I also believe that Newcastle can't be a title contender. That is too much for them now. They don't have a qualified squad to make it there. I remember how Chelsea managed to win the Champions League title with Tuchel although their squad quality was worse than teams like Real Madrid, Manchester City.
However Newcastle's squad quality isn't as good as Chelsea's firstly. Secondly they don't have as much experience as Chelsea in this tournament. They aren't as big as them in short. They don't have a mentality that is as strong as Tuchel's Chelsea either now.
Considering all of this the biggest achievement they can get is to qualify for next round in my opinion.
UEFA Champions League is here and there's quite numbers of elite clubs that have good chances of winning it. I've my won favorites, Real Madrid, Manchester City and Bayern Munich. Other clubs would only compete but they will not be able to match the level up energy with these clubs mentioned. We can't compared the situation of Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel, he has solid plans for the club. We shouldn't be having this conversation about Newcastle United winning the UEFA Champions League, it's an impossible mission. We know the competitive teams that would push harder for the league.
I do not have much to say about the situation of Newcastle now because it is pitiful the condition that they found themselves. That condition does not fit new people to the Champions League. There is already imbalance in the squad and they are already struggling in the Premier League. This squad cannot fight effectively in the group of death that Newcastle found themselves.
I can only vouch for Newcastle by January, if they will be able to land a few quality players.
The major problem was not in newcastle but eddie howe was always doing blunders in EPL that made his club lost. There have been some players who were not capable enough in replacing some important players like tonalli and gordon.
Eddie howe is still having a chance in winning this group as long as newcastle will always try to use its main squad. Newcastle is always having a horrible performance once some players already subsituted to go off from the field.
The newcastle is still having a chance of qualifying for the play off stage. Howe's team played so badly in EPL but it doesn't mean newcastle will repeat the same performance in UCL.
Howe may put all of his focus to qualify for play off stage soon.