Newcastle’s squeaky Hull win shows they have to embrace the ugly side of trusting the process

So this is what the Newcastle United rebuild looks like.

It’s easy to lose sight that building a football club for the long term can be a bit rubbish in the short term in light of results elsewhere.

Because what a week it’s been for the so-hot-right-now, data-led ‘B’ clubs. Bournemouth just won their first European encounter away to Real Sociedad. Brentford bossed Chelsea on Friday night. Brighton mustered a historic comeback win at Old Trafford and then beat the champions 3-0.

The appeal is obvious. Develop young players, recruit intelligently, lean on data, build a squad with a coherent long-term plan rather than lurching from one expensive signing to the next. It sounds sensible; it is sensible.

Sensible doesn’t always mean enjoyable, though.

The process comes with recruitment risks, players who take time to settle, tactical teething problems and long stretches of distinctly average football.

Brentford won one of their final 10 games last season. Brighton had six defeats and one win from 13 in the middle of the campaign. Bournemouth let go of a two-goal lead to lose at Sunderland and were defeated 4-0 at Aston Villa and 4-1 at Brentford.

Those clubs don’t generate a whole lot of clicks. They’re an afterthought on your weekly podcasts. Their fanbases are placid enough not to kick up a major ruckus when things aren’t going great and ultimately recognise how lucky they are.

With a trophy parade, Champions League football in two of the last three seasons and a glamour knockout tie against Barcelona still fresh in the memory, asking Newcastle supporters to embrace a period of midtable consolidation and growing pains is easier said than done.

Case in point: Monday night’s disastrous 4-1 defeat away to Leeds United. A performance bad enough to cause early tremors in ‘trusting the process’.

That’s what made Saturday’s match so dangerous for Matthias Jaissle. Hull City came into this one unbeaten, clean sheets in the first three, genuinely unlucky not to come away from Stamford Bridge with three points last Saturday.

Lose this and you’d have lumped the German coach in alongside Roberto De Zerbi and Michael Carrick, set for a horribly uncomfortable three-week international break. Will there even be a project to speak of if you can’t keep your head above water?

Good job they scored two goals in the first six minutes, then.

This sounds ridiculous, but Hull actually looked quite lively and confident in the opening stages. But they were twice suckerpunched by what presumably represents Jaissle’s ideal football: direct, incisive and clinical. Lewis Hall’s finish for the second was particularly sweet.

Sergey Jakirovic’s plucky Tigers refused to buckle after the early setbacks, but Newcastle managed the occasion well and deserved their two-goal half-time lead. Yoane Wissa fluffed a golden penalty chance to make it three after Sorba Thomas bizarrely went a bit tag rugby on Jacob Murphy’s foot.

Hull found a second wind midway through the second half when substitute Mohamed-Ali Cho pulled one back to make it 2-1. They put Lukas Hornicek under increasing pressure from there and created some real heart-in-mouth moments late on. Newcastle had chances to settle the game, but it was increasingly one-way traffic. By the final whistle, Hull had mustered 21 attempts to their 11.

Newcastle lived dangerously, but ultimately they saw it through. While it wasn’t pretty, three points and some spirited defending give Jaissle something to cling to.

There was little about Newcastle’s performance to suggest that they’re going to pull up any trees and challenge for the top end of the table this season, but there were some green shoots.

Sean Steur, so shellshocked in the tumble dryer of Elland Road under the lights, looked far more composed here. Newcastle’s control began to slip after the teenager was withdrawn. Hall and Lewis Miley continue to look like foundational pillars.

Eight points from five. More wins than defeats. Top half of the table and still in the League Cup. The bigger picture is probably about par for Jaissle’s Newcastle 2.0.

It’s been a week of bumps and bruises for the Magpies, but if they keep ticking along like this, grinding out results when they need to, then who’s to say this project can’t pay off like Brentford and Brighton’s, with more spectacular results further down the line?

Much further down the line, in truth, because it’s abundantly clear that this will be a work in progress for some time. Trust the process?