Newcastle United’s controversial tour of Australia ended in embarrassment as a team comprising primarily of under-21 players was thrashed 8-0 by the A-League All Stars, a select side who had never previously won a fixture.
The game was played less than 48 hours after the 1-1 draw with Tottenham Hotspur at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which Newcastle eventually won 5-4 on penalties, and Eddie Howe named a young side at the Marvel Stadium, who did not boast a Premier League start between them.
The head coach did not introduce any senior players off the bench, either, despite Kieran Trippier, Lewis Hall and Elliot Anderson being named among the replacements, believing the short turnaround between matches made it too risky. Unusually, Howe also sat in the dugout for most of the match, with his assistant, Graeme Jones, instead the most prominent figure on the touchline.
Mark Gillespie, the goalkeeper who has never made a competitive appearance under Howe, was the elder statesman on display, while Alex Murphy, the 19-year-old defender, Joe White, the 21-year-old midfielder, Amadou Diallo, the 21-year-old winger, and Ben Parkinson, the 19-year-old forward, do all train regularly with the first team. Garang Kuol, the 19-year-old Australia forward, also made his first Newcastle start, having been included as part of the tour party due to his marketability, despite not being considered first-team-ready by Howe.
Howe’s young side were soundly beaten (Martin Keep/AFP via Getty Images)
Howe is the most senior representative from the club out in Australia for a tour organised by commercial and marketing to bolster Newcastle’s brand, during which the squad are only in the country for less than four days. They arrived on Tuesday morning local time, having departed immediately following the 4-2 victory over Brentford at the weekend, before leaving on Friday evening, straight after the All Stars friendly.
In terms of financial benefit, Newcastle have received remuneration but it is not believed to transformative and does not stretch into the millions, which has led to questions around the logic of the trip. That only further fuels the environmental concerns too, as well as player-welfare issues, given it comes at the end of an exhausting, injury-ravaged campaign.
Bruno Guimaraes and Miguel Almiron, who are expected to play at this summer’s Copa America for Brazil and Paraguay respectively, and Joelinton, who is set to marry his partner, were excused from the trip early, so did not feature in the second game. Alexander Isak and Emil Krafth, who are set to represent Sweden in the coming weeks, also departed before the match.
Fabian Schar and Anthony Gordon did not travel to Australia due to hamstring and ankle injuries respectively, while Sean Longstaff is awaiting the birth of his child. Martin Dubravka and Loris Karius, the goalkeepers, were also absent from the tour party, with the latter departing Newcastle this summer and the former potentially joining his fellow goalkeeper in doing so.
“I don’t think we could have done,” Howe said, when asked if any first-team players could have been involved. “Especially when you consider the travelling time that we’ve had and the quick turnaround that we’ve had, it would have been too big a risk of injury and we couldn’t afford that.
“We gave an opportunity to the younger lads and they found it tough today. We have to do better than what we did. I think too many mistakes were forced by the All Stars, who played very well, a good performance from them. For us, I think the players individually need to reflect on that and see what they need to do to come back stronger.”
We want to play against you. We have similar levels 🙏 🇸🇲
— San Marino Fútbol 🇸🇲 (@SanMarinoTeam) May 24, 2024
During the second match of the tour in Melbourne, which was played in a sparsely populated arena, despite the Marvel Stadium having a 53,000 capacity, an Australia select XI, which featured four senior internationals, dismantled the youthful Newcastle side almost from the off.
Ben Old gave the A-League All Stars the lead inside five minutes, before Nicolas Milanovic and Adam Taggart made it 3-0 at the break.
The second half only brought further travails for Newcastle, with Apostolos Stamatelopoulos scoring twice, while Jake Hollman, Jordan Courtney-Perkins and Bozhidar Kraev netted a goal apiece.
The All Stars claimed their first-ever victory in emphatic fashion, having lost 5-1 to Manchester United in 2013, 3-2 to Juventus in 2014 and 3-2 to Barcelona in 2022.
This result evoked derision, with the unofficial account on X for San Marino, among the lowest-ranked international sides, posting in reply to Newcastle: “We want to play against you. We have similar levels.”
Despite the shootout victory over Spurs on Wednesday, it is hard to argue that the benefits of this trip have outweighed the obvious drawbacks. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Newcastle required Manchester City to overcome Manchester United in Saturday’s FA Cup final to secure UEFA Conference League qualification for next season, and to ensure the news cycle moves on from this humbling defeat.
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(Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)
