Every season is a journey and this one, for me, begins on platform 15 at Moynihan Train Hall. New York is broiling — the humidity as welcoming as a windscreen to a fly — and football is not its first thought, but there are four Arsenal shirts milling about, a couple of Chelsea, too. It feels like a small encroachment; the sports section of the Post is swamped by baseball and gridiron, but there are two pages on the Women’s World Cup and another on Lionel Messi’s debut in the MLS.
At 1.05pm, the train to Harrisburg pulls out and ducks beneath the baking ground, emerging into searing brightness minutes later in another place entirely, the scrubland and waste management of New Jersey — prime Tony Soprano country. Stop four will be Philadelphia, stop one for Newcastle United on their pre-season tour to the United States and at this point you can only wonder where the journey ends. Where will Newcastle be come May? Who will they be?
George’s Newcastle season begins on the road (and train) in the US
In the next few days, Eddie Howe’s side will play Aston Villa, Chelsea and Brighton, familiar opponents in the unfamiliar setting of east coast America, dotting from their base in Atlanta, up to Philly, back down to Georgia and then up to Jersey, before home….
