It portrays the period where Ashley's ownership was brought to an end and what happened in the aftermath. Saudi Arabian PIF came in and the sun rose again over the Tyne. That is how much the supporters hated Ashley in the end. It was a surprise to most, though, that the new ownership went with Eddie Howe as manager.
“That's an opinion that I got straight away. With the range of names that were being touted around that time, they wanted a bigger name now that their club had been bought. My father-in-law certainly was gearing up for the bigger and more exciting sort of names. He wasn't sure about Eddie Howe initially. Other people I spoke to were like; 'we'd heard of him, but we weren't excited by him',” Abi Smith tells Tribalfootball from her office with a great Newcastle flag decorating the wall behind her.
It turned out to be a magnificent ending to the season as Newcastle finished 11th, but the doubters had plenty of reason to initially feel vindicated. One thing the book really brings into attention is that the turnaround didn’t happen overnight.
“He obviously took over when they were in the relegation zone and you sort of think; 'wow this is a huge undertaking'.
"And Newcastle actually lost five of the first eight games under Howe, he wasn't off to the greatest start,” Abi Smith continues.
She is the author of “Rise of the Magpies – Newcastle United’s Renaissance” and has had the Toon Army more or less forced upon her with a husband and father-in-law being Toon through and through. Both sons have picked up the mantle which raises the question; is Newcastle United the eternal topic around the dinner-table in the Smith household?
“Well, my daughter is pretty fed up with football chat,” Abi Smith says half laughing, half pitying the poor girl.
No quick fix at St. James’ Park
She will have had a hard time as the results under Howe didn’t improve instantaneously, but the complaining in fact wasn’t that much among the Toon Army, Abi Smith discovered.
“The feedback I got at the time was they wanted to see results quicker, which you understand. Suddenly you've got all this money, but nothing could be done quickly. But I think during the Mike Ashley era some of them got so despondent with the club and the decisions that were being made so they were a low anyway.
“Then they got the high of the club being bought, 'now we've got money behind us, we've got this new manager', and yet still nothing was quite happening. But actually, none of them were negative, they still believed that something amazing was going to happen.”
And happen it did as The Magpies had one win after 20 league games and finished the season on 13 wins as Howe got them playing some football supporters hadn’t seen in a long time. And with some unlikely heroes on the pitch, not least Joelinton who went through an amazing transformation once Howe and his team got in. It’s all there in “Rise of the Magpies” which was borne out of a lot of research, not least among the fan base.
“I had to reach out to as many people as I could to give me their thoughts on certain things. What happened? What decisions were made? What people thought about those decisions? That gave me an authentic voice to put into the book, and I wouldn't have been able to do it without them.
“Naturally, I need to name check my husband and father-in-law because as you can imagine, they like to dip in with their opinions on everything from Steve Bruce to Mike Ashley to decisions that Eddie Howe makes. But that's the great thing about football, isn't it? You have all these different opinions on everything, yet at the end of the day, you're all still behind one team,” says Abi Smith who’s had the distinct pleasure of “being forced” to re-watch some of the exciting games under Eddie Howe’s tenure.
“In terms of researching, that was one of the highlights. The access you get now with fans posting videos and you have the actual club posting videos, it's amazing what’s shared on social media. That was both fun and also quite emotional. I didn't think I would get as caught up as I did,” Smith concedes as particularly one game stands out.
“That draw against Leicester where Newcastle qualified for the Champions League; on paper you see a 0-0 draw and you know it's a match, but when you're watching it in the context of what this match means and Nick Pope saves the goal right towards the end, I mean, I was holding my breath the whole time not even realizing,” Abi Smith laughs while conceding she “was fully on board towards the end".
“Rise of the Magpies – Newcastle United’s Renaissance” is not a history-book on Newcastle United. It’s a description of what happened to a club that went from dead last in the Premier League to the Champions League in the space in 18 months. The book is out now from Pitch Publishing. It is available in assorted bookshops, at the Pitch Publishing website or right here.