da heads bet： Until the draw against Manchester United, Newcastle United had lost their last four matches 1-0. In the world of football, that tells you a lot about a team and their current form.
da apostaganha： Unfortunately, as predicted, Newcastle United are at the wrong end of the Premier League table with only arch rivals Sunderland and woeful Aston Villa below them.
Before the more impressive 1-1 draw on Monday night, a 1-0 defeat to Watford in the Emirates FA Cup had been the latest blow to Steve McClaren’s rocky Toon adventure, with some fans already calling for his head.
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But how did one of the biggest teams in the North East become so accustomed to year-on-year relegation dogfights?
It’s quite simple – a working relationship with management, ownership and supporters that has completely broken down. It’s been the same ever since Alan Pardew was at the helm and that was what ultimately drove the now Crystal Palace man out of the club.
Patience wanes faster on Tyneside than anywhere else in the country – the Geordies are mad about their football and they have the right to a team that put 100% in week-in, week-out.
The fact of the matter is that they have a squad largely made up of foreign players whose games revolve around flair. Yes, it is okay to have the likes of Riviere, Gouffran, Thauvin and Marveaux (say that quickly five times, I dare you) but they’re not the sort of players that are going to grind you out a 1-0 away victory at Stoke on a cold January evening.
I’m looking at their squad list and there’s a lack of Geordies – lads who know the importance of a derby-day with arch rivals Sunderland. PSG versus Marseille might be a derby in France, but you go down to the Toon against the Black Cats and sit at the back of the Gallowgate and you’ll know what a proper, English derby is.
In Mike Ashley they have an owner who the fans quite simply do not like. There is an active ‘Mike Ashley out campaign’ which is supported by fellow fan groups the Gallowgate Shots, True Faith and THE MAG. These are the groups that actively produced an alternative Newcastle home strip at the beginning of the season in protest against The Magpies’ new sponsorship with pay-day loan giants Wonga.
To put it plainly, they are a club in crisis.
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On the pitch, they just cannot score. The Magpies have bought badly in recent years, and despite splashing the cash on the likes of Georginio Wijnaldum, Aleksander Mitrovic, Remy Cabella, Siem De Jong and Emmanuel Riviere, they just haven’t wielded enough goals to justify their respective price tags.
It seems like some transfer decisions have been based on a day-trip to France and a quick tour around the Eiffel Tower. France was the country that was so explicitly targeted by Newcastle scouts in the past two years meaning they have signed little else from around the world. But unsurprisingly, their two best signings in the last couple of seasons Chancel Mbemba and Daryl Janmaat have both come from other parts of Europe.
The United match was a massive point earned for the Geordies but the Toon need to pick up their game and fast. It’s a difficult diagnosis – after all, if it was clear, I’m sure Steve McClaren would have implemented it by now.
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