There is no greater illustration of the current levels of excitement around Newcastle United than the fact that, on Tuesday morning, 30,000 supporters waited in an online queue to buy one of 1,000 season-tickets.
We say ‘buy’, those who were successful felt more like lottery winners. For them, the cost was as good as irrelevant. Hugo Ekitike’s agent could have knocked at the door and demanded an extra few hundred quid and they would have gladly paid it.
At the same time as the rush for tickets, the club’s Saudi-backed hierarchy were winning a race of their own, finalising the £32million deal to bring Sven Botman, their top summer target, to St James’ Park.