This piece was first published in September 2025 and has been refreshed on 17 September 2026 to cover Newcastle United’s position under new head coach Matthias Jaissle.
September 2026 update: Where Newcastle United stand
Newcastle United enter this season with a different man in the dugout and a squad that looks quite unlike last year’s group. Eddie Howe departed partway through pre-season, clearing the way for Matthias Jaissle to step in after Newcastle finished 12th in the Premier League.
Results so far have been patchy. A heavy 4-1 loss to Leeds United on 14 September 2026 underlined how much rebuilding still lies ahead, and few at St James’ Park would pretend the transition has been smooth. Against that unsettled backdrop, Alan Shearer’s recent remarks on the club take on added significance.
Shearer reflects on Newcastle United’s derby predictions
Twelve months ago, Shearer confidently backed Newcastle for “six points guaranteed” across their two derby meetings with Sunderland. Events proved him wrong on both occasions, and the former Newcastle striker has since had to acknowledge how badly that forecast missed the mark.
Newcastle World reports that Shearer addressed the mistake directly, asking rhetorically who had made such a bold call. “What fool said that? Let’s hope I was just 12 months early in my prediction,” he admitted, poking fun at his own overconfidence. Read more in Shearer’s original derby admission for the full background to that comment.
Summer upheaval and Matthias Jaissle’s appointment
Howe’s mid-pre-season exit set a chaotic tone for the months that followed on Tyneside. Jaissle stepped into the role carrying a strong reputation from elsewhere, charged with reviving a team that had dropped to 12th the previous campaign.
The group he took charge of bears little resemblance to the one Howe left. Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and Anthony Gordon all departed during the window, stripping out a huge chunk of midfield craft and attacking threat in one go.
Newcastle responded by bringing in Nico Gonzalez from Manchester City and Matias Fernandez-Pardo from Lille. These moves fit within the club’s established approach to business, part of a broader pattern visible in the club’s refreshing transfer strategy and the wider activity tracked among the summer transfer window targets pursued by the club. Losing three regular starters for two incoming faces naturally leaves questions over squad depth, and Jaissle faces a genuine job bedding in his new group.
What Alan Shearer Newcastle United analysis tells us
Alan Shearer’s message to Newcastle supporters is straightforward: expect a hard season rather than a smooth handover under Jaissle. Speaking in comments carried by Newcastle World from his column and podcast appearances, he warned that neither Newcastle nor Sunderland face an easy year.
He put it this way: “It will be a more challenging season for Sunderland this year than it was last year. I do think it will be tougher times for Newcastle as well and we’ll have to be patient.” That plea for patience lands heavily given how much the squad has changed and how the Leeds result went.
Shearer went further, using his own misjudged derby forecast as evidence that nothing in football is certain. “So, let’s wait and see. We all think we know what’s going to happen. But even the best of us can completely miss the mark,” he said. It is a sensible warning for a Newcastle squad still working out who it is under an unfamiliar coach.
What happens next
Jaissle’s immediate challenge is turning a squad down three key players into a coherent, competitive team, while getting Gonzalez and Fernandez-Pardo up to speed as fast as possible. The Leeds defeat will not decide the campaign by itself, but it does back up Shearer’s warning that this side needs time to find its feet.
A clearer sense of where Newcastle stand should emerge once the opening weeks are behind them. Until then, patience, precisely what Shearer has called for, remains the sensible expectation among supporters on Tyneside.
