Newcastle United’s training ground at the beginning of this week. As Rafa Benítez and his players reassembled for pre-season, catching up on gossip with the medical and fitness staff, swapping anecdotes about their summer holidays (not that the manager took one), there was the usual array of emotion; anticipation about the club’s return to the Premier League, excitement at the sense of possibility, pent up energy and nerves.

There was also something else, too, something which explains the strange mood which has hung around the club since their promotion in May, an easing of tension which has built and itched and niggled away. It felt like relief. After a testing, barren few weeks, which has seen transfers stall and logjam, Benítez was back on the