Dear Newcastle fans AKA the Toon Army, face it, your time in the big leagues is up. It's been a slow, lingering, pain-filled demise but a demise it is. A succession of bad owners (Freddy Shepherd and Mike Ashley), the sacking of your only good manager (sacked because he couldn't crack into the Top Four) and the bringing in of Dennis Wise and the Cockney Mafia (a truly great name for a band but not so great for a football club) have resulted in what can be said as standing on the edge of the abyss, with the abyss looking straight back at you.
Mathematically, there's still a chance that the Magpies will survive. They're in the death zone together with neighbouring rivals Sunderland and Middlesbrough, and the free-falling Hull City AKA the former "surprise package of the season" ... at least for the first half of the season any ways. A win may prove to be just enough to keep the club in the Premiership but, at the end of the day, should it?
The days when The Toon played fantasy football, scoring goals, playing a fast-moving-fast-passing game and, again, scoring goals are long gone. Lost in the mist of time, a myth of epic proportions. Todays Newcastle United is a mess going forward and a disaster at the back. The selling of the only person that kept the goals against to a respectable level, Shay Given, was akin to playing Russian Roulette with 5 bullets in the barrel instead of only 1. The sacking of a series of managers didn't help either. Buying Michael Owen was a gamble with the odds stacked against the buyer. In short, Newcastle have become a comedy where no one is laughing, especially not the fans.
Yes, surrender Toon Army, surrender. Take a sabbatical in the Championship. Rediscover your game of fast-moving-fast-passing all-attack football and come back to the Premiership leaner, meaner and stronger because, right now, you're anything but that.
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