Newcastle United

Newcastle manager Matthias Jaissle to BBC Match of the Day: "In the end, I am a bit disappointed. We were so close to getting the three points, for sure. But there is also some brightness, definitely, because the guys were doing an amazing job for over 90 minutes.

"We are a young squad and they really left their heart on the pitch and this is something we can build on."

On Liverpool's penalty: "If you give it, it's a really, really soft one and then you have to give many, many penalties throughout the game and throughout the season. I'm not a big fan of the decision.

"I'm proud, we are proud to see a unit on the pitch. The guys were trying to do it the intense way that we wanted to play. Front-footed, vertical in our approach. This, after such a short amount of time, I'm really happy.

"That is our philosophy, yes. It depends on the opponent but we have a clear idea of how we want to play football and today we saw quite a lot of that.

"I am enjoying it already. I saw the young lads fighting for everything. There was commitment. A good synergy with the fans. This is special, it's going to be a really cool season with big challenges as well. We're realistic but we will go there.

"Amazing. Pure happiness and brightness. I heard many things but I felt the goosebumps straight away. You get energy from the stands and you just want to deliver it on the pitch. This synergy will be something special."

• Listen to more from Jaissle, speaking to BBC Radio Newcastle, on BBC Sounds

Newcastle winger Anthony Elanga, speaking to BBC Match of the Day: "Mixed emotions. It was a good performance. But disappointed to concede the way we did in the final seconds. To think the manager [Matthias Jaissle] has been here for just three weeks and we played like that out there, It's important we take the positives from this game and apply them in the next game."

On scoring at St James' Park: "Relief. Something I've wanted to do for a long time. I've been working hard for these moments, especially in the summer and after the World Cup. I wanted to work on my game and I took that opportunity. It was the first shot of the game. It was a moment I really wanted to take. The whole team played really well. If we can apply ourselves like that every single week, we are going to have a fantastic season.

On Jaissle: "Manager has been top since he has come in. The way he wants us to play, you can all see it on and off the ball. When we go, we really go for it. We could've finished off this game earlier as we created a lot of opportunities. But it's the first game. There are still 37 games left in the Premier League."

On playing under Jaissle: "It feels fun. Hopefully it looks fun for those watching. When I am on the pitch, I feel really good and that's the way I always want to feel. Thanks to the manager and his staff for instilling it in me and the rest of the team."

Did you know?

• Newcastle United have dropped 29 points from winning positions in the Premier League since the start of last season; Wolfsburg (33) are the only team in Europe's big-five leagues to surrender more.

• Newcastle United remain winless in each of their last 20 Premier League meetings with Liverpool (D6 L14) since a 2-0 win in December 2015.

Gary Rose
BBC Sport journalist

Image source, Getty Images

Many Newcastle players had their heads in their hands at the final whistle, having seen the chance to claim an early win against a rival for the top four positions lost.

While the late drama will be a bitter pill to swallow there were still plenty of signs of encouragement over what is to come under their new head coach.

It had been a summer of change for Newcastle with long-serving manager Eddie Howe having been replaced by German Jaissle, while a number of key players also departed.

It was their midfield that took the biggest hit as their former captain Bruno Guimaraes moved to defending champions Arsenal, while Sandro Tonali also made the move to London to join Tottenham.

Jaissle arrived with a reputation of playing high intensity, high pressing football and that was evident in the early stages as Liverpool struggled deal with the pace of the Newcastle attack.

A number of players also looked reborn with Elanga - who joined Newcastle last year - in particular impressive. He showed the sort of clinical touch for his goal that he was missing last season, while he enjoyed an encouraging link-up with William Osula.

Wissa also had an excellent game, although he will rue a late opportunity that would have put the game beyond Liverpool when he charged through on goal, but shot straight at Alisson.

Whether you were at the game or following from elsewhere, we want to know what you learned.

Have your say on Newcastle's performance

What did you make of Liverpool's display?

Reaction and analysis to follow - and come back on Monday for a selection of your replies.

There are three games in the Premier League on Sunday as the opening weekend continues, and BBC Sport will bring you every moment.

• Brighton v Aston Villa - listen on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra 2

• Man City v Bournemouth - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

• Newcastle v Liverpool (16:30) - listen on BBC Radio 5 Live

Kick-off times 14:00 BST unless stated.

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I like everything I've seen from new Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle, but he's had the heart ripped out of his team with Sandro Tonali and Bruno Guimaraes leaving.

They were two absolute monsters in midfield, who were horrible to play against, but they have gone - and so has the influence of Anthony Gordon and the experience of Kieran Trippier.

It is sad to see. That's not to say Newcastle can't do well now, but I think their fans are realistic about this season and how it will go.

This will be a fascinating game because Liverpool are still adapting to life under Andoni Iraola and have struggled defensively in pre-season. Hopefully they can run for more than half an hour now, too.

I don't think they will have any problems up front, however.

Alexander Isak will get quite a reception - and not in a good way - from the home crowd, but I do think he will shine for Liverpool this year and that starts on Sunday.

Sutton's prediction: 1-3

Read the full predictions and have your say here

Ciaran Kelly
Newcastle United reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Kevin Keegan may have been fighting stage four cancer at the time, but the Newcastle United legend vowed there "will be a day when I'll come back" to St James' Park.

It is rather poignant that he did not ultimately return.

However, those inside the stadium will celebrate the 75-year-old's legacy on Sunday when Newcastle face Liverpool, another of his former clubs.

It promises to be an emotional day for those former staff and players who have been invited back, including Warren Barton, who is flying in especially from the United States.

"All of us will have a tear in our eye," the ex-Newcastle defender said. "Because, like when Sir Bobby [Robson] went, you just lose a little bit, but you never forget."

Understandably so.

Keegan took Newcastle from the brink of relegation to the third tier to the cusp of winning the Premier League just a few years later.

This charismatic figure encouraged the city to dream when he returned to Newcastle as manager in 1992 following his previous spell as a player.

Former first-team coach Derek Fazackerley knows that better than most.

"He was never happy with mediocrity or just accepting what we were," he said of the two-time Ballon d'Or winner.

"He was always trying to drive it forward because he was used to playing at the top and knew what it needed to sustain that."

Those involved still look back on that period as one of the happiest of their lives, on and off the field.

As much as ex-physio Derek Wright was "quite emotional" when he heard Keegan had died, a number of amusing memories also came flooding back, such as the day he beat Fazackerley in a race at the training ground.

"Kevin must have had a bet on me and won some money because he then said: 'Right, come on, I'll give you a piggyback around the field,'" he said.

"But he ended up in hospital for a few days after carrying me on his back. I think he prolapsed a disc.

"It wasn't very nice for him but it's times like that where you think back: 'Oh my god – did that really happen?' He was just great. Unique, really."

For ex-midfielder Lee Clark, too, there was pride as much as sadness when he witnessed the huge number of flowers and kits left outside St James' Park last month.

The Hartlepool manager will also be there on Sunday, wearing his retro Newcastle shirt with Keegan's name and number seven on the back.

"He gave the club its belief back," he said. "He gave the city its identity back. The people from Newcastle will be forever indebted.

"People say to us lads now we were good in never turning down an autograph or a photograph, but we learned from the best because, let's get it right, the superstar of our group was our manager."

Hit play below to hear Chris Heron of Wor Flags tell BBC Radio Newcastle of the plans for a tribute to Keegan at St James' Park before the Liverpool match...

Explore all Newcastle content on BBC Sounds

Matthew Hobbs
BBC Sport journalist

St James' Park plays host to the meeting of two new managers this weekend as one of the highest scoring fixtures in Premier League history resumes on Tyneside.

Andoni Iraola ended three seasons at Bournemouth with a bang after leading the Cherries to European football for the first time and his arrival at Liverpool earlier this summer was well received following the decline under predecessor Arne Slot.

Following their title win with 84 points under Slot in 2024-25, Liverpool slipped to sixth last season after earning just 60. It was the biggest drop-off in terms of the overall points tally of any Premier League team when comparing the past two campaigns.

The arrival of Iraola, however, has been tempered by fan frustration surrounding Liverpool's limited transfer activity following the departure of Mohamed Salah.

Salah scored 257 goals and provided 120 assists in 442 games for the club but Liverpool have yet to bring in a new right winger, while the squad also looks light in central midfield where Ryan Gravenberch, Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister are the only senior options.

Salah's absence and the lack of a direct replacement is likely to result in an increased focus on Alexander Isak. The £125m signing struggled amid injury problems after swapping St James' Park for Anfield in a protracted move last summer.

He returns to his former club for the first time on Sunday afternoon having scored just four goals in 22 games for Liverpool so far.

Newcastle kick off proceedings without Eddie Howe for the first time in five years, with replacement Matthias Jaissle taking charge of a Premier League side for the first time in his career.

Jaissle has won his opening game in charge at his three previous clubs and his Al-Ahli side were unbeaten at home in the Saudi Pro League last season.

The former Salzburg boss has midfield woes of his own to contend with following the departures of Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, while Anthony Gordon has also been sold to Barcelona.

Newcastle have made seven new signings but a focus on youth means that a side that finished 12th last season is very much in transition. Jaissle's immediate task may be to simply steady the ship.

The Magpies have both scored (14) and conceded (13) in each of their last seven Premier League home games, while they have failed to defeat the Reds in the past 19 league meetings (D5, L14).

Liverpool had struggles of their own on the road last season, losing nine matches, but they have opened with a victory in each of the past 13 seasons.

Whoever the winner, one thing that this Premier League fixture usually promises is goals. There have been 198 scored so far – two more would make it just the third fixture in the competition's history to reach a double century.

Newcastle fan and podcaster Charlotte Robson says she is excited for the new season but warns Matthias Jaissle's side need to rebuild the "thread of seniority" lost during a "difficult" summer transfer window.

"It has been a busy summer and sort of a weird one at the beginning," she told BBC Radio Newcastle.

"I think a lot of people, well, we certainly hoped it would be busy at the beginning so that players could bed into the team but it seems to have been more difficult than that.

"I think that we've missed out on some targets that we hoped to have and lots of rumours on social media but broadly speaking we have brought in some interesting players, so I feel good about that."

The Magpies have signed six new players all under the age of 25 after Kieran Trippier left at the end of his contract and star players Anthony Gordon and Sandro Tonali have been sold alongside captain Bruno Guimaraes.

Charlotte added: "What I think now is massively important is how they bed in under a new manager. We've got Dan Burn now has been named the captain which is great but we've lost that thread of seniority through the squad so we need to build that back up."

Listen to the full chat above or on BBC Sounds

Matthias Jaissle sees an opportunity, refusing to "waste energy" speaking about the game's financial rules, which have limited their overall spending power and heightened the need to trade.

"I like challenges," the ex-Al-Ahli and Red Bull Salzburg manager said. "I try to see in all challenges the chance in it, so therefore I'm here.

"Of course you can complain about the timing, the big transition, all the sales the club did, but we will not.

"We will have no excuses."

Newcastle have made six signings in Lukas Hornicek, Ewen Jaouen, Amar Dedic, Sean Steur, Aladji Bamba and Bazoumana Toure, but the new arrivals are all aged 24 and under and will need time to adapt to the physicality and intensity of the Premier League.

Further reinforcements are clearly required and Jaissle is "confident there will be changes" before the summer transfer window shuts on 1 September.

The German remains undaunted despite a number of pundits predicting a season of strife for his side.

"Everyone is somehow against us or do not think we can play a good role in the Premier League," he said.

"We will try to convince them in a different way that we are able to."

Read more from Ciaran's interview

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

After clinching fifth and Champions League football the season before, Newcastle's 12th-place finish was disappointing.

But while most of their stats were those of a mid-table side, a bit more efficiency in both boxes could have meant they finished a fair bit higher given how tight the middle of the table was.

Considering the number and quality of chances they took and faced, Newcastle scored four fewer goals and conceded four more than they really should have.

Defensively, they actually had the sixth-lowest xG against figure in the league, but so many defences were similar in strength that just those extra four goals meant they conceded the sixth-most overall.

Only Wolves, Crystal Palace and Chelsea underperformed their xG difference by more than the Magpies.

With that and a turbulent summer during which manager Eddie Howe and a few key players have left to be replaced by Matthias Jaissle and a flurry of new signings, Newcastle's numbers could look very different this season.

Manchester United are concentrating on signing a new left-back, with Racing Santander's 19-year-old Spaniard Jorge Salinas a candidate as Newcastle are not inclined to sell England left-back Lewis Hall. (CaughtOffside), external

Bayer Leverkusen's Burkina Faso centre-back Edmond Tapsoba, 27, has emerged as a leading defensive target for Newcastle, Manchester United and Tottenham. (Teamtalk), external

Want more transfer stories? Read Friday's full gossip column

Follow the gossip column on BBC Sport

Chris Collinson
BBC Sport statistician

Image source, Getty Images

In the Premier League last season, 13 of the 20 teams finished with between 40 and 60 points - the most in an English top-flight campaign since 2003-04 (also 13).

Was the Premier League so competitive in 2025-26 because the quality of the 'lesser' teams got better or the top teams got worse? It is hard to know for sure.

Given how savvy clubs like Brighton, Brentford and Bournemouth are, the vast amounts of money that enable even bottom-half sides to sign the best talent from abroad and the Premier League's current dominance of the Europa League and Conference League, it would seem to be the former.

However, the fact that promoted play-off winners Sunderland were able to finish above 13 teams in their first season back suggests the league was maybe not as strong as we think.

What we do know is that whether because they got worse or their opponents got better, four of the sides that finished in the top seven in 2024-25 - champions Liverpool, Chelsea, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest - took 79 points fewer between them last season.

While Forest's decline was perhaps expected given their incredible seventh-place finish in 2024-25 and their journey to the Europa League semi-finals last season, the others were far more surprising.

Sunderland and Leeds smashed the recent run of promoted sides struggling to compete by taking 64 more points than the teams they replaced in the top flight.

As a result, this season will be a bit of an upside-down one in that Bournemouth, Brighton and Sunderland have European campaigns to navigate while Chelsea, Tottenham and Newcastle do not.

Will we therefore see a bounce-back to the more 'traditional' order in 2026-27 or are we truly entering a new, fiercely-competitive era of the Premier League?

Read more on the Premier League's competitiveness

Flora Snelson
BBC Sport journalist

Newcastle United boss Matthias Jaissle has been speaking to the media before Sunday's Premier League game against Liverpool at St James' Park (kick-off 16:30 BST).

Here are the key lines from his news conference:

• New signing Amar Dedic is "the perfect fit" - and his knowledge of Jaissle's playing style from their time together at Red Bull Salzburg helps.

• Dedic is ready to play on Sunday, but it comes too soon for Tino Livramento and Joelinton, whom Jaissle expects to be out for a couple of weeks.

• Jaissle is looking forward to his first appearance at a sell-out St James' Park: "It will be an amazing privilege to be the coach of Newcastle United against a top team in the league"

• On the role of fans: "If there's good synergy with the fans, and they will back us, I'm 100% convinced that, together with players and staff members, they can create this benefit and we want to use that."

• Jaissle said of "special" tributes planned for Kevin Keegan: "[He is] a legend. You cannot really describe what he did for our club. For sure, a reason why the club is right now on that level [is] what he did, what he was building."

• His 'team talk' for Newcastle fans: "The togetherness, all in together - I think that could be the biggest message and the biggest benefit for this season."

• On the club's new training ground: "It's a great sign toward the future. We have a young squad to build a future with, and it's a really good combination. This is the base to build something on and I cannot wait to see the development."

• On remaining transfer business: "We want to be efficient in the transfer market but also smart in our approach. We only do the right things. We don't feel hectic, or pressure from the outside. We go our way."

• Asked how confident he is that Newcastle can beat Liverpool, Jaissle said: "At home, everything is possible."

• On Alexander Isak's return to St James' Park: "Our lads will just focus on themselves - that's the most important thing. And our fans will focus on our lads."

• On the injury which ended his playing career aged 25: "It was a tough moment, when I needed to quit my career as a player at an early stage but if you're going through this hole in your life - probably you all have these phases in life as well - at one point, you come out stronger. That's what I tried to do."

Hit play above to hear more from Jaissle, speaking to BBC Radio Newcastle's Matthew Raisbeck, or listen on BBC Sounds here

You can listen to full commentary of Newcastle v Liverpool on BBC Radio 5 Live and BBC Sounds on Sunday

Follow all of Thursday's Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day's football news

Got a question about Newcastle? Get in touch here and we'll seek answers from our experts

Ciaran Kelly
Newcastle United reporter

Image source, NUFC

Newcastle United have agreed to purchase the site for a new £190m state-of-the-art training ground.

The club will acquire 260 acres of land at the Woolsington Hall estate owned by former chairman Sir John Hall.

Newcastle plan to build new elite performance facilities for the men's first team and academy, with the flexibility to integrate bespoke women's facilities as well.

A formal planning application is expected to be submitted in early 2027 with a view to the men's first team moving in for the 2029-30 campaign.

Chief executive David Hopkinson said it was a "landmark moment" for the club.

"Subject to planning permission, our proposed performance complex will create the world's best performance environment for our teams," he said.

"We'll develop purpose-built facilities that are geared towards developing sustainable success in the future, where players, coaches and staff can perform at their very best every day.

"We will be submitting a detailed planning application that not only demonstrates our vision, but also how we will preserve and enhance a historic estate, its biodiversity and wildlife habitats, and how we'll be a great neighbour."

The club said they were committed to delivering the project "sustainably and responsibly" and stressed they will work "closely with the local community and local authorities as plans develop".