LONDON: Tottenham spoiled Newcastle’s welcome party for their new Saudi Arabian owners by winning 3-2 at St James’ Park and keeping the Magpies anchored next to bottom of the Premier League.

Newcastle will have £40m to spend in the January transfer window. Presumably their targets will be players with not only Premier League experience but experience of a relegation battle.

This is the priority before they can start thinking about even bigger spending next summer to launch their pursuit of Manchester City, Chelsea and Co.

The controversy over the £305m deal will not fade easily. Protesters outside St James’ Park paraded banners reminding fans about Saudi attitudes to women’s rights and LGBTQ issues as well as the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi embassy in Istanbul.

Only hours before the game staff were still removing seating name tags of derided previous owner Mike Ashley and his fellow directors from the VIP tribune. One man still in place, probably to his own surprise, was Steve Bruce who had survived the first week under new ownership to reach his 1,000th match as a manager.

A black-and-white-hot atmosphere greeted the new owners, including deal-maker Amanda Staveley, and then the teams. Callum Wilson rewarded them by dive-heading Newcastle into the lead after only two minutes.

However the lead and the enjoyment lasted only 15 minutes. Tanguy Ndombele equalised then Harry Kane beat the Newcastle offside trap to score his first Premier goal of the season. Minutes later Lucas Moura headed against the bar.

Five minutes before halftime the match was halted and the players taken off the pitch after medical staff raced to help a supporter who had collapsed in the crowd.

The match was suspended for 20 minutes while the fan received treatment and was taken to hospital. The players returned to resume the first half and Moura and Kane immediately set up Heung-min Son for a third Spurs’ goal.

Any of the out-of-work managers interested in succeeding Bruce might have been intimidated at seeing the size of the task ahead. Newcastle’s defending was sloppy and their midfield out-thought and outplayed.

Worse was to follow. Substitute midfielder Jonjo Shelvey was sent off after collecting a second yellow card in 15 minutes for bringing down Sergio Reguilon. Newcastle’s fans chanted: “We want Brucie out!”

A stoppage time own goal by Eric Dier came too late to save them.

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