Newcastle’s target for this season was a top eight finish and to win a cup and to help achieve that target Newcastle spent £82M in the two transfer windows this season.
Yet with just seven games to play Newcastle are almost certain to be relegated for the second time in seven years and we are at 1/8 odds-on by SkyBet to take the drop.
Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson was asked where he thought Newcastle should be finishing this season given the massive investment in players and with Newcastle having such vast resources available.
Paul Merson – 11th or 12th place
Paul was on the Sky Sports’ Fantasy Football Club. and this is how he answered that specific question:
“With the size of the club and the players they’ve got, they shouldn’t be in the bottom three.” “I would say around the 11th or 12th mark.”
Paul isn’t the first pundit to be shocked at where Newcastle are in the league table given the players we have in the squad.
The big problem Newcastle have had this season is we hired a mediocre coach at best last summer in Steve McClaren – and then left him in the job far too long.
Steve was hired only days after he was told he wasn’t good enough for Derby County and had been sacked.
And just what made Lee Charnley think Steve was the perfect coach for Newcastle at that time is a good illustration of the football knowledge of Newcastle’s Managing Director.
Lee was put in that position by owner Mike Ashley, so there has been little to no leadership from the top this season – including from the owner.
Steve McClaren was just woeful as the head coach and our players must also take the responsibility for being too much like wimps when things got tough in games – and too many of them simply disappeared.
Newcastle could well be the best team ever relegated from the Premier League, at least when you look at the caliber and cost of the players we have in the squad.
Certainly we will be the club that spent the most money during the season on new players and still ended up in the Championship.
It’s a tragedy for the Newcastle club and most of all for the Newcastle fans, who have been completely let-down by those running the football club.
It will be all change this summer at the club, who will have to cut down significantly on running costs and some non-playing staff will have to be laid off as our better players rush to the back door to leave.
It’s not good.
Comments welcome.
44 comments so far
Jib
Apr 8, 2016 at 12:48 PM
Comment #41Jail for Ashley //beefman,
When Ashley came in nine years ago one of his first actions was to cancel the goal bonus to stop players shooting from anywhere
What a crock !
Straight from the fantasy folder !
Who concocted that one , you or your boyfriend Mr Tuff !
Ibizatoon
Apr 8, 2016 at 12:58 PM
Comment #42http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/newcastle-exclusive-without-mike-ashley-3306776
MD Derek Llambias explained: “We just do straight contracts. We do no overseas pensions, no image rights. We say, ‘This is your money, now you go away and talk to your tax advisers if you must.’
“We don’t do goal bonuses. We had that with Martins, maybe that’s why he would always shoot from the halfway line! We used to see him on the ball and think, ‘Oh look. He’s going to shoot again.’
“We’ve taken all that stuff out. We know exactly where we are.
“We do have team bonuses for success, in terms of positions.”
Oh well, you can’t get ’em right all the time.
Jib
Apr 8, 2016 at 1:11 PM
Comment #43Ibizatoon // Oh well, you can’t get ’em right all the time.
You certainly can’t Ibiza
“MD Derek Llambias explained”
D-E-R-E-K
L-L-A-M-B-I-A-S
is not
M-I-K-E
A-S-H-L-E-Y
Geddit ?
Ibizatoon
Apr 8, 2016 at 1:20 PM
Comment #44Jib…Quick question before I address the actual discussion at hand. Do you tpye their names that way for clarity (you may note I can read properly formed words) or is that how you say it? Almost like a cheerleader?
Give us an “M”, give us an “I”…..etc etc…you get the idea I’m sure.
Your get out is that Llambias is the one who gave the interview? Even if the first line was “we” meaning more than one person? Even with Derek saying Mike and I, meaning the “we” is Derek AND Mike?