Simon Jordan makes another Newcastle United U-turn with ‘shaky grounds’ admission

Simon Jordan has admitted that his £1,000 bet that Newcastle United wouldn’t finish in the Premier League’s top six this season ‘is on shaky grounds’.
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Newcastle have made an impressive start to the 2022-23 campaign, sitting fourth in the table after 13 matches with only one defeat and the best defensive record in the division. It’s the club’s best start to a Premier League season since 2011-12 when they finished fifth.

Before the season started, Jordan made a £1,000 bet with his talkSPORT colleague Jim White that Newcastle wouldn’t finish in the top six in their first full season under new ownership. The Magpies were taken over by a Saudi-led consortium last October and have since spent £210million in the transfer market.

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While Jordan was quick to highlight that there is still a lot of football to be played this season, he couldn’t help but praise the job Eddie Howe and his side have done so far.

“I do think that my bet is on shaky grounds because I didn’t legislate Liverpool to be as poor as they are,” the former Crystal Palace owner said on his talkSPORT show. “I don’t legislate for some of the other teams that I thought might be competing up the league not doing it either.

“But we are so early in the season, they’ve got a break to come away from in terms of the World Cup, we don’t know what that’s going to look like.

“But right now, Newcastle have got more right than they’ve got wrong. They’ve got everything going in the right direction, they’ve got huge momentum and they’re combining an irresistible force, it’ll be interesting to see what the immovable object is, whether that is Manchester City or the top four being difficult to break into but right now, everything is in the right direction. 

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“If Newcastle do it, and get into Europe in their first season [under new ownership], you will start a revolution not an evolution because this argument that they’re not going to go for it, this argument that they’ve got ceilings. If they sense an opportunity, which of course they’ve only bought a football club for £350million, Todd Boehly has just gone and bought Chelsea for £3.5billion, they’ve got it for very cheap money so they’ll go after it and we’ll see.

“I think my bet is shaky, I think there is a good possibility with the way this Premier League is shaping up that unless certain people buck their ideas up, that I’m going to be ponying up £1,000.”

Jordan’s comments come as a slight u-turn from what he said before Newcastle enjoyed a fine run of form in October, where they took 16 points out of a possible 18.

Back in September, he said: “ I think that people who are projecting what Newcastle are going to achieve, including that wally Jim White who has bet me £1,000 that they are going to finish sixth in the league – and I’ll take that money in advance Jim if you want to pay it now – are unrealistic.

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“Newcastle are building, going through the gears, they’re an attacking offensively, easy on the eye, well-balanced side and I enjoy watching them.

“I think there’s just a bit of reality stepping in about what people expect them to do and what they’re capable of doing.”