Newcastle United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2022/2023

Chronicle research suggests Mike Ashley has to spend £10million to survive - and that 62% of teams with less than four points after seven games go down

Newcastle United’s bad start is bad news – and Alan Pardew is now battling the history books if he is get the Magpies out of their early-season mess.

The Chronicle has pored over the history books to pick out Premier League trends, and the outlook is not great for teams that have just four points after seven games.

Thirteen of the clubs banking four points or fewer after seven games went on to go down – a whopping 62%.

Eight stayed up but here is where it gets really interesting for United fans urging the club to learn from Premier League history.

Only TWO of the 21 who have started as badly as United this year have stayed up by sticking with their manager – and FIVE of the eight who stayed up took evasive action before the month of October and changed bosses to keep them up.

The unlucky men to go were Gary Megson (West Brom), Sammy Lee (Bolton), Juande Ramos (Tottenham), Paolo Di Canio (Sunderland) and Ian Holloway (Crystal Palace). Four of them left or were sacked in October, allowing their clubs to upgrade and climb away from the basement.

The findings are remarkable, worrying – and should be enough to jolt anyone of a black and white persuasion out of the complacency that they won’t get dragged into a relegation battle.

Mike Ashley should need no reminding that a bad start is difficult to wipe out. Last time United went down, in 2008/9, they were actually better off than they are at the moment.

Back then, Newcastle had five points from seven. Those points had been collected from a fixture list that included four fixtures against teams that had finished in the top seven – including Arsenal and Manchester United.

This year, United have taken four despite facing just ONE team that finished in the top seven last season: Manchester City, which was on the opening day. Three of their opponents finished below them last season but they still haven’t managed a win.

This is not to suggest that Newcastle are already down, of course. But to read Mike Williamson saying things like Newcastle go into the international break “on a high” and to see the players lining up to support Pardew suggests that the overriding feeling in the Magpies camp is that they will turn a corner soon.

They might do. Newcastle’s squad is better than their current league placing suggests and their next game against Leicester – who leak goals themselves – offers Pardew an opportunity to build on the foundations of a battling point at Swansea.

But let’s not kid ourselves: the anxiety and upset of Newcastle fans is not without merit. The Pardew protests are borne of a deep-rooted fear at the direction the club is going in – and if history is anything to go by, they appear to be justified.

So should Ashley ditch Pardew now?

Well the evidence suggests that a managerial change in October makes a difference. West Brom, Bolton, Spurs, Sunderland and Crystal Palace all upgraded either in October and September and all clambered to survival.

In fact, the ONLY club to finish in the top ten after such a bad start was Tottenham – who broke the bank to take Portsmouth’s then-manager Redknapp and then furnished him with serious money to make it work.

There is even worse news for Ashley – he will probably have to get his hand in his pocket to save Newcastle too. The average price of mounting a salvage operation is £10million.

Of the sides that managed to stay in the division after their poor start, virtually all of them invested in January.

Bolton in 2007/08 spent £12million while Redknapp – somehow – persuaded the Spurs board to spend a whopping £39million. More realistic amounts were spent by Sunderland – £2.5million last January on three players – and Crystal Palace, who wheeled and dealed with £3million.

But standing still and reflecting on a summer of recruitment, as Ashley had hoped to do in January, is simply not an option.

GT_TDI_150 wrote: »

I was expecting a sacking in the days leading up to the internationals tbh, get new man in with a good week of training before the next game but alas ...

BArra wrote: »

While I agree Obertan is a liability, I would say Obertan has performed a bit better than the past few seasons.
Cabella just isn't adapting as quick as others have. He goes down so easilly and then gets stroppy when he dosent get a free.

BArra wrote: »

Has riviere been dropped?

Moneymaker wrote: »

That was as poor as we've played all season. We're getting WORSE.

Will he be sacked? Of course not.