Ruud Gullit, who refers to Newcastle United as the “Napoli of the north-east,” is ecstatic with their achievements.
When questioned about Eddie Howe’s work on Tyneside, the Dutchman was beaming from ear to ear.
When Gullit led the Magpies to the 1999 FA Cup final, they were within 90 minutes of ending their trophy drought. However, Sir Alex Ferguson’s treble-winning Manchester United team stood in their way.
But when he witnessed Naples celebrating its first championship in 33 years, he claimed that visions of what Newcastle could become came pouring back to him.
“Newcastle itself is a fantastic football club,” he declared. The audience is amazing. The Toon is excellent.
“They just want to be proud of their region, so they just need a little bit of success.”Sincerely, I was thinking of Newcastle when I saw Napoli win Serie A on Thursday night.
It belongs to them. In England and Italy, the South is competing against the North.
its pride in Newcastle and what the city and its region stand for is the best thing that could possibly happen to them.
They need that, I say. They genuinely desire that. And they are proceeding appropriately to do that.
Eddie Howe’s efforts were praised by Gullit as being “exceptional,” but he added that the club needed to focus on finding players with the “X-factor” if they wanted to regain their momentum.
He declared: “What Howe has done is extremely good, everyone believed that there would be problems with the money coming in.
“They haven’t blown that much money on tremendous big players. He has done something extraordinary as a result.
That the coach permitted these players to perform at a greater level than they had previously was a really good effort.
And they have a chance to play in the Champions League now. For the city, oh my gosh, it would be unimaginable. Newcastle would succeed just by doing that. Then again, they’ll need to adjust their targets.