It is safe to say that Eddie Howe and exaggeration are strangers, so when Newcastle’s manager describes Paris Saint-Germain’s impending visit as “an extreme test” he means it.
The first Champions League game to be staged at St James’ Park for 20 years has triggered a host of contrasting emotions on Tyneside where excitement, fear, pride and nostalgia swirl in the autumn breeze.
No one, least of all Howe, is quite sure how his team will cope with Kylian Mbappé and company but Luis Enrique, PSG’s manager, is suitably wary of Newcastle’s ferocious pressing game.
After completing the 160 miles Marathon des Sables across the southern Moroccan stretch of the Sahara in 2008, the former Spain coach takes most footballing challenges in his stride. But Enrique knows his team must manage what promises to be quite an occasion at one of English football’s loudest venues.
PSG have never played at St James’ Park but their manager has. Back in September 1997 Enrique played on the left wing for Louis van Gaal’s Barcelona as Kenny Dalglish’s then Newcastle secured a memorable 3-2 Champions League victory courtesy of Faustino Asprilla’s hat-trick.
Although Enrique and Luís Figo scored late consolations there was no way back for the visitors. “It felt like we had 300,000 fans behind us,” said Warren Barton, whose reward for marking Enrique was to swap shirts with the Spain international.
“It was a really tough game,” said PSG’s manager on Tuesday. “Twenty-six years ago feels like a lifetime. But I remember that I scored a goal and there was a great atmosphere generated by Newcastle’s fans. It wasn’t easy for us. It’s a hostile place to come and my players will experience that first-hand. It will be difficult against a team as aggressive, that presses as hard and high up the pitch, as Newcastle. We’ve been working on countering that; we want to impose our own philosophy on them.”
Howe’s job is to not merely resist that but press PSG into submission. “It’s going to be an extreme test but one that we can’t wait for,” he said. “We’re really looking forward to the challenge … and we’re not laying any welcome mats out for anybody. We’re determined to do well and, one things I’m absolutely certain about, is that the atmosphere will be as good as I’ve experienced here.”
Many supporters of a certain age will mentally rewind two decades to the March night when Sir Bobby Robson presided over Newcastle’s last home Champions League game – a 2-0 defeat by Barcelona in the competition’s old second group stage.
The Netherlands striker Patrick Kluivert shone for Barça that night and, influenced partly by the generous ovation he received from home fans, became a Newcastle player 16 months later.
Given Mbappé’s current dream of leading Real Madrid’s attack – not to mention his skyscraper wages and dislike of cold weather – history is unlikely to be repeated in the next couple of seasons.
Yet from the moment he stepped off his team’s plane at Newcastle airport on Tuesday Mbappé’s manager was never going to be able to escape the past. Enrique heard quite a lot about Newcastle when he spent a year playing under Robson at Barcelona. “Sir Bobby means a lot to me,” says the 53-year-old who made a point of visiting his former mentor’s statue outside St James’ Park on Tuesday.
Enrique’s admiration for the work of the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation, the cancer research charity founded by Newcastle’s former manager before his death from the disease, is both real and raw. It is only four years since he and his wife lost their nine-year-old daughter Xana to bone cancer.
Just three months have passed since he took the helm at the Parc des Princes. Enrique arrived in Paris in the midst of a transitional, changing of the guard phase, with Lionel Messi, Neymar and Marco Verratti all departing and, most notably, Ousmane Dembélé arriving from Barcelona.
Amid this turbulence there has been one constant: PSG remain formidable. If Newcastle will do well to escape a Champions League group also including Milan and Borussia Dortmund, the Ligue 1 side are expected to top it.
No wonder Howe would have preferred to have prepared for a fixture which, given the state-sponsored ownership of the respective clubs, can be seen as Saudi Arabia v Qatar, with his outstanding central defender Sven Botman not on the injured list. That list also includes Harvey Barnes and Joe Willock, with Joelinton and Callum Wilson extremely doubtful.
Yet such casualties cannot detract from what represents the biggest single manifestation of Newcastle’s extraordinary progress since their takeover by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, almost exactly two years ago.
As the city’s Bigg Market filled with French accents on Tuesday and locals lingered outside PSG’s Quayside hotel hoping for a glimpse of Mbappé, St James’ Park was a hive of activity with scores of workers readying the stadium for its most glamorous night in two decades.
“There’s no reason why Newcastle can’t go far,” said Enrique. “They are almost a complete team. I hope it’s a great game but it’s going to be a special one. I am envious of my players.”
