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Is the Toon Ready For Promotion?
By Ethan Leong
Sitting pretty at second place in the Championship table at the time of writing, Newcastle United boasts the best defence in the league- conceding 4 goals in twice as many games played. This has been a far cry from just five months ago, where Newcastle finished its last Premier League campaign with the third most goals conceded in the league, as it did in the 2007/2008 season.
With only the 2-1 loss to Blackpool this season as the most notable slump, bookies have placed Newcastle as favourites behind West Brom to win the Championship outright. Are we really ready for promotion?
Following Newcastle’s relegation, we have sold or released no less than eight senior players. Three of them were the strikers Kevin Keegan deployed in tandem to save the club from relegation two seasons ago. A telling sign of the quality we have missed in our strikers is the fact that our two first choice strikers, Owen and Martins, have been snapped up by the champions of England and Germany; albeit not as a member of Manchester United or Wolfsburg’s starting eleven.
Mike Ashley has responded following our fire-sale in July by giving the green light to sign Marlon Harewood, Zurab Khivanishvili and Danny Simpson on loan. This effectively leaves us short of players come January again. The squad is severely imbalanced; when Harewood leaves in January the club will only have the often-derided Shola Ameobi as the sole striker with sufficient experience. A combined total of less than 50 senior appearances between Andy Carroll and Nile Ranger expose an urgent need for Newcastle to sign a striker with both the quality and experience for the club to remain competitive in the Premier League.
On the other hand, the squad is over-staffed with the same five competitive central midfielders who struggled to create chances for our strikers last season. Although much of our defensive tenacity this season can be credited to the sterling performances of Alan Smith and company, Newcastle’s performances away to Cardiff as well as the last two matches were crying out for some semblance of creativity in the midfield. We are so short of defensive cover that before the club got Khizanishvili on loan; any injuries to our starting back four would see us resort to using youth players to plug the gaps.
Managerless since relegation and stuck with an owner who wants out of the club, it seems like it will be a long while before any substantial funds will be invested into adding new faces to the first team squad on a permanent basis. As supporters, we all want what is best for Newcastle United, but as the weeks roll by, I find it harder and harder to believe that promotion will work towards the best interests of the club if things remain status quo come May 2010.
Will we be prepared to watch our team face the best wingers in the world without an established right-back, or manager for that matter? How will we feel when the media spouts the usual headlines such as “Toon crumbles again”? Will we really be happy every weekend as we hope that we will not make a new chapter in the Premier League records of infamy?
Since our relegation, I have found myself looking forward to each match during the weekend despite Newcastle’s lack of squad depth. This is in complete contrast to the constant anxiety I experienced last season. I watched every match hoping that the Toon would come away without a defeat at least. If we were to be promoted, I would rather that happens when we are fully ready for the challenge and rigours of the Premier League. I, for one, feel that Ashley needs to go before May and if he is still at the helm during the final few weeks of our campaign and we are pushing for promotion, I will not be surprised to find myself hoping that we do not promote.
By: Ethan Leong
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chuck say's:
4:29 PMExactly what I have echo`ed on other blogs.
It`s all very well and at present the only way we are able to strengthen the team (via loans)however what happens when they return to their clubs?
What appears to be a season that could bring us instant promotion, time and opportunity can not be wasted.
The focus (apart from promotion)should be on scouring both UK and continental leagues, for the type of young players like a Bassong or a N`Zogbia, players both for the future, who can play in the PL right away.
If we return with nothing more than the present squad, we are probably not going to survive.
Yeah, we know MA wants out and it makes things difficult, but it`s really in his interest to make a return with a decent side (easier to sell)
We have two windows to pick up the required players, now is the time to analyze our needs and who to let go, but we have to rebuild in order to survive that first season in the PL and for the future.
Adrian say's:
5:32 PMI completely agree with everything said. We may very well be playing decent football at the moment but come the end of the season when we’re on the way up (and we will be!), we need to bring in some heavy hitting experience up front and some average players for midfield and defence to fill any gaps that appear.
Mike Ashley will probably not sell the club now until the end of the season so he can command a greater asking price. I wouldn’t actually mind this, as long as we gained some internal stability. For Christ sake, just give Hughton the job so we can get the club settled!
Chris H has done a fantastic job under very difficult circumstances and wouldn’t steer us far wrong given a permanent postion.
Oh, and don’t get me started on KK’s settlement issue…
adude say's:
2:25 AMeverton has a stupidly small team but they manage just fine. now im not suggestin our players are as good as evertons, but all im tryin to say is that a small team can do well, although unlikely.