No players in, no players out and no manager and an awful away kit . If Newcastle united should have learnt one thing from their demise into the second tier of English football, it should have been to get their house in order

               As soon as the whistle blew on that fateful day at Villa park, Newcastle and Mike Ashley should have planned for an immediate return to the top flight.  Alan shearer should have got the job on the Monday, with the clear backing of Mike Ashley. These two men along with Derek Llambias should have sat down and planned for the future and put a 3-4 year plan in place to make sure Newcastle united were on a stable footing both on and off the pitch.

           Nearly 2 months after the Geordie eyes had dried, the Newcastle faithful are no closer to knowing where the club is going, and are no idea who will be in charge of the club, of the team, and who will be in charge on the pitch for the opening game against West Brom. In the Championship you need to get off to a flying start, get your points on the board and the rest will follow, as proved by Wolves this year who went 2 months without winning a game yet still won the league at a canter.  You cannot expect to get off to a flier if your club is in disarray. The only thing Mike Ashley has done since the relegation is put the club up for sale at a “discounted” £100 million, and throw into more turmoil. The problem he has is that nobody will touch the club. Anyone who comes in with the cash will immediately have to clear the debts and clear the “dead” players, because at £70 million a year, that is a ludicrously high wage bill for a mid table premiership team let alone a championship team.

That leads you onto the players. Earning so much money, driving their sports cars, living in their 6 bedroom palaces and claim to love the club. If they were asked to defer their wages to save the club, not many would, buts that loyalty in football these days. Newcastle have a history of buying overly expensive foreigners. For too long Newcastle united has become a nice little pay packet for many a player. Safe in the knowledge that if they do well for Newcastle a bigger and better club will turn up and Newcastle will “always be in their heart”. Alan Shearer knows this is the problem, he knows that if a Premiership club made a bid, or showed interest in players like, Jonas, Coloccini, Martins or Bassong, then they would demand to leave. But if Alan shearer is not in charge how can a decision be made on the future. What about the players like Damien duff and habib beye who have said they will stay and fight for the club, i don’t see them banging on the door asking for a reduction of wages because they have performed so dismally. If they were challenging top 4 and these players were playing well, you can guarantee they would be asking for pay rise.

As it stands, Newcastle united need to get rid of up to 12 players at least. A complete overhaul. If there is no manger how can this happen. They are currently 6 weeks behind the rest of the championship clubs in terms of planning for next year. The longer mike Ashley leaves the club in limbo the harder it will be for players to come and go.  Alan Shearer would have a list of names he wants to keep, and list of players he feels could do well for him. Again, if Ashley keeps dithering then some of these players may go to other rival clubs and Newcastle’s position will worsen.  Newcastle need passionate players who will give their all for the club, more importantly they need players who are interested in playing for the club rather than being paid by the club.

            Mike Ashley needs to take a back seat. Hire Alan shearer, and simply wait and bide his time. If a buyer turns up half way through the season sell up, but at the minute not many will touch it. He needs to sort the club out, because if he doesn’t hire a manger who can buy and sell his own players soon he will find the club in a lot more trouble. They are currently favourites to make an immediate return to the premier league but you would have to question why that is. There appears to be no structure and more alarmingly, there seems to be no rush to get a structure in place.

                  So just over 1 month to the start of the championship and with no manager, no transfer activity, no player recruitment and very little news from St.James park Newcastle United will be lucky to attain a play-off birth next year. If Ashley continues to (and he maybe unaware of his flaws) deconstruct the club then come may next year and Newcastle united  could be looking at another relegation,  and if that is the case, you’d have to say that they would have few to blame but themselves.

Article written by John Flanagan

The Toon Army will have to wait until 15th August to see them in action against Reading St James’ Park, which will be followed by a visit from Sheffield Wednesday. This will provide Newcastle with their first real taste of Championship football, as West Brom and Reading have both played in the Premier League in recent years.

On the 19th of December, Newcastle will entertain Middlesbrough in the Tyne-Tees derby.

Due to the unresolved managerial situation that Newcastle are in, it is difficult to predict how well the Toon will fare this season, but with Damien Duff and Habib Beye both pledging their futures to the club, and that key player Jonas Gutierrez still has four years remaining on his contract, the future looks bright for Newcastle United.

Even after our defeat at Spurs yesterday, I have read numerous comments on various websites about us winning all three of your remaining home games. Cloughies quote certainly applies to the mentality that some of our fans have to towards these games. On paper, you would normally fancy Newcastleto turn over Pompey, Boro and Fulham at St. James’ Park.

However, some of our fans seem to be forgetting two crucial things. Our team is devoid of any confidence and the pressure that will be on the players from the fans will be through the roof.

Having watched both our last two games, I personally am extremely worried, and I’m sure Ispeak for a high percentage of Newcastle fans aswell. We have no real fight or leadership within our team. We seem incapable of keeping clean sheets and despite an impressive looking forward line, they don’t even look remotely like scoring.

Shearer also seems to be extremely naive when it comes to tactics, which isn’t at all suprising given his lack of experience. His decision to opt for a 3-5-2 formation is practically suicide from my point of view. It might work well on most console games, but I can’t for the life of me recall a Premier League side using this formation to great effect. The first thing any manager worth his salt will tell you is that you need a settled back four. I know wehave had problems with injuries but the defence of any team is all about partnerships, communication and understanding. The teams that get out of trouble always manage to keep a few clean sheets along the way and I wouldn’t be suprised if we failed to keep another all season.

Given the fact that we play Liverpool after Pompey, it’s safe to say that we will still be in the bottom three with only three games remaining. Our only saving grace seems to be the form (or lack of form) of Hull. Having seen them play at the weekend, they lack any real quality and it’s easy to see why they have been falling like a stone in water. They do however fight from whistle to whistle and their fate might be decided on whether they can beat Stoke at home, as their other fixtures are all more than tricky. Saying that we still need to win our games to have any chance of survival and failing to do so against Pompey could be a terminal blow to our chances.

I reckon we are going to have to win 3 out of our remaining 5 matches. 39 points should keep us up as we have a favourable goal difference. I’ll stick my neck out right now and say that it will go down to the very last match, with is needing to win at Villa.

It’s going to be an interesting finish to say the least!

Yesterday seen Alan Shearer’s side travel down to the Brittania Stadium in a crucial 6-pointer with Stoke city.

Newcastle went into the game only managing 1 win in their last 15 games. However Stoke sit 6th in the leagues form guide and look top contenders to beat the drop this season. Newcastle still without Joey Barton and Steven Taylor and also Obafemi Martins pulling out of the squad with a groin problem to give Shola Ameobi his first start since Newcastle’s 1-0 defeat away to Bolton.

In a noisy Brittania Stadium the home fans made the opposition feel uncomfortable and intimidated with constant booing for the first 45 minutes from the limited possesion that Newcastle had throughout. As Stoke continued to dominate the first half, referee Chris Foy gave a debatable corner kick Stoke’s way. After yet another lapse in concentration at the back Abdoulaye Faye happily shrugged off Shola Ameobi to power in the games opener, pushing Newcastle even closer to the relegation trapdoor.

90% of the game Newcastle’s backline handled the somewhat famous ‘Delap Throw’ and the constant powering long ball longing for the heads of Fuller and Beattie, but where victims to a Stoke-Dominated game up until the 80th minute mark. A sharp turn in the game meant Newcastle were pushing for a much needed equaliser, eventually grabbing a goal. Andy Carroll rescued a point for the toon with a looping header over Sorenson with just under ten minutes remaining.

Stoke and their fans will no doubt be frustrated at the fact they never secured all 3 points, as they failed to redeem long periods of domination throughout the match.

Alan Shearer will be delighted to claim his first point as Newcastle boss, but faces a in-form spurs side next week on the back of 1 defeat in their last 8 premiership games.

Overall a draw didn’t do either side any favours in there hope for survival, but both sides had to settle for a point in a feisty encounter involving a fight to keep premiership status.

Alan is a no-nonsense man and gave a no-nonsense impression on arrival at St. James’ Park, in the end nobody seemed surprised that even he himself couldn’t make a set of demoralised players perform. With us trying to find twelve points out of our last seven games, the task ahead seems to get more out of reach as the weeks tick by. Whether it can be done or not is a different matter, but Alan knew what was ahead of him when he agreed terms.

Many say it would have nothing to do with Shearer if the club where to go down, and that it would be the fault of this season’s previous managers. Only a percentage of that is true, but does Newcastle’s greatest ever player want to be the man that takes Newcastle down? The answer is no.

But his determination to take the throne could be the greatest quality that nobody at the moment in the world could offer at this moment in time.

With less then ten games left, Newcastle United is in a predicament which they really shouldn’t be in. They are in a relegation battle. The season started all to promising with almost a win against Manchester United and some solid play in the beginning of the season. Then it all collapsed with Kevin Keegan, the Geordie messiah, resigning because he was undermined. Firstly, anyone could have seen this coming once Dennis Wise was thrown in. What Mike Ashley was thinking, I have no idea but this proves that he’s not the brightest owner around. But anyways the club was then thrown in turmoil and lost a succession of games, even losing to lowly Hull ( no offense Hull fans). To make a long story short, they are now fighting for their premier league status.

They played very well recently against Man U, almost winning the game if not for a Ryan Taylor defensive mishap but could only manage a draw against Hull. This pattern seems to occur often with Newcastle. They play very well against the top teams but can sometimes barely hold their own against teams that they should and need to be beating. Hopefully they can turn it around like last year and pull off a string of wins. The return of Michael Owen, Beye, Martins, Smith and Duff should help, as should the speedy recovery of their manager (Joe Kinnear) who hopes to be back from a triple bypass surgery by April. I believe that they can turn it around and I know that me and every other Newcastle fan will be praying that they do. They’ve finally got a fit squad with no stupid distractions which should see them playing at their best , but then again unfortunately Newcastle always seem to shoot themselves in the foot.

Newcastle’s most percieved obstacle seem to be their schedule. Of all of the teams fighting to stay up, Newcastle has the seemingly toughest schedule, with games against Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool still to come. Personally, I thinkthey can at the very least come away with 4 out of 9 points. They seem to play very well against the top four and it isn’t unrealistic to think that they can beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool. In fact, I’m more worried about when they play teams that they are fighting with for Premier League survival. Good Luck and Howay the Lads

Predictions:

Personally, I think with the return of so many players, Newcastle will Survive the drop. Wins against Chelsea, and Arsenal shouldn’t be a problem and Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins should be able to fire Newcastle away to safety.

The game started with the ball going from one end right no the other and so on and so forth. Both teams had no control and possession swung wildly from side to side.  But eventually, The Magpies gained some composure and took control a little by a little until they were dominating Reading. Obafemi Martins scored the first goal by capitalising off a mistake by the Reading defence and eventually slotting the ball past a charging Marcus Hahnemann. Two minutes before the half, Habib Beye Passed the ball into the Reading Penalty box, and Michael Owen converted, making it 2-0 for Newcastle. The second half didn’t bring much change, Newcastle continued to dominate and Mark Viduka sealed the deal in the 58th minute, finishing a play that saw Beye once again assist on a goal. The score could have been much higher though. Michael Owen was denied an obvious Penalty shot after being wrestled down in the box and Joey Barton’s rocket of a shot just missed the net in the closing moments of the game.

Newcastle will carry the momentum from their two game win streak and pull off another win over Reading and secure their position in the Premier League.  

Daren Bent opened up the scoring for Tottenham in the 26th minute, heading the ball past Steve Harper. This was preceded by some very strong play by Newcastle, something that has been missing as of late. Nicky Butt equalised for Newcastle right before the half and Geremi put them up 2-1 after scoring from a free kick, off a foul by Jonathan Woodgate. Michael Owen scored his third goal in as many games in the 65th minute, off a nice flick by Viduka and Obafemi Martins scored Newcastle’s fourth goal late in the match.

This leaves Newcastle in 12th place with 35 points and Tottenham in 11th place with 39 points.