The six most impressive Newcastle United players so far this season | OneFootball

We wanted to get a snapshot of what Newcastle United fans are thinking.

Three months into the season and 17 matches played so far across three competitions.

Now in the November international break and Newcastle United fans seeing their team win eight games, draw three, lose six.

Those results summing up a start to the season with plenty of ups and downs.

Plenty to talk about as we ask a number of Newcastle United fans, who are regular/irregular contributors to The Mag, to give us their views on the season so far, plus what will happen as we move forward.

Next up is Jamie Smith answering the questions.

In order, which six Newcastle United players have been the most impressive so far this 2025/26 season?

Thiaw, Trippier, Jacob Murphy, Woltemade, Bruno, Tonali

In order, by the end of the 2025/26 season, which six NUFC players do you think will have proved the top performers?

Hopefully, 25 goal Wissa, followed by 25 goal Woltemade after their partnership has flourished.

I think it’ll hammer home how much Livramento brings to this team after his absence. More balance will bring out Tonali’s class, and Bruno has the odd off game but he’s proving a brilliant leader. Need Malick Thiaw in there again too as he’s been a terrific addition.

Eight months ago, Eddie Howe banked the first trophy for Newcastle in 56 years, then two months later secured a second Champions League qualification in three years. Some Newcastle fans appear to be questioning his position now. What are your thoughts on Eddie Howe and how much more time has he earned to get the league position sorted and beyond that, or not?

He absolutely has the season. The achievements have been too incredible to dismiss without serious consideration.

A lot of people with reactionary responses haven’t bothered to gain a full understanding of how far behind, PSR rules put us. He has bridged that £300m gap to beat the big six to Champions League spots and a trophy.

Your YouTube crowd seem to think a new bloke will just spend a load of cash on “elite” players, seemingly unaware that the same restrictions on transfers and (crucially) wages would see the top names still opt for Anfield or Old Trafford if it’s on offer. In addition, a Zidane or a Mancini may not be able to raise the performance levels of the Jacob Murphys or Joelintons to boost the squad and the likes of Tonali and Bruno may decide they don’t want to hang around without the manager who has brought them on.

This is the very best way forward and Howe deserves the chance to give all competitions this season his full attention to turn a positive outcome. Being rational, we can all see things don’t seem right and it may be that the season is all he gets. If the poor away form determines an underwhelming mid-table finish, only actually winning one of the cups could rescue the campaign and the summer may be viewed as a natural parting point, especially if Tuchel leaves England as Eddie will be very much a shortlist choice.

Alexander Isak – Time to forgive and forget…? 

Jury is still out.

I think it may be easier in time as the fee received for him was so enormous it’s impossible to look at as a total disaster. The pain at the moment for me is that Newcastle’s struggles so far can probably all be traced back to the fractious summer when he was on strike. With time I think we’ll look back on him as a player who gave us some of the best if times then brought in a ton of money, especially if he continues to be a ghost at Liverpool, but right now it’s all a bit raw.

If you had to choose. A win against Sunderland but lose to Fulham in Carabao Cup quarter-final, or lose to Sunderland and go through to Carabao Cup semi-finals?

Defeat to Sunderland would be, in my opinion, a massive problem. It’s one that can be put right across the season though, especially in the return game at SJP.

I’d take the defeat if it meant a chance at winning the League Cup again and not in the context of a mere win vs Fulham.

We need to look at our own success in real football terms and not through the parochial lens of derby obsession. This is Sunderland’s mantra and it’s one that has damaged them a lot down the years, as their entire identity seems to be “as long as we beat the Mags.” In my opinion, the bad decisions made in previous times were huge factors in them crumbling down to League One.

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Would winning the Carabao Cup again this season BUT finishing outside the Premier League top six, be success or failure?

A trophy is success.

I’m going to exploit loopholes in your question as the possibility is that 7th place returns a Europa League spot, so securing that and the League Cup would be a successful season in my opinion.

Even without my cleverly crafted caveat, it may be beneficial to United’s development to spend next season in either of Europe’s “lesser” competitions. The new format without sides dropping out of the Champions League into the lower ranked cups makes them both eminently winnable for a top six Premier League side and I’d argue at this stage in development another trophy win would be a greater boost than a hard fought (albeit money spinning) CL last 16 run.

Hand on heart, what is your best estimate (not hope!) of where Newcastle United will end up this season in the Premier League, the Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup, how well they will realistically do in each of them?

Rights, let’s start with the Champions League. We’ll make some form of knockout, that’s almost assured. The next couple of games should dictate if that’s via the play off round or straight to the last 16. I’d expect us to get through a play-off, but a R16 tie against one of the top eight, with the second leg away, would be a very tall order. Even if we pull it off, you then need to repeat the trick twice more to get to the final, so my guess would be: R16 if we go via the play-off, QF if we sneak top eight. Any further would be an enormous achievement.

League Cup – I think we get past Fulham but on current form the semi final line up could be ominous. I can see us edging Chelsea but Man City or Arsenal would be too much. Barring some favourable upsets I’ll say SF.

FA Cup – impossible to say without the third round draw at least. I’ll go par and say round 5.

Premier League – trickiest one. If there is a positive reboot, boosted by the return of Wissa and the full backs, there’s very little above us to prevent a march to the top five. If not, I can see it being a season languishing around 11th/12th while focussing on the cups. I’m going to go a bit middling and say we can get 6th or 7th and qualify for Europe.

What do you think about how the summer transfer window was conducted by Newcastle United?

It’s ruined the season so far. The thing that winds me up is the board consortium rocking up at Isak’s house for summit talks in late August. That should have happened when he refused to play at Celtic and the rest of pre-season could have been used to get the squad sorted and ready.

The knockbacks were just a realistic factor of PSR but it was all played out in a very frustrating fashion. The hope is we can rescue it and it turns out brilliant that we secured the players we did.

How much do you think Newcastle United having no CEO or Sporting Director contributed to the fact NUFC signed only one player (Elanga) who had a proper pre-season?

It’s got to be the main factor surely? Someone with actual clout needed to sort the Isak situation, get onto all the targets and rebuild the squad, while Howe and co got on with coaching them. If they don’t take this as a lesson for next summer (or January) it’s infuriating.

In the future after they have all finished their Newcastle United careers, what is your guesstimate on how the six summer signings will each be assessed. In each case – Thiaw, Ramsdale, Ramsey, Woltemade, Elanga and Wissa to be seen as one of these three choices – A success, Done OK, Failure.

If Ramsdale spends the season as Pope’s understudy posting the odd solid showing in the cup he’s gonna go down as OK. Based on the management’s previous record, all the others are likely to end up successes. If anyone is reading this and scoffing at that, please compare your reaction to how Lewis Hall was getting on two years ago to how he will impact the team now he’s going to be back in it in the present.

What do you see as three positive things for Newcastle United so far this season?

The solid Champions League form, the positive League Cup run and the fact Woltemade seems to have settled in so quick.

What do you see as three negative things for Newcastle United so far this season?

The away form, the fact Wissa hasn’t been seen and the impact the full back injuries has had on our game play.

Sunderland are now back in the same division and at this moment ahead of NUFC, your thoughts?

I think Sunderland are in danger of seriously overplaying their early success. History tells us promoted sides starting so well tend to have miserable winters, but that’s not to take anything away from what has been an impressive transition. They seem to have bought very well and the manager deserves credit for transforming them into a competitive Premier League side. Even if things fall apart for them, I can’t see them going down.

It’s Sod’s Law that their re-emergence has coincided with NUFC struggling a bit and that date in mid-December will be a colossal test of their sustainability and our capacity to turn things around. The fact it’s sandwiched between a CL trip to Germany and a League Cup quarter final doesn’t help. Overall I’m happy for them to be there as long as we’re succeeding in our own right.

What would represent success in the 2025/26 season for Newcastle United?

We need to qualify for Europe. As I’ve mentioned previously, there’s a huge silver lining to getting into one of the lesser, winnable competitions so I’d take that in spite of the benefits of consecutive Champions League participation and fiscal reward. I’d say to qualify it as a real success, we’d need to supplement that with a cup, although going deeper than expected into the CL could add considerable gloss.

What do you see as the minimum to achieve this coming season?

Europe. I’d expect England to get the fifth CL spot so there’s going to be eight European places for the Premier League, potentially 9nine (if, say Villa were to win the Europa then come below 5th) and falling short of them all is way below expectations.

Predict the top six in the Premier League (in order) and which three clubs will be relegated.

Man City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Man Utd, Newcastle.

Relegation is going to be a lot more fun to see play out than recent non-events. Wolves look knackered, Burnley will revert to type and let’s go with a surprise, maybe Fulham?

With NUFC now having won a trophy…has that changed your priorities at all with the club now balancing getting Champions League football on a regular basis, compared to try and win cups?

Yes it has, I wanted that one trophy and the monkey off our back. If we could get 5th again and a Champions League quarter final run I’d see that as a successful season. I still feel we need a cup again relatively soon though, so last season’s success starts shaping the beginning of an era as opposed to being a one off. I’m so bloody glad it happened though even if it’s the only one I ever see.

Next three seasons, would you rather finish top four all three seasons BUT win nothing, or finish mid-table all three seasons AND win the FA Cup in one of the three?

Given my sensible answer to the trophy question I’ll say the consistent approach. You could actually rephrase that to “would you rather be in Arsenal’s position where they are now, or Crystal Palace’s?” Put like that everyone is giving the same answer.

What are your thoughts on the fact that we are now more than four years after the takeover and still no plans announced on a new training ground, nor a far bigger capacity stadium (either brand new one, or an increased capacity St James’ Park)?

It’s the single biggest failing of the new regime.

Not helped by the churn at boardroom level, but the club has been successful beyond its means on the pitch and grown its commercial income through other means. This failure to move at all on the biggest decisive factor in the club’s development looks a bit shambolic. The recent announcement for the European Championships being at St James’ Park suggests to me it’s 2029 at the very earliest before we switch stadiums and I’m not sure how we can continue to bring the gap over that time.

If Newcastle United were to look to the transfer market to strengthen the team/squad in January, what do you see as the priority (or priorities…)?

There’s a question here over the fitness of Wissa, how he slots in and, additionally, what the intentions with Osula are. If Osula is to be sold we need a number nine who can come in should Wissa be injured again. Beyond that we may need to look at a midfield destroyer as Joelinton doesn’t seem able to string more than a couple of games together. Full back seems overkill for me, we have two definite starters who were unfortunate to be out at the same time, maybe look at a younger replacement for Trippier in the summer.

Would you say winning the Carabao Cup last season has made you more content, or now more desperate to get the next one?

More content. As I’ve said, it hopefully starts the ball rolling on the trophy years.

I’ll see this year as progress if we do well without a cup, but I’ll be keen to add one the next season, with those less competitive European competitions golden opportunities. But even if it never happens, that day at Wembley and the celebrations that followed has given a lifelong memory that some of us doubted would ever come in the darkest days of the Ashley era. That contentment has grown a sense of patience, for me at least.