This is one of the most disappointing season in recent memory for Newcastle United.
Owner Mike Ashley - a nightmare first season for the owner
Yes, we know, every season is disappointing, 
but this season especially has been a disastrous one for the club and the fans. At the very least we had expected to be in Europe next season, but for the second year running we will not qualify, not by a long way.
And we’ll probably end up with our worst points total ever in the Premier league. Last season was our worst so far with 43 points, and Glenn Roeder was sacked for that poor league performance.
We finished in 13th place with just 11 wins, 47 goals conceded and a goal difference of -9. But those stats are a lot better than this season, where we currently have 29 points from 30 games, have conceded 57 goals and have a goal difference of -26. 
It’s interesting that we finished above Manchester City and West Ham who have had good seasons this year. Right now we are more concentrating on surviving relegation than anything else.
Who would have though this would have happened given the high spirits we had last August when Sam complted the incoming transfers by signing Habib Beye and Abdoulaye Faye, just before midnight on August 31st, and announced 20 minutes later.
As it turns out these two players were voted Sam’s best buys of last summer, with Beye getting 55% of the votes in first place and Faye getting 23% in second place, with over 2900 readers having voted so far.
Just to show you how high our hopes were when we conducted this poll in August - here are the results:
So a full 73% of our fans though we’d finish at leats top 6. Currently we are in the bottom seven in the league. 96% thougth we’d finish in the top 8.
What went wrong?
Probably everything. It certainly didn’t help replacing Sam Allardyce midway though the season. It was a distinct gamble admitted by Mort and Ashley, and it didn’t come off. But things are turning, and if we can just avoid relegation this year, we think we’ll be OK and it will be an exciting time again for Newcastle fans in the summer.
There’s some doubt right now whether our site will be able to survive until August, but if we do, we’ll run this same poll again, and we know we’ll get similar, if not even more optimistic results.
In the City of Newcastle, and the surrounding areas, and even all over the world, hope springs eternal with Newcastle fans - bless their hearts.
Comments welcome.
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18 responses so far ↓
1 Pete // Mar 20, 2008 at 10:31
Why are you getting rid of the blog ?
2 Nick C // Mar 20, 2008 at 10:35
Don’t bin the blog dude!!!!!!!!!
3 Prince_Monkey // Mar 20, 2008 at 10:45
“There’s some doubt right now whether our site will be able to survive until August” WHAT?!? Aw that would suck! This is the only site I bother with these days.
Anyone else fed up with every newcastle-mad.co.uk headline ending in a !, a ? or sometimes a !!!
4 Spyro // Mar 20, 2008 at 10:46
why will the site not survive?
5 Andreas // Mar 20, 2008 at 10:57
Exactly, why is the future not rosy for this blog? Even though it’s a lot of banter on here, and we (i.e. some of us reading this blog) sometimes critizice you Ed, the fact is that this is one of the best sites around for NUFC-related stuff (I would argue that nufcblog.com and nufc.com are the only sites worth reading, plus nufc.co.uk for official stuff).
Keep up the good work Ed!
6 Matthew Tom // Mar 20, 2008 at 11:09
What went wrong was the complete mismatch of management style, buying policy and team selection that Sam Allardyce brought to the club.
Defensive Bolton-esque football was never going to be right for us. We all sort of knew that would be the case and so it proved.
Some of the players we bought were just not good enough, or fit enough, or just plain over the hill. Beye and Faye are pretty good and I still think Barton and Enrique will be top players for us over the next few years, but Smith, Viduka, Geremi, Cacapa, Rozenhal didn’t amount to much, one way or the other.
Also keeping a few players of that ilk that we already had - apparently on ground of experience - was a mistake. Carr and Butt should have gone straight away and I also wonder if Duff is ever going to be the player he was at Blackburn and Chelsea.
And then there’s the team selection. N’Zogbia playing at left back, Smith being constantly selected in spite of doing sod all of any use, leaving out Martins for months on end, these were proper, obvious, straight forward errors that a manager of Sam Allardyce’s alleged quality should have avoided.
Still, the future under KK is starting to look like it might just work. Long live the King!
7 Matthew Tom // Mar 20, 2008 at 11:13
Yes I agree with Andreas. This is by far the best Newcastle site out there and it would be a massive shame if it were to close down, or even if you were to hand over the writing to someone else Ed. You’ve consistently produced well thought out articles and have hardly missed a single news story or development all season.
Is Madelaine giving you a hard time for the many hours you must be putting in?
8 Leo Kompany for the Toon // Mar 20, 2008 at 11:16
whys the blog at risk? please say it isnt true!
9 Pete // Mar 20, 2008 at 11:26
Can we get some feedback please ed
10 ObaFan2 // Mar 20, 2008 at 12:22
Can’t stop the blog Ed, plz
I remember voting top 8 and would have been happy top 10 ! sigh, seems such a long time ago now.
Biggest disappointment this season has probably been Barton, not just his Xmas antics but even before that he was performing terribly.
11 ObaFan2 // Mar 20, 2008 at 12:52
Looks like we’re gonna have to start a “Save our nufcblog” petition or something.
12 Beattie // Mar 20, 2008 at 12:59
NOOOOOOOOOOOO
this is the best site by far for newcastle united articles, it even gives the back pages of the chronicle a run for its money IMO.
Definatley a better writer than alan oliver
13 evildick // Mar 20, 2008 at 13:46
mate you can’t close this blog, it’s like my breaky paper!!!!!
howay!
14 CRAIGG // Mar 20, 2008 at 14:46
ED you cant close the blog i might have to concentrate at work and triple my productivity.
15 Leo // Mar 20, 2008 at 15:56
i think Ed might have made a typo… hopefully he meant risk of our side… not site….
well at least i am hoping so…
if not lets make a petition to save nufcblog.com
it might be at risk also because it will be costing Ed an aweful lot to do this site, not just in money terms but in time….
one thing we can do to help the money side is click on the links that you see everyday to increase revenue. you dont have to sign up to the offers etc…. i think thts the way it works.
16 Tripp // Mar 20, 2008 at 17:30
I think Leo’s right. Ed won’t bin the blog just ’cause we’re playing likes Crytal Palace and Norwich week in and week out. We won’t be playing them anyways because we’ll be in the thick of the hunt for european play next season
17 Jack // Mar 20, 2008 at 19:54
Don’t think it was a typo
Ed, I’m sure if you put a Donate link to here that let people donate via PayPal, loads of us would. I dont comment much but read every day and love it. This IS the best NUFC site around.
I’m also sure if you wanted a couple of extra people to write many would be interested.
Basically, most of us will help however we can.
18 Sav // Mar 21, 2008 at 0:47
I enjoy this site immensely. Glad you put up your interesting bio. Don’t know how you keep up to date so well from Carolina - must have psychic powers or ‘club insider’.
Anyway, its always interesting and well written - and appreciated. Well done, Ed.
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