Sunday 24 May 2009

What now for Newcastle United?


There have been some big clubs that have found themselves in the bottom three of the Premiership, once the final whistle has been blown on the final day. 

Leeds United, West Ham United, Blackburn Rovers, Nottingham Forrest, among others, have all seen the trap door to the Championship open below them, and for 40% of the teams that have been relegated from the Premier League since its inaugural season in 1992/93, it was to be their last visit to the top division of English football. 

Newcastle United, without any shadow of a doubt, can rank themselves along with the likes of West Ham and Leeds, as being another big, big club to have been found wanting come final day. 

Leeds have slipped further and further down the pecking order, languishing in League 1 for yet another season, West Ham United managed to bounce back at the second time of asking, after losing out in the playoffs first time around, they managed to win the title the following season, and have never looked back, but what will the fate of Newcastle be come next season, when they line up against the likes of Peterborough, Scunthorpe and Doncaster?

A whole host of people, whether they be neutral or Newcastle fans themselves, in hindsight, would probably argue that relegation from the Premier League is what the club needed if they were to ever move forward, after recent years of constant chopping and changing at managerial level, all the way to board room level, never allowing one man to mould the team into his own. 

Alan Shearer was seen as the saviour of Newcastle when he came in, set with the task of keeping Newcastle United in the Premier League, with just eight games remaining to work his magic.

Five points from a possible 24 was never going to be enough, with Shearer's only managerial victory coming at home to Middlesbrough, who themselves find themselves looking forward to a season in the Championship next year. 

The first thing that Newcastle will have to do is slash the wages at the club. The likes of Michael Owen, Obafemi Martins and Mark Vidulka don't come cheap, and with the wage structure at the club having to drastically be reduced, players leaving the club is an inevitability. 

Owen, Martins, Vidulka, Damien Duff, Kevin Nolan are just five players who I consider to be Premier League class, and it would shock me if more than one of those players hung around to get Newcastle out of the mess, that they have ultimately put the club in. 

The next issue that the club will have to face is who is going to be the man to take them forward?

When Shearer came in, his tenure was to last the final eight games of the season while Joe Kinnear recuperated from his heart surgery, but in the weeks leading up to today many people are of the belief that Shearer will stay on, a choice that no Newcastle fan would have a problem with. 

One question you will have to ask, though, is will Shearer have the experience and nous to get Newcastle out of the Championship, which is one of the most competitive leagues in the world, where literally anyone can beat anyone.

On top of that the Newcastle team that walked out today at Villa Park will almost certainly be nothing near the team that will walk out on the opening day of the Championship, with many new players coming into the club, almost as quickly as the high profile players go out the door, and who ever the manager is at the time will have a tough task moulding this new group of players into a team, that can compete in the Championship and carry the pressure that comes with playing for a big club whatever the level. 

For the club to really move forward, though, the board room shenanigans will have to come to an end.

When Shearer came back to the club it was like Mike Ashley thought that he was back in favour with Newcastle fans, like he was when he brought in Kevin Keegan, but Newcastle fans aren't that stupid and are not going to forget what Ashley has done with the club so far. 

With Ashley's extortionate price tag, that he is placed on the club, it doesn't seem that anyone is too keen to part with their money, especially in these troubled financial times, and the task of selling the club is only going to have been made tougher with today's relegation. If the club is to be sold, Newcastle fans have two hopes, one that a billionaire oil tycoon turns up and fancies a toy, or that a true Newcastle fan, through and through, has the money required to buy the team and build it back to what it once was. 

Newcastle, as a team, have more than enough potential to bounce back at the first attempt, but as the stats show it isn't always a foregone conclusion that a team from the Premiership will bounce back once they go down to the Championship.

Apart from Leeds, there will have been no other side in the history of the Premier League that will have had to go through so much change in the three month period between the seasons, following relegation to the Championship, and because of this, Newcastle fans may have to wait more than a year before their team can bounce back. 

As long as Ashley can sell to the right person, who has the correct intentions for the club and a fair bit of patience, get a manager in who knows how to succeed at Championship level and coach a team through a tough and demanding 46 game season, and slash the wages to the extent that, should they not come back first time, it isn't a disaster, then the future for Newcastle is bright. 

For now though a few more drinks are probably in order for Newcastle fans, but they shouldn't look at this moment as a dark day for the club, but they should see is as the rebirth of Newcastle United, as they try and right the wrongs made by all that have gone before them. 

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