Friday, 10 May 2013

Lee Ryder on Newcastle United - ChronicleLive

But one thing that Mike Ashley can't escape is just how much relegation will cost the club if they fail to rise to the occasion against Queens Park Rangers and Arsenal.

Actually, it is written all over this football-mad city with billboards screaming out "Game Changing" to signify the new TV revolution that no Premier League club wants to miss out on.

It is boom-time for Premier League clubs when it comes to TV revenue next term and, while there will be a post-season inquest into why Newcastle have flirted with relegation for much of this campaign, you wouldn't envy whoever has to tell Ashley that £60m has slipped through his fingers quicker than you can type the address of Yeovil Town's Huish Park into your sat nav.

Dropping into the Championship for the second time in Ashley's tenure would actually be a bigger disaster than 2009.

Fabricio Coloccini has his own personal problems and few would bet on him hanging around again in the second tier this time.

And it would be difficult to see stars like Hatem Ben Arfa, Tim Krul, Cheick Tiote and Moussa Sissoko all staying to fight on for the cause at Doncaster and Barnsley on a Tuesday night in November.

Even if they did want to remain on Tyneside, their agents would have a busy summer ahead. Therefore avoiding the drop could save Ashley a lot of trouble – and a lot of money.

If the bulk of his French Legion were to walk away, assembling a squad good enough to mount a promotion challenge would be tough in what has always been a madhouse of a league – you only have to look at the last day of the regular season at Hull and Watford to see that.

So now it is up to the current crop to save us all of that trouble. Swansea's win over Wigan was a help, but it doesn't mean to say it's all over.

In the build-up to the game at Loftus Road, David Ginola suggested that United's French Legion don't have the stomach for a relegation fight and the players need to have a "special concern about keeping Newcastle in the Premier League".

It was nothing new for the Toon squad. Rightly or wrongly Alan Pardew's troupers have been questioned, criticised, booed off and accused in recent weeks as a bad season worsened on Tyneside.

Coloccini this week demanded a performance over 90 minutes at Loftus Road and it is now or never in terms of reacting to the critics with a much needed win – something Geordie fans last experienced over a month ago.

But whatever people's views are on the scrap at the bottom of the top flight, it all boils down to the last 180 minutes of a season that even the players have said on the record has been nowhere near good enough. Only then can Ashley count the true cost of just how United's poor performance this season.

You may not get a trophy for avoiding relegation, but the term points make prizes could not be more significant for Newcastle United right now.

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