Papiss Cisse believes Newcastle United will avoid relegation this season even though he admits he doesn’t know what is happening at St James Park.
The former Magpies attacker revealed that he still watches Newcastle’s matches and even admitted that the side’s performance in the 5-0 loss to Leicester City made him angry.
Despite being dismayed by the loss to the Foxes, Cissie backed his former his side to be strong enough to stay up and insisted Steve Bruce’s team will be okay.
“I don’t know what is happening there, but they will stay up,” said Cisse in an interview with The Athletic.
“This kind of moment, when things just go wrong, can happen, but they are strong, and they will be okay. They will come back.”
OPINION
The fact Cisse was confident that Newcastle would avoid relegation after watching the display against Leicester is quite surprising as the Magpies looked dreadful in that game. The Magpies failed to register a shot on target and only saw 31% of the ball, as per WhoScored, and their display made them look like a team destined for the drop. However, maybe Cisse ended up excusing the performance as the Magpies were down to 10-men for a lot of that game due to Isaac Hayden receiving a red card or perhaps he was just backing them to stay up as that is what he is hoping for due to still caring about the club. Yet while that may have been the case, in hindsight Cisse looks psychic. The 34-year-old backed the Magpies to stay up before seeing them beat Manchester United 1-0 in the game that followed the loss to Leicester, and no one around St James Park is currently worried about the Premier League’s relegation battle. While that may change once again in the coming weeks depending on results, who knows the win over Man United might actually kickstart Bruce’s reign at the club.
