The mood amongst Newcastle United fans and journalists has taken a huge dip again
Newcastle United fans and journalists are beginning to fall back into the old ways of living in negativity.
Since the takeover, which coincided with my own personal awakening, I vowed to try and remain positive, to always look at the good in the situation rather than focus on the negative. Both those sides are there in everything we do, so it's easy to fall into that trap of looking at the wrong thing.
It has been working, for the most part, some of you regular readers may disagree, but part of the job is reporting on bad news so we can't go around with blinkers on to everything negative.
However, there is suddenly a big black cloud looming over the club after what has been a very testing 12 months.
Does the nightmare continue?
Last season's injury crisis and the team's inability to string together a good run before something catastrophic happened seemed to be the catalyst. Actually, no, our star signing being slapped with a 10-month ban just 12 games into the season probably started it.
We had hoped there'd be a line drawn in the sand at the end of the season but we've been slapped with wave after wave of perceived negativity ever since. We're going to do a deep dive into the madness of this summer later, but for now, the highlights include constant speculation around our top stars (normal stuff), the PSR deadline drama, Amanda Staveley and Mehrdad Ghodoussi's sudden departure and Eddie Howe's choice of language in the interview which he could have used to put fans' minds at rest over his future.
Those are just the highlights. Right now there's a lack of activity in the transfer market which is cause for anxiety, and with pre-season friendlies now underway (Newcastle beat little-known German side SpVgg Unterhaching 3-1 behind closed doors at the weekend), Eddie Howe reportedly has another injury crisis on his hands.
The "crisis" isn't as bad as it looks
The Shields Gazette is reporting that 18 first-team players are currently unavailable. Obviously, there are still six players on extended leave after being on international duty, which cuts that down to 12. Then there are the injuries we already knew about so we'll not count those as it's not new news - Sven Botman, Jamaal Lascelles, Matt Targett, Lewis Miley and Callum Wilson, so seven missing. Sandro Tonali is still banned. Six missing. Joe Willock is working up to fitness after an injury-hit season but is close to a return. Five. Mark Gillespie and John Ruddy have been included in their counting but are never likely to play anyway. Three.
Those three are Tino Livramento - like Joe Willock is just regaining fitness after an injury last season. Harrison Ashby - wasn't available all last season either as he was out on loan, and Alex Murphy - A youngster who made a handful of appearances, not a huge miss.
The point is, there are plenty of ways to take positives away from what can be initially perceived to be a negative. The reality is we're missing six first-team players, the five who are injured and expected to miss the start of the season and Sandro Tonali who will be banned for the first couple of games.
Look for the positives and things are a lot easier to deal with
Things look bleak now, and headlines highlighting 18 players missing from the squad aren't helping, but things aren't as bad as they seem.
We're all anxious over how slowly we're moving in the transfer window, but let's be honest, we know how this club operates. It's nothing but rumours for weeks then suddenly a new signing is announced that we'd never even considered. Work is going on in the background.
Taking five injuries into a new season is less than ideal, I'll concede that, but who's to say we don't bring another three or four new faces in before then anyway? Let's not panic until there's something to panic about. If this was the state of play the night before the season opener, then I'll admit, I'll be in a very different headspace.
