Fabian Schar on Newcastle United's form and memories of past struggles

Sometimes, though, a sense of perspective is required. Fabian Schar is in his sixth season as a Newcastle player, so while the current situation might be far from ideal, he does not have to delve too far into his memory banks to remember a time when things were worse. Much worse.

Losing to Oxford in the FA Cup perhaps? Suffering a 4-0 defeat at home to Manchester City, then trumping it by losing 5-0 at the Etihad in the same season? Scrapping around in the bottom half of the table, with even your manager admitting the main ambition was to keep the club “ticking along”. That was Newcastle at its lowest ebb. This is a rough patch, but it is still a world away from the way things used to be.

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“This is probably the trickiest period for the last two years or whatever,” said Schar. “It’s not been our best few weeks, I would say – we’ve had to take a few setbacks and difficult results, which is difficult to take and obviously you don’t want to have that.

“I think the difference now that we had two such great years (is) that it’s even harder to accept or have a bad period, because you want to be on that good side all the time. But this is not football. Sometimes, it’s just not happening.

“Before that it was always, I would say, difficult, so the difficult part…you’re more used to it, or you know you’re in a difficult situation and now you have to come out of it. And now you’ve seen the other side, you just want to be on that level all the time. We have to learn from those results, those weeks, and I think then it will make us even stronger.”

The first half of Schar’s Newcastle career was largely devoid of such hope. The tail end of the Mike Ashley era was a depressing period for all involved, with a lack of investment creating a pervasive air of stagnation. Playing under both Rafael Benitez and Steve Bruce, the Swiss centre-half spent his time battling against relegation. The fights were won, with the Magpies remaining in the top-flight, but it was hard to see how things could improve.

Fabian Schar flies in to make a challenge on Wolves' Pedro Neto (Image: PA)

That changed when Amanda Staveley’s Saudi Arabia-backed group completed their takeover, and while there might be growing frustration at the way in which the Premier League’s Profit and Sustainability rules are stymying Newcastle’s attempts to disrupt the established order, the club remains on an upward trajectory that would have been unthinkable under the previous regime.

As one of the remaining players from the Ashley era, Schar gets that. So, while there is understandable disappointment at the last couple of months, there is also a deep-rooted confidence that it represents a blip rather than anything more concerning.

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“Probably, in that period (under the previous regime), there were more question marks of how we were getting out of that,” said Schar, in an interview with UNITED, Newcastle’s official matchday magazine. “We couldn't answer questions, things like this.

“Now, I’m 100 per cent confident of having better times soon. Obviously, we had a lot of bad luck with injuries – we don’t want to use it as excuses, but just in our season it was influential to the game we played, and now there’s going to be a more normal week-by-week game rhythm.”

With the Manchester City game having come in the first half of the Premier League’s winter-break window, Newcastle’s players now have a ten-day gap ahead of their next fixture, which will take them to Villa Park to take on high-flying Aston Villa.

The intensity of the schedule in the first half of the season was undoubtedly a factor in Newcastle’s struggles, having been exacerbated by the injury crisis that meant Eddie Howe was unable to rotate or rest players from game to game.

With no more European matches, and only a potential run in the FA Cup to combine with the league programme, that should not be as much of an issue in the second half of the campaign, with Howe able to get back to the rhythm of last season when he tended to have a full week in which to prepare his side for their next fixture.

That should help Newcastle turn things around, even if Schar concedes there is a sense of disappointment at having such a light schedule.

Fabian Schar holds off Chelsea's Cole Palmer (Image: Owen Humphreys)

“I’d rather still have those three-day breaks, you know,” he said. “I still enjoyed it, because you’re playing so many games. You play Champions League, European football, and it’s the best level. You want to be on that level. It was tough, but I still want it back. Hopefully, we can achieve the same thing again. We are now maybe in a more difficult situation, but I truly believe we can achieve it.”

That is why the 32-year-old readily agreed to a new contract last week that ties him to St James’ Park until the summer of 2025. There have been times during Schar’s Newcastle career when he has been linked with a possible move away from Tyneside, and there have also been spells, most notably under Bruce, when he found himself sitting on the sidelines, wondering if he would have to move on to secure regular game time.

Now, he is revelling in being a key component of Howe’s first-choice line-up, and it is hardly coincidental that Newcastle’s sustained improvement has come in conjunction with some of the best football of his career.

“I’m just really grateful to stay here another year because I feel I’m comfortable,” said the Swiss international, who is set to be a key player for his country at this summer’s European Championships, where they have been drawn in a group with Germany, Scotland and Hungary. “I feel like I’m settled in my second home place, in this club.

“Staying here for such a long time now – it will be my seventh year – is quite a long time in football. I’m thankful to be on this level for so many years and hopefully achieving some more great things with the club. I’m looking forward to that.

“It goes so quick. Now, when I’m a little bit older, I realise how time flies. It’s actually mad saying that it’s already my sixth season. Time goes quick. I think now I'm a player who enjoys football a little bit more. Realising being here and achieving things, I'm probably a bit more grateful than I was like ten years ago. I know I won't play forever, so I just try to take in every moment now.”