There is often an argument that being relegated can do a football club wonders – You can 'start again', regain a winning mentality, and get rid of the highest paid players crippling the wage bill – the ones who failed to turn up on a Tuesday night in December down at Craven Cottage.
Newcastle United have been on the slide for years, so when they finally went down in 2009 it was no surprise. However, they have bounced straight back by winning the Championship. But do they have the same quality and impetus that they showed in 1993 when Kevin Keegan took them up from the old Division One?
Keegan’s men burst on to the Premiership scene in 1993, drawing at Manchester United thanks to a typical Andy Cole finish. Indeed, the relationship between Cole and new signing Peter Beardsley was one of the stories of the 93/94 season, leading Newcastle to a fantastic 3rd place finish in their debut Premiership season. Cole himself hit over 30 goals, in a team that would eventually go on to be labelled as ‘The Entertainers’. Keegan himself produced the most entertaining moment of this era, comically lambasting Alex Ferguson live on air in 1996, for comments the Scot had made about Stuart Pearce days earlier.
However, slowly but surely, Newcastle slowly imploded. The super-high expectations of the Geordie faithful seemed to dwarf the younger players (not literally)coming through. Alan Shearer retired and wasn’t properly replaced. The glory days of Ginola, Asprilla and Gillespie were long gone, and were replaced with depressing Saturday afternoons watching David Rozenhal, a past-his-best Nicky Butt (who only seems to be able to chip the ball in the air for inept team-mates to fail to control), and Jean Alain Boumsong. Many ‘big name’ players on big salaries also let the club down horrendously. Lee Bowyer, Emre and Michael Owen show your faces.
Managers also contributed heavily to the capitulation of the Toon Army. Ruud Gullit almost destroyed the soul of the team when he outrageously began to drop Alan Shearer, in a clear battle of egos, in which of course there was only going to be one winner. After a brief resurgence under Sir Bobby Robson, Graeme Souness (surely a catalyst for disaster) continued the downward spiral, followed by Glenn Roeder, Sam Allardyce, Keegan (again) and then even Alan Shearer. In the end it was the man who had only ever been an assistant, Chris Hughton, who turned Newcastle’s fortunes around.
Chris Hughton did a great job taking Newcastle back up, and getting rid of the dark clouds that surrounded St James Park. However, a lack of investment this summer will most likely be their downfall. Their squad is almost identical to the side that went down in 2009, and although morale will be higher than during their relegation season, there is only so far morale and determination can get you. In defence, Jose Enrique and Steven Taylor may well have earned Championship plaudits last time around, (indeed Taylor has earned comparisons to John Terry in recent years, possibly not a good thing) but they did not stand up to be counted when they were last in the Premiership. Fernando Coloccini looks the best bet to gain defensive recognition, but Newcastle have never been known for their outstanding defensive abilities – an issue Hughton will be keen to address. Otherwise Newcastle will have to rely on the reflexes of Steve Harper, Tim Krul, and Ole ‘don’t call me Steve’ Soderberg.
Their midfield lacks pace and creativity, and players like Guthrie, Smith, Nolan and Barton are arguably too similar, in ability and physique, to pose a problem for most Premiership sides. Kevin Nolan bagged 17 league goals last season, reminiscent of his free-scoring midfield days for Bolton Wanderers, but any Newcastle fan expecting to see Nolan repeat those feats regularly this season should note that Nolan hasn’t enjoyed really a good goalscoring season in the top flight since the 2005/06 season. Indeed in the 20 games that Nolan played in the 2008/09 season, he failed to score a single goal. At 28 years old, the zest of bursting into the opposition penalty area to convert a striker’s knock-down is fading fast.
Up front, Shola Ameobi still masquerades as an up and coming home-grown striker, when in reality he is now 28 years old and never looked like being the next Temuri Ketsbaia, let alone the next Alan Shearer. His young strike partner Andy Carroll, last seen in the Premiership sporting a cornrow hair cut (surely a first for a white Geordie centre-forward), showed promise as a dominant aerial striker in the Championship, but whether he will be allowed such space by defenders or indeed service from colleagues this season, is yet to be seen.
Peter Lovenkrands, Wayne Routledge and peripheral Argentina World Cup ‘star’ Jonas Gutierrez offer faint hope on the flanks for a club that had some cracking wingers in the nineties. Wayne Routledge could well be a star this season should he play regularly, but note the significance of the word ‘could’, as Routledge has not once proved himself to be able to stand out consistently at the top level.
A friend of mine who supports Newcastle commented the other day, rather nonchalantly in fact, that a mid-table finish was realistic. Wow. Expectations of Newcastle fans are often high, but surely most Newcastle fans must fear that as the squad is almost identical to the one that went down in 2009, they will be in for a tough season. They could always bring Keegan back though eh?
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