Newcastle United in Japan - was it a success?
NewcastleWorld writer Jordan Cronin spent the week in Tokyo with Newcastle United.
Transcript
00:00so this is the final edition of my tokyo video day diaries now i've got to confess i'm not
00:09actually in tokyo right now i am in shanghai waiting for my connection flight to manchester
00:16before i get on that long train back up to the northeast so when you see this i will be back
00:25in england because um well i didn't know you might have but i didn't there's quite a lot of things
00:33restricted on chinese wi-fi and yeah can't get on facebook can't get on x can't get on youtube
00:44um yeah can't get on many things but i can record a video and then i say upload it when i am back
00:52on english soil which i'm very much looking forward to after a long week in japan now i say
01:00it was a long week but it was a really really enjoyable week and i think eddie how and his
01:05players will probably feel the same um if you take away the weather conditions because
01:13as it's been well documented it's been hot and humid in tokyo heat personally i've never
01:20experienced before i'd guess it was probably the same for for some of those players as well maybe
01:25not your bruno's etc how we used to play them in south america but you know quite the quite a lot
01:32of the english call wouldn't have enjoyed that plenty of other players as well it was really
01:36tough conditions here and i think that's i think that's one of probably the it depends what you
01:42look at it i suppose eddie how new coming here what the conditions were were going to be like
01:48um he said that would hopefully help help newcastle you know it's fitness now only time
01:54will tell if that will be the case um because you know the premier league season now was only
02:02as i said here now just under a fortnight away southampton at home but before that
02:08they obviously got the seller weekender against girona and stad brist so yeah it could work in
02:16newcastle's favor but they played very two challenging games i would say made even more
02:24difficult because of the weather conditions i would say the first game against eurora
02:33probably didn't affect newcastle as much as it could have because there was a downpour
02:39before kickoff um at the site on a stadium so that cooled the temperatures down and it probably
02:46showed in the result for one win that and newcastle dealt well with conditions that day
02:52and were relatively comfortable in that in that victory and really i suppose an even first half
03:00if you like newcastle probably edged it and then in the second half uh yeah they wiped the floor
03:06with their their j league counterparts but it was a very different story um the the next game
03:14after japan national stadium against yokohama so hot um it was the probably on the hottest
03:24days of the week and it was just so happens that newcastle had to go out on the pitch and
03:29and play for 90 minutes and yeah as much as newcastle i think again if you look at it in
03:35both halves newcastle probably shaded it in the in the first half but i do wonder how much that
03:40heat did play an impact in terms of that final ball of the lack of concentration in the the
03:47final third that just newcastle's final touch wasn't quite there and yeah in the second half as
03:54well anyhow made seven changes and then later on in the in the second half from 60 minutes onward
04:00there was more changes so with the weather conditions and the disruption of all the
04:06substitutes it all sort of came to a head for newcastle then they got fortunate that say it
04:11rained in the previous game but yeah there was no getting away from that heat yesterday it was
04:16absolutely scorching but of course this this trip wasn't just about what happened on the pitch
04:23of course usually you know pre-season results don't don't matter at all really um you like you
04:29like to win as a as a as many would say but it's not the be all be all and end all i think what was
04:37the most important thing about this trip was newcastle connecting with a with a new fan base
04:43new people japan as we sort of come to learn over in tokyo it's a very untapped market
04:52market in newcastle to be fair i've got a really strong core of their black and white supporters
05:02and fan events which will come on now later and in a minute the away ends at both stadiums
05:13see a black and white flags and it felt like it was it was really heartwarming to see actually
05:21so chosen you can still got a core fan base but if you want to get a wider fan base then
05:26that will only come with naturally success signing big name players and you know probably signing a
05:33a japanese base player would probably help that as well when you look at
05:38brighton with mitoma and of course um tottenham as well that ange costacoglu he previously managed
05:44in japan so those type of um additions help if you like but yeah the the it was it was a
05:52heartwarming i'd say the fan event uh hours before the game on saturday against yokohama at the
05:59rooftop bar in uh shinjuku city it was a really really nice moment there was there was fans from
06:07four corners of the world coming together um obviously of course japan base fans there was
06:15people over from hong kong sinapore australia dubai there was there was a lot of it just it
06:24as much as newcastle have got a long way to go before building a really really
06:29strong international following it shows that they've got a really really good core and they
06:35all came together at that final event and of course at the games as well and i think that was
06:39a real positive from this trip and the main positive for me and doing trips like this will
06:45of course naturally help newcastle to continue to build to where they want to be but yeah there was
06:55not a lot of fun event was was excellent um sure i mean we'll be doing a q and a
07:01and had fans chanting about sandro tonali lots of sun and chance this trip as well um
07:10there's a fine event of course that tonali appeared up early on the week um which tonali's
07:20english was very very good um and excitement is building towards his return now i think
07:28if you want to look at sort of highlights from the trip i would say probably tonali
07:34appearance was was one of them because it's not long now until he is indeed back available and of
07:40course starting september now in tottenham hotspur visit st james's park but going off a bit of a
07:47tangent there as as you usually do i think that the trip overall was a was a real positive one
07:53and i'm sure newcastle will endeavor to go back in to japan in the the coming
08:01years i think they'll have other markets they want to explore um but yeah i think i think it
08:09was a roaring success to say i was i was surprised by the amount of fans newcastle had over there
08:19i think you'll probably look at the first game there was only 13 000 fans in attendance against
08:25eurora but that core fan group was was really really vocal and really strong and then
08:33the attendance at the japan national stadium i didn't get an official figure there was
08:38suggestions that there would be 50 000 attendance before the game i don't think it was it was quite
08:43that um but again another strong core following from the japanese fans and other supporters who
08:52were flowing in from from elsewhere as well so newcastle didn't used to do things like this of
08:59course they've been to shanghai before where i'm currently sat now under on the steve bruce but
09:05international fan events weren't a thing and they're doing that now and i say trips like
09:13this one will help newcastle become a hopefully a global but there's a there's a long way to go
09:19but the signs are positive newcastle are doing all the right things and yeah i think they they
09:26leave tokyo having left a really big impression on some of the local people and then the japanese
09:35newcastle supporting fans already it was a once in a lifetime opportunity for many of them there
09:39there was somewhere i didn't actually i hadn't seen newcastle united play before so it was yeah
09:47it was a it was a lovely event and a lovely weekend you know i'm sure newcastle will be
09:53doing more of those trips whether that be japan maybe the middle east plenty of other
09:59untapped markets which i'm sure darren eels and peter silverstone will be planning um ahead of
10:05next summer as well so yeah to round off a bit of a ramble this um day diary i do
10:12do apologize it's been a been a long week but overall it's been a positive one so thanks
10:18everyone to well thanks everyone who tuned into newcastle world over the last week and read
10:25the content it was much appreciated i do hope you enjoyed it um i'm away for a
10:32probably a couple of days rest and probably take us to recover from this sleep deprived
10:38trip but we'll be back on friday and saturday for as i mentioned at the start there the cellar
10:45weekender where newcastle play on friday and saturday the final games of pre-season before
10:53that all-important southampton opener the premier league opener so thanks everyone for watching
11:00we'll see you in a week's time