Newcastle show heart that left PSG long ago as Howe avoids state-owned trap

Newcastle have got the money but have kept the heart. Paris Saint Germain should start this state-owned business again.

Imagine being Jamaal Lascelles, who was relegated with Newcastle in 2016. Imagine being 31-year-old Dan Burn, who watched his beloved Newcastle when they last played in the Champions League 20 years ago before being let go from their academy. Imagine being Elliot Anderson, or Sean Longstaff, who know nothing but Newcastle.

But above all, imagine being those fans, who have lived and struggled to breathe through 14 years of Mike Ashley. They’ve earned this.

The ick at watching two state-owned behemoths in a petro-dollar derby is impossible to overcome. The thought of Saudi and Qatari royalty delighting in their respective sportswashing is enough to turn the stomach, and sours things to a degree dependent on your respective morality. But it’s possible to revel in good football and fan revery while sparing thoughts for what this game represents in a wider, far more uncomfortable sense.

And boy did we revel. In Miguel Almiron’s goal. In Eddie Howe fighting off a heart attack after Miguel Almiron’s goal. In Bruno Guimaraes entirely dominating the midfield. In Dan Burn thinking he’d scored, then thinking he hadn’t, before knowing he had, after a glorious three-minute long VAR check. In the rain pouring down on Kylian Mbappe. In the young ultras taking on the tradition of shirtlessness. In fan fever pitch over a throw-in in their favour. In Fabian Schar hitting top bins.

It was glorious, and, despite the calibre of the players they were up against, entirely inevitable.

Paris Saint Germain didn’t stand a chance on a night like this against a team that retains its sense of self despite the same untold riches. Newcastle have preserved the heart that PSG lost long ago.

A goal from a former season-ticket holder Dan Burn, who rose to 12 feet tall to head home a cross from Geordie-by-osmosis Bruno Guimaraes is evidence of that. As is captain Jamaal Lascelles keeping the best player in the world under wraps having started three Premier League games in the last two seasons.

But the difference in the soul of the two clubs was exemplified by Newcastle’s third. Randal Kolo Muani, PSG’s latest big-money striker signing, gave the ball away in midfield, before the rest of his teammates stood stock still as Kieran Trippier slipped a pass in behind for local lad Longstaff to batter the ball under Gianluigi Donnarumma.

By the end of the game Newcastle had two academy graduates on the pitch in Longstaff and Anderson, as well as local lad Burn, another fan in Jacob Murphy, and Lascelles, who’s been at the club for nearly a decade.

PSG, by contrast, had one youth product in 17-year-old Warren Zaire-Emery, who was their best player. The rest of them, quite simply, very obviously, didn’t care as much as their opposite numbers.

Mbappe wants to be in Madrid and didn’t look as though he was trying particularly hard to hide that. Otherwise they looked like a bunch of talented footballers brought but not bonded together, as they always do.

This was supposed to take years. Eddie Howe was a stopgap. The squad was too inexperienced; too shallow. Dan Burn as a Champions League full-back? No chance. Jamaal Lascelles as a back-up centre-back? Come on. How we laughed as Manchester United bid £50m for Longstaff four years ago. How we laughed when Jack Grealish was ripping the sh*t out of Almiron just over a year ago. How we laughed when Newcastle signed Anthony Gordon for £40m eight months ago.

They’re the ones laughing now, on the back of a Champions League win against a team that should serve as a warning to the decision-makers at Newcastle, whose biggest win thus far has been to preserve the heart and soul that lives in this team, just as it does in the fans who never gave up hope that nights like this would be theirs once again.