Our latest review sees us turn our attentions to the programme produced by Newcastle United. Read our full review below and click here to see all of the 2021/22 Premier League issues.
The Magpies offer up an 84-page, perfect-bound edition for the 2021/22 season – an issue which contains some of the best historical content of any programme in the league.
Several of these features come from the pen of club historian Paul Joannou. ‘The United History Blog’, for example, offers up various items of interest from Newcastle’s past, alongside the continuing ‘United’s History in 100 Objects’ column that looks at items of Toon memorabilia, and ‘Forgotten Reserves’ – a fascinating article that profiles players who were on the club’s books but never played for the first eleven. Joannou is also the inspiration behind ‘140 Years of Action’, which looks at notable moments from the club’s history – decade by decade. Each article in this series offers something of interest, particularly those in the season’s early issues, which recounted stories from the late 19th century.
‘Programme Matters’ is another great read. This is a three-page feature from columnist Stan Gate, focusing on programmes, teamsheets, ticket stubs, and trading cards with a connection to the day’s opponents. A related column is ‘Collector’s Corner’, profiling one United fan who discusses their collection and highlights some of their favourite and rarest items. It’s refreshing to see this type of article included within the programme, and always interesting to read about how each supporter views their collection.
Another well complied retro feature is ‘Toonament History’, which looks back at various European Championships and World Cups from days gone by and looks at the club’s connections with those tournaments. This is a nicely detailed article, looking at both players and managers, and featuring various stickers from the related Panini sticker album.
There’s plenty of other original content too – including ‘The Toon Tombola’, where a current player answers various random questions; ‘Q&A Revisited’ – which is a new feature for the 2021/22 season, featuring former players answering the same questions as they did during their playing career – alongside a reproduction of the answers they gave first time around; and ‘Fashionably Late’, which recalls memorable last minute goals that the Magpies have scored. Each issue also includes a four-page junior section and an interview with one first-teamer over eight pages.
Club information is also impressively detailed. In addition to a three-page first team stats section, news pages, and columns from manager and captain, there is in-depth coverage of the club’s other teams – the under-23s, under-18s, and women’s team, with plenty of updates, match information and stats, as well as ‘The Academy Diary’ – an interview with one member of the academy teams. Unfortunately, the font size used for the stats in these sections is very small, with this content really deserving a page of its own to make it more readable. There are three pages given over to coverage of previous matches, mostly made up of pictures from the game, but also including some commentary, line-ups, stats, and quotes, and two-pages on the Newcastle United Foundation.
Opposition coverage runs to eight pages, with an introduction that looks at recent form and transfer updates, followed by four pages of pen-pictures and a manager biography. ‘Split Loyalties’ takes a brief look at one player who represented both teams, while ‘Last Time Out’ shows the team’s line-up and formation from their most recent game. One of the highlights of this section is ‘Opposition Scrapbook’ – a nicely designed two-page spread showing pictures from standout moments in the club’s history.
A thoroughly enjoyable read then, with some of the best features around that offer a valuable insight and record of the club’s history.