One is known for its great past and the passion the fans have for the club, another is known for playing in one of the best stadiums in the United Kingdom, while the last one is known for its state-of-the-art youth facility and for having one of the best chairmen in the Premier League.
They all come from the North East of the country. Any clue which three clubs I’m talking about?
Take a good look at the bottom five of the Premier League. Yes, that’s right, Newcastle, Sunderland and Middlesbrough. It’s amazing how the worker’s area of the England is failing in their own game.
After Newcastle’s draw against Portsmouth, I don’t see the famous black and white surviving this season, even with the help of their third messiah!
One might look at these three clubs and think maybe all they had to do was swap their policies with one another. After the golden days of Sir Bobby Robson, who should never have been sacked, Newcastle has been home tp a who’s who of managers.
With the like of Big Sam and Keegan, and then the appointment of the former Wimbledon boss Joe Kinnear, no one could have predicted that a club this big would be facing these dark days.
Perhaps all they needed was Steve Gibson to stabilise the club and make it consistent, a policy which did not work at Middlesbrough.
I remember after the appointment of Southgate when everyone said that Middlesbrough was grooming another England manager. As much as I was happy to see the job to go to an Englishman, I was not happy with Gibson’s policy to stick with Southgate for this long.
Kudos to Gibson for being patent with the manager, but what about Southgate?
When things started to go wrong, I felt he should have stepped down. But one thing this experience will do to Gareth is make him stronger as a manager and, who knows, we still might be seeing the next England manager in the making.
Now come the Black Cats.
Long gone are the days when Peter Reid and Kevin Phillips were at the Stadium of Lights making their fans proud in the Premier League.
Now we have Neil Quinn, and after an encouraging start to his reign, the whole thing seems to coming to an end. How many of you have heard of Ricky Sbragia? Yeah, I can also see Ricky raising his hand up there.
After the departure of the Super Keano, why didn’t the board go with someone with a little bit of experience?
Apparently it was the players’ choice and this where Quinn showed his inexperience as a Chairman. After watching the horrid performance against the Baggies, it will be a wonder to see the club survive.
Although the relegation battle is still not over – almost six clubs can still go down – if there is any club in the North East that can pull off the great escape, it will be Middlesbrough. The club has an inexperienced manager, true, but with easier fixtures upcoming up, they just might survive this season.
Over the years we have seen clubs with long ball tactics and physical game play succeed in the Premier League. Bolton is the perfect example.
In relegation scrap matches, you need your strong tacklers and strong forwards to muscle their way to the goal, which Newcastle is short of. They are more of a mid-table team who plays nice football on the ground and down the flanks, tactics which will fail in the relegation battle.
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