A win for Sunderland on Wednesday against an unpredictable Everton side will confirm Newcastle’s relegation from the top flight and leave the club in turmoil and in need of a drastic overhaul.
The only circumstance in which the Magpies can stay up is if Sunderland hit self-destruct and lose their final two games of the season and Newcastle manage to beat a Tottenham side who seem to have imploded. In a Premier League season which has seen 5000/1 long shot Leicester City win the title, it still remains a possibility but more than likely, Newcastle will be facing Burton Albion next year.
It will be a sorry end to a dreadful season which has seen some of the most utterly pathetic football from a Newcastle side since our promotion to the top flight over 20 years ago.
Since Kevin Keegan’s Entertainers got promoted, along with Leicester, funnily enough, Newcastle have only been out of the top flight for one season. They bounced back straight away last time; strolling the Championship with over 100 points. Something tells me this time it won’t be so easy to return.
And where there is a glimmer of hope, still in United fans that Sunderland will choke and give us a sniff of survival on the final day, most of us are preparing for life in the second tier of English football for the second time in Mike Ashley’s ownership.
If Rafa Benitez does manage Newcastle to a famous win and Premier League survival on the final weekend, it will most probably follow him feeding the capacity of St. James’ Park with a couple fish after crossing the Tyne via foot.
The question on most fan’s lips is ‘Will Rafa stay should we go down?’ The answer, as unpopular as it may be, is probably not. For one; why would he want to exactly? He will have no problem at all getting another top flight job.
The prospect of building something from scratch with Newcastle may have a certain appeal, but can we really expect a man who was in charge of Real Madrid six months ago to lead us out in the Championship? Secondly; Newcastle can’t afford to keep him. A manager of Benitez’s calibre commands a Premier League wage.
Newcastle will have a colossal job trimming their huge wage bill as it is, to offer Benitez a deal to keep him would be way out of character for a Newcastle board who has tried to run the club on the cheap for years. Only recently has money been thrown at the club in a desperate bid to survive. The trouble was, they were so massively out of practice, that they did finally spend millions, they managed to squander most of it.
But we will leave talk of next season for another day. For now, Newcastle are still in the Premiership and still have a chance, no matter how small, of staying there. Yes they need a miracle, yes the odds are stacked against them, but one thing we can learn from Leicester is that miracles can happen. Allow yourselves one final bit of hope because all we actually need is for Sunderland to lose twice and Newcastle to win once. That, my friends, is possible.
The worst thing about this result?
I could see us pulling a “coup” in Charnley’s eyes and getting Martinez next season and us go to League 1.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Oops, Big Fat Sam will be beyond insufferable now.
Saw Mr. Roy was only taking 3 centre backs – Cahill, Smalling and Stones.
Carroll owned Smalling last night. And Stones… good luck there.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Very good chance we’ll finish 19th here. 😮
DJG(Quote)
Almost feel sorry for the Scum , this time next year it’ll be the same situation again for them but they are too daft to see it.
Kimtoon(Quote)
kimtoon,
a new owner,
i doubt it mate.
who the hell,in their right mind would buy our club.
we are rock bottom.deep in debt.
and a squad worth sweet f/a.
if you can keep rafa,you will be fine.
a villa fan.(Quote)
McClaren -“Judge me after 12 games”. Okay, you’re a ****** and you’re going to get us relegated.
DJG(Quote)
Not a chance of keeping Rafa sadly, we’ll get some out of work div 1 manager knowing Jabba.
Kimtoon(Quote)
You don’t think he’d get reappointed, do you?
Was he ever taken off the board?
funkyjesus(Quote)
quiet on here tonight, where is everyone?
Kimtoon(Quote)
I’d rather be in their situation than ours. They have some ok players but more importantly they play for each other.
A new striker, couple of midfielders and a couple of defenders they’ll be ok. We’ll be left with average and injured players
Hopefully we’ll hear from Rafa soon on his future
Gashley(Quote)
Ashley will make Benitez a MASSIVE financial offer, and Rafa will stay.
You heard it here first.
Munich Mag(Quote)
Working out where Burton is?
Gashley(Quote)
kimtown,
no mate,
we wont have new owners,
unless they are totally out of their minds.
we are deep in debt.
a squad worth sweet f/a.
if you keep Rafa,you will bounce straight bak up.
oh,and by the wat,
De Mattio,has gone from 66/1 to favorite for our job.
that counts him out then. 😛 😛
a villa fan.(Quote)
ANOTHER problem we have is that the Football League are far more strict when enforcing the Financial Fair Play than the Premiership is.
We can’t exactly splash the cash to try and buy a new team or we will get fines and point deductions.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Sometimes I don’t think England managers and commentators watch the same football matches as me. Barclay scores a couple of great goals a season and is the next big thing … for 3 years and has never arrived. Smalling has supposedly been great this season, no he hasn’t. Rooney has been awful and they have even talked about a callup for Lindgard, yes Lindgard. Wilshere has played 7 minutes. Walcott cannot even get into a misfiring Arsenals side.
Reputation and the club side you play for have always counted too much.
What does Defoe have to do to get on that plane? Or Carroll and Townsend even.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
oops sorry lads.
i posted the same quote twice.
a villa fan.(Quote)
Gonna be an “interesting” atmosphere at the Spuds game this weekend…
Munich Mag(Quote)
FJ: we have plenty of players to sell that will bring in decent money.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
But why will they bring in decent money? They’ve just been relegated and internationally exposed as not even trying all season. Even when we had a decent shot at staying up, they all didn’t bother at Villa.
No club willing to spend decent money will look at our wasters.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Norwich above us now. I think it must be on goals scored.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
funkeyjesus,
watford broke all the rules on loan players,
and leicester did the same to get promotion.
man city,etc,have all found ways round the rules.
perhaps our clubs should catch up.
a villa fan.(Quote)
You think those sackso’***** are going to bring in decent money Eric mate. Gutless quitters like Wijnaldum? Rejects like Taylor?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Stu: are you at 0% on the Stuart-O-Meter yet?
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Eric Sykes, but not as much money as we paid for them.
Munich Mag(Quote)
If Rafa leaves I think I’d rather of plummeted out of the league under SM.
We’ve had a glimpse of change with a world class manager and saw some encouraging displays.
Now to the championship under another yesman…
If Ashley has any sense he’ll offer Rafa enough to tempt him. But we all know Ashley doesn’t do things the way we would
Gashley(Quote)
indeed
Kimtoon(Quote)
G2: I still think there will be decent money paid for quite a few of our players based upon reputation if nothing else (not Taylor, he will not have his contract renewed).
Eric Sykes(Quote)
They won’t pay good money. Clubs know we’ll be desperate to sell and will offer poor bids hoping we’ll agree so we can buy new players early for the championship
Gashley(Quote)
MM: but there is a market for Wijnaldum, Janmaat, Krul, Sissoko, Perez, Shelvey, Townsend, Tiote, Cisse.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Well the fans need to sing Rafas name all game sunday, give him a reason to stay
Kimtoon(Quote)
Both Villa and Castle are gonna be left with a bunch of wastes of space on ridiculous money next season.
Welcome to the championship
Andy the Magpie(Quote)
I guess it will be decent money for a selling Championship side, yeah but I do not believe we will see any bids over £10m for any of our jokers.
Charlie Austin never went for £15m and he was as close to a goal guarantee as the Championship offered that was top flight proven. He only left because QPR wanted something in January and had to sell low because their gamble didn’t work. Jordan Rhodes just finally got promoted to the Premiership so he won’t drop back down.
Ross McCormack is the only real striker I can think off for sale that is possible and he went for £12m to Fulham so we won’t get him cheap.
We’re screwed.
funkyjesus(Quote)
right lads,
have enjoyed the debate,
im signing off to go back to the villa blog.
just to see how many of our fans,have jumped off the aston express way. 😛 😛
cheers all.
a villa fan.(Quote)
Graham, Lee and jabba will be away on their summer jollies end of season, meanwhile other clubs will steal a march on us. No Bartons , Carrols and Nolans to save us this time round.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Shocking, disgusting, disgraceful, incompetent, pathetic…. They all describe our executives from Ashley on down. Credit to Rafa but nobody else. Get out the lot of you. Sack the board. Sack Charnley. Then put the club up for sale. I could of done a better job than Charnley and Carr did.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
good luck mate
Kimtoon(Quote)
Good luck next year.
We’ll both need it.
funkyjesus(Quote)
In SIX years(!) We’ve basically had one season where we finished 5th and did well. The other five we have rode our luck, had no ambition, flirted relegation. What does the board expect? They DESERVE relegation. When we got in the Europa league they hated the extra games and there being very little financial reward! We have been atrocious in the FA cup for a decade. We only exist as a billboard for Sports Direct. Please lets suffer for 2-3 years if it means Ashley will sell to an owner/consortium who wants this club to compete for silverware.
DJG(Quote)
Oh well.
Wonder when we will get the statement from the club?
Would lift everyone if Rafa announced he was staying at his presser on Friday. Don’t hold ya breath.
Fair play Sunderland though. Looks like they could get 41 points
Stuart79(Quote)
Yep Congratulations Sunderland, enjoy it while it last . 😉
Kimtoon(Quote)
We will be able to sell some of that pathetic lot but except for Sissoko not for what we paid for them. They humiliated themselves this season. It will be reflected in their transfer value. Really difficult seeing how we get back up with Ashley in charge. The man is devoid of any football intelligence as far as I can see. Based on his hirings overall we may end up in Division Two. 👿
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Stu, Told you they’d get two wins. they seem to do it every year
Kimtoon(Quote)
Would love to see Ashley tarred and feathered and paraded arount the Toon. Literally. He deserves nothing less.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
So open suggestions here people:
Pick two potential managers you’d accept in the Championship (Rafa does not count as we all want him to stay).
Pick three players you’d sign in any position.
I go Holloway and Pearson for manager and McCormack, Britt Assombalonga and Nathan Redmond.
I know they’re all attacking players but I feel we’d still have survived this year even with out defences if any of our pathetic strikers had been able to score.
funkyjesus(Quote)
At this point in time, Bournemouth, with a ground capacity of 11,464, are probably worth more than NUFC. Put that in your (crack) pipe and smoke it Ashley.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Hey ho… The fat lady is now singing her heart out. Good night.
Dubai Toon(Quote)
NBC are showing 10 live matches simultaneously on their 10 national networks. They have hyped it for weeks. And there is nowt to play for. 4th place 🙂
Eric Sykes(Quote)
We have sucked all season. We sucked when we began and we sucked until McTosser left. And nothing was done until it was far too late. Surely even Ashley will know enough to sack Charnley by now?
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Yeah, I take some morbid joy from Sky and BT being screwed over for the final day. I guess all cameras in Manchester again.
We also have to do extra online searching in the transfer window from now on as lower league teams do not get Sky coverage in the transfer window.
Think we’ll still get Berahino? Haha.
funkyjesus(Quote)
I honestly think I can see a bulge in Niall Quinn’s trousers, he is so turned on right now.
Sky never fail to have him during north east games with rarely any sight of Newcastle representation. Equality as per usual.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Charnly won’t hand in his resignation, he’ll hide in his office closet and whimper to himself. He is as gutless as some of the players he brought in.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Disgusting and sickening Ashley. Never show your face again.
GeordieTwo(Quote)
Waiting to see if Uncle Ed’s head explodes. Think he is on his afternoon nap and he usually gets on at about 3am Eastern USA time. After a while, and a massive rant, I think he might throw in the towel for a while and only put up 6 articles a day 🙂 I know a few on here will (and I don’t think I drove them away with a rant about an ex-employee nobody cared about).
Eric Sykes(Quote)
The Mackems have all stayed for the lap of honour. Just shows how pathetic Man City fans were.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Do the fans get behind the team knowing Ashley still calls the shots?
What a **** club we’ve become.
Ashley should be utterly ashamed at his running of our club
Steve Bruce any1
Gashley(Quote)
Eric. You can’t blame ppl for throwing the towel in.
I’ll always support the toon but not as passionate knowing Mike doesn’t give a ****
Gashley(Quote)
Under Ashley, Newcastle have finished 12th, 18th, first in the Championship, 12th, fifth, 16th, 10th, 15th and are now confirmed as bottom-three material again.
In the six years before he took over, they had three top-five finishes and also a seventh place.
In 18 attempts at the domestic cups during the Ashley era, they’ve gone beyond the fourth round of either one just once.
Gashley(Quote)
Just wonder how this affects our summer clear out.
You imagine Ameobi and Vuckic, etc. were at the front of the queue to go but now they may be seen as core Championship squad players now and would save money in signings. If they have any time left on their contracts, I’ve no idea.
funkyjesus(Quote)
FJ, I don’t think we’ll be tempting enough for Pearson or Ollie tbh, as for players there’s not much other than who you’ve mentioned. I think we’d be better off with Arma up front.
Kimtoon(Quote)
Pearson has been here before so he may feel he has more knowledge of the situation than the mess at Villa and I think Holloway, if he even wants to manage anymore, would feel we have the environment and fan base he thrives on.
funkyjesus(Quote)
Bollocks to getting behind the team.
Rafa won’t be staying, we’ve deluded ourselves enjoy these last few weeks.
Ashley came out with promises before the last game of last season & things have just got worse.
Charnley & Carr totally incompetent – they wanted McClaren & kept him too fucking long.
Whatever your opinion of our signings are the fact is Carr has wasted £17m this season on Thauvin & Saivet – that should have bought a fucking goal scorer.
I was going to say we’ve got what we deserve … only WE haven’t. Ashley & his twats on the board have. WE have been ****** over again!!.
Sharpy17(Quote)
NEWCASTLE UNITED managing director Lee Charnley has apologised to supporters following the club’s relegation to the Championship.
Speaking in the immediate aftermath of the Magpies relegation, thanks to Sunderland’s win over Everton tonight, Charnley also thanked fans for their backing.
He said: “Tonight we are devastated at our relegation from the Premier League, as I know every single person connected to this football club will be.
“I want to thank all of the fans for the support you have shown for the Club you love throughout the season, in spite of this massive disappointment and underachievement.
“Your support throughout has been magnificent, but I want to pay particular thanks for the incredible backing you have given to Rafa and the team during the latter part of the season. Nothing more could be asked of you and I am truly sorry we have not given you the outcome you deserve.
“I also want to thank every single member of staff here. This Club is their livelihood, but they are fans too. To go through the threat of relegation last season and then to suffer a worse fate this time around has been very hard for them. I know that each and every one of them has done whatever they could to help us out of the situation we now find ourselves in.
“We know that supporters want to know what the future holds and will want to hear more from us as soon as possible. The process of scrutinising what went wrong and planning for what is to come has already begun.
“Right now, of course, Rafa and the team must prepare for the final game of the season but after that, please rest assured we will communicate more fully with supporters.”
**** of you useless ****.
Gashley(Quote)
Playing Devil’s Advocate, which is hard since I despise Graham Carr – almost everyone on here and other places were creaming themselves over Mitrovic and Doumbia signing and Mitrovic has proven to be a League 2 player and Doumbia is literally missing in action.
funkyjesus(Quote)
supporters want to know what the future holds and will want to hear more from us as soon as possible. The process of scrutinising what went wrong and planning for what is to come has already begun.
Did we speak a the fans forum and demanded a striker / defenders?? You don’t listen and are happy to cancel any forum meetings. ****
Gashley(Quote)
That was quick!
Almost like it was full prepared earlier…
Stuart79(Quote)
Fans were happy at the prospect of Miro but we all knew he alone wasn’t enough. We knew cisse was fading and Riviere was *****. Why would we thing mitro on his Tod was enough?
Gashley(Quote)
Gash: you know Bishop had drafted that before the game today. That is the only contingency plan they had, a self serving letter and non-apology apology. I saw stuff in the papers saying Ashley was to meet with Bishop to discuss the future. I think Bishop was hanging around to do the spin and damage control. That will be very difficult this time as the real backlash will not happen until Rafa quits.
Off to listen to some Radiohead to cheer myself up. Although not the latest (1st since KId A). I bought it on good reviews but haven’t found anything there yet. Might be a sleeper because so far has only sent me to sleep.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
I want to hear from the owner.
This club needs leadership. It needs taking by the scruff of the neck and built from top to bottom!!!
Only an appointment of a top class manager (if Rafa says no as expected) and a change of structure and plan.
I sit with baited breath!
Stuart79(Quote)
Is Chumley Warner taking the p when he says, “we will now scrutinise what went wrong”. I’ll spare you the time and money. You, hiring McClaren is what went wrong; and this process is hopefully to find your successor. 👿
DJG(Quote)
Funky – as I say, people will have their opinions on the new signings that did feature for us. Personally, I didn’t dislike the Mitro signing but thought there were better opinions for the money & didn’t like the idea of pinning all our hopes on such a young lad. Being honest, I’d never heard of Doom.
But to have wasted £17m on 2 players who have barely played. What a total waste of money on 2 players that Carr had been after for years.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Why? He spoke last season and promised the world.. he’ll only take us for another ride
Gashley(Quote)
Mitrovic – ?
well I’d never heard of him, but I knew he was never going to be the answer on his own.
Cisse – ?
The most unbelievably **** footballer imaginable. Couldn’t trap a bag of cement. Been calling him a lemon for years.
Riviere – ? who
And that’s it for attacking prowess. Seriously how the **** did anybody expect us to stay in the EPL with that lot.
Let the recriminations begin I say
“SACK THE BOARD”
Beardsleys Boots(Quote)
FJ: you are on the wrong blog mate. It was on Ed’s that they were going over the top about Mitro. I had never seen him play before we signed him. I also said about Thauvin that I had watched Marseilles quite a bit and honestly had never noticed him. The one I had noticed ws Gignac who went to Mexico for free FFS and now is back in the National team. Typical Carr. He wants to be the genius and will not go for the safe and sure thing.
Eric Sykes(Quote)
Lol radiohead to cheer yourself up? excellent band but more depressing than Morrissey
Gashley(Quote)
The other thing is that you are hardly going to lay into new signings in pre-season when you have never seen them play. You-tube doesn’t count unless you are Dennis Wise.
Mitro, MBemba and even Gini have not been busts but were not what we desperately needed. We also failed to sell any of the dead wood. The excuse was letting Schteve evaluate the players and then it was too late.
Eric Sykes(Quote)