Is the team really better than last season?

Danny Simpson has claimed that this years NUFC team is better than last years team.

It's a bold statement coming at this early juncture, but given that we've made a very decent start to the season I can perhaps see the reason for a bit of optimism from within the camp. As long as it doesn't turn into complacency then I don't mind a bit of optimism.

Simpson has touched on a question that was pondered by many fans over the summer. The fact that we lost a lot of players who had done a job for us and replaced them with promising yet untested players in terms of the Premier League was cause for the debate. It was just so hard to tell whether or not we'd improved with so many questions lingering over so many players. In a way the jury is still out and the only way we'll be able to judge properly is at the end of the season.

However from within the group of players there is a voice that believes that the squad has been improved over the summer. Danny Simpson is that voice, and he has said this about the new look Newcastle United.

“The squad is better all-round than it was last year. And I think we’ve got more belief, to be honest,” he The Journal.

“We have more attacking options and while we’ve been very good at not conceding goals this season, when we do like we did on Tuesday we are capable of hitting back. There’s been a lot of talk about us not scoring enough goals but we created a lot of chances."

“A few of the lads who came in look like they’re going to be really good players and they would be ready for the Premier League if they were called on.”

Bold claims so early in the season, although in fairness Simpson is far better placed to comment on these things than we are. Us fans only see what goes on during the match, but Simpson will see what goes on in training and will be part of the camaraderie with the group of players.

Time will tell whether or not his insistence that we've improved will prove to be right, but I'm reasonably optimistic that we could actually have a better team than last season. We've started off better than last year no doubt, but the real test will be when we first lose a game.

Having said that, Newcastle have been good at answering questions on the pitch for a couple of years now. It started under Chris Hughton in the Championship and then the Premier League before being continued by Alan Pardew in the second half of last season and, now, the start of this one.

Maybe this new team will be able to bounce back quicker that the last team? I mean even with pinnacles and founding fathers of team spirit such as Kevin Nolan and Joey Barton we still managed to find poor runs of form. Perhaps this years team will be able recover quicker? Maybe they won't?

Certainly Danny Simpson thinks that the team is better, but what do you think?