To an outsider, watching what's been going on at Newcastle this season has been like watching a car crash in slow motion. You could see where they were heading, nothing was going to stop it but you couldn't help watching to the end to see the inevitable outcome.
The man at the wheel has been owner Mike Ashley, and he's made so many mistakes this season he'd be clear winner if there was a worst owner of the season award.
Appointing Dennis Wise to interfere with the manager's job was always going to lead to problems. Kevin Keegan could have stayed and fought for what he believed was right for the club, but it was no surprise when he walked out, he's got previous in that area.
Giving the job to Joe Kinnear seemed to be a bizarre thing to do, he'd been out of the game for years and didn't have the experience of taking on such a high profile, high pressure job. The fans didn't want him, the players didn't perform for him, and he clearly wasn't up to the job mentally or physically.
Then Ashley finally did something the Geordie fans agreed with, he appointed Alan Shearer as manager. Maybe the thought behind it was that it would revitalise the support, and that would transmit to the players who would fight for their Premiership lives. But it didn't work and they should have appointed a manager with experience in this kind of situation. Shearer won five points from his eight games in charge and that sealed their return to the second tier of English football.
The last time they were relegated it took a while to get back up, and they even flirted with relegation to the third tier. They will be favourites to bounce back immediately, but the financial problems relgation will bring, along with the pressure their manager(s) will be under mean it could be much harder than they think. You just have to look at Leeds to see what can happen when "big" teams get relegated from the Premiership.
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