- Newcastle United post in solidarity with Hall
- Magpies’ squad make feelings clear
- Why Hall should have been on the plane
Newcastle United left-back Lewis Hall faced massive disappointment this week when he was left out of Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the upcoming World Cup.
Hall has widely been Newcastle’s best player this season, only behind the talismanic Bruno Guimarães, and was widely expected to go to America.
There has been an uproar in the wake of the announcement, with social media unanimous in defending Lewis Hall against the omission.
Players take to social media.
As did many of the clubs whose players controversially missed out, most prominently Nottingham Forest with Morgan Gibbs-White, Newcastle United posted in appreciation of their flying full-back.
The post was simple, featuring the line from his chant, ‘you’re my super Lewis Hall’, accompanied by a photo of Hall. Its simplicity did not diminish its impact, though.
The sentiment of the post was subsequently shared by the Newcastle United squad, with the players showing support for Hall in their responses.
Within a couple of hours of the post going live, a plethora of the senior squad had liked it.
Bruno Guimaraes, Lewis Miley, Nick Woltemade, Jacob Ramsey, Malick Thiaw, Kieran Trippier, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy, Joe Willock, and Tino Livramento had all shown their support by interacting with the club’s show of solidarity.
It was perhaps the most pertinent way of doing so without implicating their PR and being shown to openly criticise the decision. The players clearly showed their agreement with the supporters’ feeling that Hall was unfairly snubbed from the squad.
Following the announcement of the England squad, the Magpies have eight players heading to the World Cup. With the possible inclusion of Sven Botman when the Netherlands squad is picked on the 25th of May, that could bring the total to nine.
But nobody can seem to shake the feeling that it should be 10.
Why Hall should have gone
Hall’s absence is the most bizarre, given his excellent season amid Newcastle’s struggles.
Possibly the most bewildering part is that both Newcastle’s second- and third-choice left-backs are going to the tournament: Dan Burn and Tino Livramento.
Djed Spence has been included as the backup left-back and will watch on as Nico O’Reilly takes to the field in the starting role. And it is that decision that is almost entirely unjustified and has caused the uproar among fans and, clearly, players alike.
Hall has proven his worth against the very best this season, with his most notable performance seeing him pocket Lamine Yamal at St James’ Park in the 1st leg of Newcastle’s round of 16 Champions League tie against Barcelona.
That sort of quality just can’t be left at home, and it seems everybody, but Thomas Tuchel, can see that.
