Newcastle relegated

[FairwayDodger]

Not convinced about that. If you read the rules they are sufficiently wooly to leave plenty of wiggle room for commercial arrangements, they are much tighter when it comes to ownership and control.

It's speculation, nothing more, but I'm sure rfc will have lawyers looking into it. Seems the football league is a bit stricter than the premiership.

Impressed if you've actually read the rules, though. Life's too short!

 

[SwingsitlikeHogan]

For some reason I've always preferred Sunderland...

 

[Hosel Fade]

It'll be interesting how many of their new and not very good signings that must be on 60k+ they keep hold of/can't get rid of.

Just looking at the quality of their last 2 years worth of signings

Wijnaldum 14.5m - clearly talented yet can't apply it/doesn't contribute enough

Mitrovic 13m - utter rubbish, some might argue he's only 20 but I don't see it

Thauvin 12m - done pretty much nothing and shipped out on loan, when there only ever really came off the bench for 10-20

Shelvey 12m - again talented but can't bring it out of himself, doesn't understand the game and just tries to ping 40 yarders, also very unfit and can't be bothered

Townsend 11m - their best player, still a degree of luxury about him would need a quality fullback behind which they don't really have, especially not when Janmaat is out

Mbemba 7m - probably their second best CB which says it all really, still not good but has age firmly on his side

Saivet 5m - never really been seen and got dropped out of the squad

Doumbia 500k loan fee 10m option - never really been seen and got dropped out the squad

Last season

Cabella 10m - was very poor over that season, out on loan this season

de Jong 6m - injured for most of last season, been poor this and got dropped from the squad for a while

Riviere 5m - had a very poor season then has been injured most of this and never really made it back into the team

Janmaat 5m - a good solid decent player, one of the few of theirs I rate to a degree

Lascelles 7m (incl Darlow) - their best CB, still young with room to improve

Darlow - Plenty good enough as a third choice keeper, has done well since coming into the side and imo certainly better than Elliott

Perez 1.5m - Decent if unspectacular forward, value for money and should really be a squad player and not arguably their best striking option

Ferreyra 1m loan - never made an appearance for the senior team

Colback - not terrible at anything but also not good at anything, the definition of mediocre


The recruitment has let them down more than any manager has and its not been down to funds. That is just a god awful track record. Thats god knows how many forwards and wingers they signed with maybe 25 league goals between them over that period.

 

[Lord Tyrion]

A good way to judge how good a squad is is to go through it and see would you want that player in your team. HF has just made a great list and there are very few players on there that others will want to buy. Townsend yes, Krul when fit. That's about it. The odd other player may go to a newly promoted team but most on the list are not going to tempt anyone. In accountancy terms the balance sheet is going to look pretty grim based on cost of player versus current worth. Recruitment at Newcastle has been very poor and that has been happening over a few years.