The team was led by the legend Sir Bobby Robson, Newcastle brought the famous Patrick Kluivert from Barcelona, and everything was supposed to lead to an even better season.
However, the reality was completely different. Newcastle United's unsuccessful season was 'crowned' by a brawl - two teammates fought right on the pitch. This incident occurred exactly 20 years ago, on April 2nd, 2005.
Robson fired
The start of the 2004-05 season was filled with high expectations in the northeast of England. The expectations were further heightened when Newcastle signed the aforementioned Dutch star striker Kluivert.
He was attracted to join the Magpies by their recent results, their high ambitions, star teammate Alan Shearer and also the famous Bobby Robson, who had extensive experience of both Dutch football and Barcelona.
However, the season began poorly for Newcastle, with no wins in their first four matches. Thus, already in August 2004, manager Bobby Robson was sacked, bringing to an end his five-year tenure at the club. After him, Newcastle entrusted the position of manager to Scot Graeme Souness.
Despite Robson's early sacking, Kluivert continued at the Magpies and he did not do badly at all. In the black and white jersey, he scored 13 goals in the season.
He became the team's second highest scorer behind the talismanic Shearer, who scored 19 goals (11 of them in the UEFA Cup, which made him the top scorer of the competition).
Some of Kluivert's goals were very important. For example, he secured progress in the FA Cup with the only goal in both the match against Chelsea and then in the quarter-finals against Tottenham Hotspur. He also scored five times during the Magpies' UEFA Cup campaign.
Black April
Newcastle did not do well in the Premier League during the season. However, they still had hopes of success in the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup.
But then 'black April' for the Magpies arrived. For the second leg of the UEFA Cup quarter-finals, Newcastle flew to Lisbon with a 1-0 victory from the first leg against Sporting.
The Magpies led 1-0 against Sporting in the second leg as well and everything was going great for them. However, the home team managed to equalise before half-time. Then several Newcastle players got injured, and the Magpies lost the match with 15 minutes to go.
They lost 4-1 to Sporting and were eliminated from the UEFA Cup.
Ten days later, Newcastle looked to get their appetite back in the FA Cup, because they were already standing at the gates of the final.
Nevertheless, they were up against Manchester United. The Red Devils, led by Cristiano Ronaldo and Ruud van Nistelrooy, gave the Magpies another tough 4-1 defeat. This ended any hope of silverware for the Magpies in the season.
Newcastle were far below their expectations in that season. And the expectations were really high for the team, but rightly so, because the Magpies lineup included names like Shay Given in goal, Titus Bramble, Jermaine Jenas, Shola Ameobi and of course the aforementioned Shearer.
They were all joined before or during the season -in addition to Kluivert - by James Milner, Nicky Butt, Steven Carr and Jean-Alain Boumsong.
Brawl between teammates
The team looked strong on paper, but there was something rotten about it. This was most evident in the home match with Aston Villa, which ended 3-0 to the Midlands club.
Two Newcastle teammates, Lee Bowyer and Kieron Dyer, suddenly started punching each other in the middle of the game.
Both, although they were not guilty of any offense against the opponent, received red cards for unsportsmanlike behavior and were even the second and third Newcastle players to be sent off in the match - Steven Taylor was sent off for handball in the penalty area before that, and Aston Villa scored from the awarded penalty.
Dyer and Bowyer received hefty fines from the club for the unusual incident and were also banned from starting in four (Bowyer) and three matches respectively (Dyer) by the Football Association.
Perhaps this event, which occurred at the start of April, foreshadowed the entire April full of losses and disappointments for the Magpies, and was the unfortunate culmination of an unsuccessful season, where Newcastle United would finish in 14th place in the Premier League.