Back on January 2nd when Southampton were due to play Newcastle United , the North East club successfully got the game called off citing a lack of available players, Ralph Hasenhuttl was clear in his comments what he thought of the situation and now that could see him getting a bit of stick from the away end when the game is played on Thursday evening.
Not so long ago Newcastle United were a club to whom most football fans had a lot of empathy, Sunderland fans aside, most match going fans of other clubs admired their passionate fans and had empathy for the situation that they were in with Mike Ashley & Sports Direct seemingly letting the club go to rack and ruin.
But the takeover of the club seemed to change all that, in rolled a consortium seemingly backed by the Saudi Arabian Government via it's Public Investment Fund (PIF) & suddenly Newcastle United had changed as a football club overnight.
Most football supporters could take that, after all it is just another club getting taken over and having spending power, this is the way the Premier League is heading and eventually in my opinion the only real solution for English football at least is a European Super League, not one as the so called Big Six tried to force through twice, where they wanted to remain in a downsized Premier League AND also play in a European Super League, but one where you are in one or the other, not both.
But what stuck in most fans throats was the readiness of the Toon Army to completely forget their roots and their club of the people image and embrace their new owners, out came the tea towels and Arab scarves etc, so much so that their club itself had to ask them to refrain because it was so insulting to the Arabs themselves.
So why was their so much outcry, put simply Saudi Arabia's record on human rights, whilst I have no desire to tell Saudi Arabia or any other nation for that matter how they want to run their country, whether you are a Newcastle fan or not the issue is out there.
Ralph Hasenhuttl made no political comments, so why did he infuriate the Toon Army so much back in January, the answer is simple, he just said what the rest of the country were thinking, Newcastle now having more money than anyone else, seemingly now thought they were above the rules.
With injury issues to key players and not able to start their spending spree they would get games called off and played at a time when they would have bolstered their squad with expensive signings.
In some respects they were panicking, they had the money to buy safety whether they had played the game against us and also Everton, they just didn't seem to have the confidence in their own squad and manager to do so.
Ralph Hasenhuttl merely said what the whole country outside Newcastle and in fairness probably a fair few of their own fans as well were thinking.
Newcastle had just drawn with Manchester United and had managed to put out 9 players on the bench, so how had the situation deteriorated so drastically, I concede here that Ralph was probably a little peeved given that a year earlier he had had to play a game at Old Trafford with 2 youngsters in the starting line up with only a few minutes Premier League experience under their belt and then a bench with only 1 experienced outfield player, two goalkeepers and 6 youth team members.
We got slaughtered but we didn't whinge we got on with the job and then marched forward.
When asked in the built up to the then still on Newcastle game the Saints manager had this to say:
"Yeah, injuries are not COVID cases. Injuries for us are always there."
"I think they (Newcastle) had in the last game eight players on the bench so they should be able to have 13+ players, which is the message from the Premier League.”
"We will prepare for this game with the players we have, and we are not moaning about it.
"We try to be as positive as we can, take the game as it is, we know this is the toughest league in the world. That’s it.”
After the game had been postponed Hasenhuttl called for greater clarity from the Premier League on what were the requirements for an actual postponement to be granted :
"In the end I was disappointed that we couldn’t play because we have been in good shape,” the Austrian said.
"We also had five cases of COVID and it’s not long ago that we had to fill up a team with nine academy players and got a big defeat against Man United.
"I was disappointed that this game didn’t happen, I also didn’t know the situation, exactly how it was at Newcastle.
"Nobody knows it and it makes it difficult to speak about it but it is clear that everybody, not only me, was disappointed that this game didn’t happen.”
So far Hasenhuttl had said nothing that should have inflamed Newcastle fans, he had merely just commented on the situation and the fact that they had at least 20 players available at Old Trafford.
Even his next comments were hardly slating Newcastle, just a general comment on the situation.
"We were discussing in the last Premier League meeting about what happens with the winter signings for the postponed games, if they’re allowed to play or not,” the Saints boss added.
"For us it’s the same, we can now also with our new owners sign new players and that is not really fair to play in games that have been postponed.
"The last word has not been spoken so far.”
Again this comment seemed to inflame Newcastle United supporters on social media, in fairness at the time they too were a little worried that they might not be able to escape relegation, but Hasenhuttl only gave an opinion, that perhaps Covid postponed matches like cup competitions have rules that state that a player has to have been eligible to play in the game at a certain date even if it is postponed.
Back in January Ralph Hasenhuttl was the subject of much abuse from Newcastle supporters on social media, but what did he really say that should have upset them ?
I would contend not a lot other than to pique their new found sense of entitlement, I am sure that just a few months earlier they would have been up in arms if a similar situation had occurred to them.
I am sure there are many Newcastle supporters out there who disagreed with Newcastle's stance in January from a moral perspective, I'm sure that there are many who don't like the direction their club is now taking and I also appreciate that the majority are just glad to be shot of Mike Ashley.
For the rest of us all we ask from them is to remember where they came from !