Should Norwich City secure three points this Saturday lunchtime then Newcastle United will find themselves nine points adrift of safety and staring the plight of relegation square in the face. This is a predicament few could have predicted as their 2015/16 began, despite requiring a last-gasp effort to remain in the top flight the previous May. In the weeks that followed that near-miss it appeared to every observer that the club’s hierarchy had been sufficiently jolted into action, making funds available to a new coach in Steve McClaren, who many believed would be a shrewd fit for the north-east giants.
So lessons had been learned then, and once again Newcastle utilised their Dutch, French and Belgian connections to bring in quality – if somewhat risky – additions in the form of Georginio Wijnaldum, Florian Thauvin, Chancel Mbemba and the explosive Aleksander Mitrovic, and should they be successfully blended with a solid spine of Tim Krul, Fabricio Coloccini, Jack Colback and Papiss Cisse the general consensus was that Newcastle could finish, well, just about anywhere. With a squad packed with internationals and a former England coach at the helm, a top ten spot was certainly within realistic reach. Who knows, maybe even Europe?
In reality it all collapsed rather spectacularly, every thread unravelling to produce a calamitous season of struggle and under-achievement.
If Rafa Benitez’s side plummet apathetically into the Championship, few would raise an eyebrow now because we all know what we know, that this is a hopelessly disjointed team of individuals without the fight in their hearts that the badge demands. Yet it could have – should have – been a completely different story.
Newcastle’s demise is a sorry tale made all the worse by the undeniable fact that should they drop they will join an exclusive and undesirable club where the members hide their faces in shame on entry. They won’t be the first side who – on paper at least – were considered ‘too good’ to go down.
Nottingham Forest 1993
Perhaps in some skewed way it was entirely apt that the inaugural Premier League season saw the sad departure of Brian Clough’s managerial genius.
After pulling off miracles galore in the previous decades and giving us teams of individual magic based on a collective belief, Old Big Ead presided over a shadow of his glorious team’s past. Yet it’s worth remembering that the Forest side that finished rock bottom this season still contained the midfield prowling of Roy Keane and was skippered by Stuart Pearce.
That summer saw Clough retire from the game, moving aside for greedy interfering agents, average players on a hundred grand a week and the introduction of ‘modern’ football. Oh how he would have detested it.
Middlesbrough 1997
It had all looked so promising for the Boro with an opening day hat-trick for new signing Fabricio Ravenelli against Liverpool beckoning in an era of Teeside glamour in the form of Emerson, Juninho and the aforementioned White Feather. Two further thumpings of Coventry and West Ham had fans positively giddy but once the early euphoria subsided Bryan Robson was left with an unbalanced mish-mash of superstars and Phil Stamps that failed to find any degree of consistency.
For all their ambition, Boro proved to be little more than an expensively put together cup side who simply couldn’t maintain their shine in the weekly slog of the Prem.
Blackburn Rovers 1999
Just four years earlier Rovers had been crowned champions, Jack Walkers’ millions and Kenny Dalglish’s acumen ensuring a welcome and unfamiliar name on the roll call. The following season however it all began to unravel with the title holders languishing in the bottom half of the table for much of the season and a Champions League effort that nothing short of imploded. Things barely improved from there and with a forward line of Kevin Gallacher and Ashley Ward a pale imitation of the feared SAS task force of Shearer and Sutton the club completed their sorry decline from heroes to zeros.
West Ham United 2003
For any team to punch their weight in the Premier League they need a top class keeper. The Hammers had England number one at the time David James. They also need ingenuity, a player capable of conjuring magic from nothing. In 2003 the impish Joe Cole had broken into the international set-up and was approaching his peak.
Most importantly you need goals and to that end Glenn Roeder’s eleven possessed Paulo Di Canio and Freddie Kanoute, a strike-force that oozed lethal class.
The West Ham side of 2003 remain the greatest assembly of top class talent to ever experience the ignominy of relegation. They say the league table never lies. Occasionally though it misleads.
Leeds United 2004
After five consecutive top five finishes Leeds’ spectacular over-spending hit home like a bailiff’s thump on the front door. With the club mired in debts that exceeded £100m it necessitated a mid-season fire-sale and the loanees brought in as replacements simply weren’t up to it. Salomon Olembe, anyone?
Leeds still had more than enough quality left over from their recent heady peaks to ensure safety but by now the heart had been ripped from the club. 21 defeats in 38 games from a side containing Robinson, Radebe, Batty and Viduka amounts to a timid whisper through a loudhailer.
Newcastle United 2009
Yup they’ve been here before, the Toon are already official paid-up members of the too-good-to-go-down club and if this season has been a catastrophe their 2008/09 horror-show was an unmitigated disaster. No side with Shay Given in nets, Coloccini and Bassong at the back, Nolan and Barton in their prime and scrapping for every midfield ball, and boasting Owen and Martins up front should ever come close to the bottom three, but going through an astounding six managers between August and May probably didn’t help.
With eight games to go Alan Shearer was installed in the dug-out in a last desperate bid to forge some passion and pride but that ship had long sailed. Newcastle were haemorrhaging goals on a weekly basis and all that once made them so vibrant and watchable was gone.
Supporters will hope for a repeat of their authoritative romp back to the top flight after just one season.