If you don’t believe - you won’t achieve.
Well, following United’s 3-2 loss to Norwich, Newcastle is a city that needs to do an incredible amount of believing with the club now on the brink of relegation.
But the problems at Newcastle have been building up for years, through a combination of poor judgement, indecision and fear of overspending.
Rafa Benitez is merely picking up the pieces and will deserve his own statue if he keeps Newcastle up this season.
With the Magpies now six points behind the Canaries a return to the Championship after six years seems inevitable.
The reality is Newcastle have been flirting with the drop for two seasons now and, as far as Mike Ashley is concerned, this is the fourth time in eight of his years in charge that Newcastle have been in relegation trouble.
Ashley’s United now seem set for their second drop into the Football League.
The owner took a step back from frontline management of the club’s boardroom affairs.
However, after entrusting managing director Lee Charnley and his Football Board last summer, he must surely be regretting taking his place on the sidelines.
Indeed, while the defeat at Norwich was painful for the travelling fans at Carrow Road, they all knew that it wasn’t about 93 minutes in East Anglia.
Newcastle’s problems run much deeper than that.
How far do you want to go back?
United is supposed to be a big club steeped in tradition and it should be striving for a place in Europe every year.
But just three years ago, the club’s future hinged on a meeting in a pub near Barnet as Ashley decided to hand some of the important decision making to the hapless Joe Kinnear.
During the former Wimbledon chief’s stretch in charge, he failed to make a permanent signing to a squad that was already in desperate need of repair.
It left Alan Pardew trying to blag his way through a season which was saved after a steady winning run just before the new year.
If Pardew’s task wasn’t hard enough under Kinnear, he still had to deal with a transfer system that wouldn’t allow him to bring in his own players.
Chief scout Graham Carr is the man who has effectively put the current squad together in the last five years.
But unfortunately, it simply isn’t fit for purpose - that has been glaringly obvious in the last 12 months especially.
Another glutton for punishment in John Carver found that out when he was hung out to dry last season.
Carver was sent out to work without a right-back and a left-back at one stage while also having to field full-backs in the heart of defence.
Steve McClaren then tried his hand to sort the mess out at Newcastle but he quickly realised he was going to struggle.
Despite, inheriting a squad last summer that leaked goals and lacked a killer touch in the penalty area, his reasonable request to sign an experienced centre-back with Premier League experience was knocked back and he was snubbed by his board after asking to sign Charlie Austin.
Rafa Benitez is the latest manager to try his luck in the Newcastle mad house.
Benitez has certainly solved Newcastle’s goalscoring problems by getting a tune out of Aleksandar Mitrovic.
But he suffered a defeat because the limits of the squad at United forced him into fielding a patched-up back four, this time with no left-back to choose from.
Although, even the defenders at his disposal don’t seem capable of listening simple instructions.
Mitrovic cut a lonely figure as he lay slumped on the field at the final whistle at Norwich.
His hard work had been undone after Newcastle failed to clear their lines after both of his equalisers looked to have saved a point.
Benitez kept his composure after the game but his post-match Press conference said it all.
He was quick to highlight Newcastle’s failure to focus in the last minute of each half.
They just can’t mark their men or guard the posts effectively.
Even junior football teams can manage that.
Twice Newcastle switched off for Timm Klose’s goal and Martin Olsson’s last-gasp winner.
It was heartbreaking to watch, but until Newcastle start signing players with knowledge of game management they will suffer defeat after defeat.
They don’t know how to run the clock down in games.
Benitez can only try his best in the last few weeks of the season to drum some of the basics into a group of players who have been sleepwalking their way into the Championship for some time this season.
The only straw to clutch on was Newcastle’s second-half performance.
Their battling display though needs to be across 90 minutes.
But it won’t get any easier at Southampton next week and now Newcastle are not only relying on overcoming their own struggles but also praying for results to go their way elsewhere.
These are desperate times and Benitez may have to opt for desperate measures.
The reality is that this group of players deserve to be relegated.
They may think they are capable of playing for clubs in the Champions League or can get a better move somewhere else.
But they’re dreaming and any decent scout watching on will have noted their lack of stomach for the fight.
When the chips are down most of this lot go missing.
The sad reality of the situation is that most of this lot deserve to be plying their trade at places like Preston North End and Bristol City next season.