Getting what you deserve

As a fan of the club it’s tough to admit, but this season Newcastle United have gotten exactly what they deserve. Dreadful performances at all levels – board, management and players – have brought few points and ultimately relegation.

The press will pick over the bones in the next days/weeks but no one at the club can really escape the finger of blame. The club simply is not good enough for Premiership football.

Some fans are concerned that the big names will depart in the summer. I’m not. In fact the sooner they go the better. For too long the squad, admittedly threadbare, has struggled to put in a performance worthy of a top-flight team. If you want premier league wages then you need to put in premier league performances. A team of hungry young players and seasoned correctly-paid Championship players will lift the club more effectively than most of the current squad are capable of.

Hopefully the Toon gravy train has ended, with overpaid stars - Owen, Viduka, Barton, Coloccini, Duff, Nolan, Lovenkrands, Ameobi, Gutierrez, Smith - getting their marching orders sooner rather than later; relieving the financial burden they placed on a club with whom they still owe a debt of effort and commitment.

The development of a youth players, a wage cap and a decent transfer policy will not happen overnight but will go a long way to making the club viable and capable of generating a premier league return. But serious questions remain over the capability of the owner, chairman and board – those who brought in many of the expensive failures at the club and who:
- Sacked a manager for wanting a say in the players he was to manage
- Put the entire squad up for sale during the last transfer window
- Repeatedly tried to sell the club

Relegation won’t kill Newcastle, but I suspect its current owner may.

Don't be surprised if the club is stripped of all assets (stadium, training ground, etc) before the club is back up for sale or plunged into administration and financially writen-off as a play-boy's experiment gone wrong.