you'd like to that it was a measured decision and part of a coherent strategy. There's precious little evidence of that currently. 

'Heed plea:
Soul survivors

Audio:
Recollections

Whilst waiting for football to resume and that "other thing" to conclude, the True Faith fanzine have augmented their regular podcast schedule with a couple of one-offs that are well worth a listen.

The first one is an extended interview here by Marc Corby with former Magpie duo Jamie McClen and Owen Peterson - who both came through the club's academy, Jamie making it into the first team.

Also available from True Faith is a chat between Marc and NUFC fan / shirt collector Gavin Haigh here

Both podcasts are free to air via spotify. Due to the lockdown, interviews were conducted by phone - you might find the McClen / Peterson one an easier listen via headphones rather than speakers.

PS: Gavin gav411@hotmail.co.uk is still looking to add these NUFC match-worn players shirts to his collection:

1968/69 Fairs Cup Final
1975/76 Home
1975/76 Away (Yellow/Green)
1975/76 League Cup Final
1980/81 Home
1985/86 Away (Silver/Blue star)
1987/88 Blue away (Luton)

Plus any NUFC match worn/players shirts from the 1970s and early 1980s.

Update:
Neil Wastell RIP

We're greatly saddened to report that lifelong Newcastle fan Neil Wastell lost his battle with cancer on Sunday.

From Rotherham to Rotterdam and countless streets, stations, bars and terraces in between, "Flapper" was a familiar and friendly face at all of them for decades.

We extend our sincere condolences to Karen, Nigel, Kev and the rest of Neil's family, plus the many friends unable to say their goodbyes due to lockdown.

Heartfelt and fitting tributes have come from many fellow travellers and we'll add our own - simply a cracking lad.

RIP   

Project Restart:
PL start date set

The 2019/20 Premier League season is set to recommence on Wednesday June 17th,  when the four sides who have played one game less complete their game in hand, ahead of a full fixture list to be staged over the following weekend.

That's Manchester City versus Arsenal and Aston Villa versus Sheffield United.

Remaining NUFC PL games:

Sheffield United (h)
Bournemouth (a)
West Ham (h)
Watford (a)
Spurs (h)
Brighton (a)
Liverpool (h)
Aston Villa (h)
Manchester City (a)

Kick-off times will be as follows:

Fri: 8pm
Sat: 12.30pm, 3pm, 5.30pm and 8pm
Sun: Noon, 2pm, 4.30pm and 7pm
Mon: 8pm
Tue, Wed, Thu: 6pm and 8pm

Six rounds of weekend fixtures at weekends and three midweek sets of games are planned.

A rule change allowing five substitutions to be made is expected to be adopted and VAR is set to remain in place, but other issues are yet to be confirmed.

Among those are the eligibility of players for the rest of the season, in particular whether changes can be made to the squad lists submitted earlier this season.

Scenarios including the return to fitness of players since then and the expiration of outbound loan deals for players have been mentioned, in addition to whether squad members testing positive for COVID-19 once games resume could be replaced whilst unavailable due to self-isolation.

Update:
Generous Geordies: figure increases

Thanks to everyone who supported the NUFC.com shirt auction in aid of the Newcastle West End Foodbank.

We're delighted to say that the final figure raised was £6,207.

Find more about the Foodbank online here

2020/21:
Strip hints

As and when the 2020/21 season gets underway, Newcastle will wear shirts manufactured by Puma for the eleventh successive campaign.

It's believed that a one year extension has been signed with Puma and kit claims have begun to emerge online.

Details remain sketchy, but two change kits will appear, one predicted to be yellow and navy blue and the other violet. There's no mention of on-sale dates as yet.