Is it really better for Newcastle United to get relegated?

After much searching, a pulse was found. It seemed that, surprisingly, there was still life in this Newcastle United. When Ayoze Perez cancelled out Victor Anichebe’s opener, pure relief filled the stands of St James’ Park, like a huge obstacle had been conquered. And in a way, it had. Eight consecutive league defeats for the self-proclaimed “greatest coach in the league” had dragged the Toon Army deep into a relegation fight. The alarming freefall was not without precedence – wins in October ended a shameful run of 17 defeats in 27 games – but it’s the manner of this incompetence that continues to worry.

Opponents smell blood in a club who are in complete disarray. Spineless defeat after spineless defeat, fan protests, an interim manager who offers to right supporters and publically slanders his players and a sequence of open letters that could put the Royal Mail out of business. Newcastle have gathered all the ingredients of a team with no desire to stay in the Premier League.

Yesterday’s results were mostly disastrous too – Leicester sustained their miraculous escape, Aston Villa’s new-found confidence yielded another win and an incredibly lucky Sunderland won at Everton, thanks to two deflected counter-attack goals. But one fortuitous result could save the Geordie faithful – Hull 0-1 Burnley. With that, Steve Bruce’s side are two points adrift of Newcastle with Spurs and Man United to play.

Sacrifice

So a win at QPR – not a given - will keep Newcastle in the Premier League for another year. It should never have come to this. But an interesting question has cropped up on Tyneside – is it actually better for Newcastle to get relegated? It sounds sacrilegious but is entirely understandable with such a soulless owner. It’s fine to be mid-table and to not win trophies, but every other club has dreams and aspirations to reach them. There’s intent. Mike Ashley has no ambitions for Newcastle and, worst of all, is publically proud of it.

What sort of existence is that? The sole aim is to stay in the Premier League, avoid the Europa League at all costs and collect millions in TV rights. New players are just future pricetags, bought as individual assets rather than to progress the club. Buy cheap, sell high. Transfer targets aren’t those who would balance the team and combat weaknesses. As a result, the ‘team’ is unbalanced, too small, too lightweight and has no leaders.

It’s all about the balance sheet, as Ashley spends only what is raised through sales whilst rivals use the eye-watering TV income. He surrounds himself with cheap, loyal staff who are grateful for employment, instead of those with ability. Because this general tight-fisted approach made him a billionaire with Sp**** Di****, he stubbornly believes it should work in football. That’s the one advantage to relegation – it’s a powerful message to Ashley that every decision he’s made has been proved wrong. His ideology backfired and he doesn’t know best, costing himself many millions.

Abyss

In theory, it’d be nice to win more often too, yet many who go down don’t come back up. If Norwich don’t win the play-offs, it means none of last season’s bottom three have bounced back. From the 10 seasons before that, only seven of the 30 made an immediate return and just eight were back within two years. 43.3% of those relegated have never returned to top flight football, including Leeds United, Sheffield United, Derby County and Middlesbrough. Basically, get promoted straight away or you could be gone for a long time. That’s the worry about Newcastle, our stay was only brief in 2009/10 but we won’t be so lucky again. There’s no Kevin Nolan or Joey Barton to rally the troops. If we get relegated, we won’t be back for a while.

There’s an assumption that Ashley will sell if we’re demoted but nothing suggests that would happen. Sure, he’s missing out on TV money and the asking price may be lowered, but the brand is less attractive to buyers. Relegation would bring the hilarity of proving Ashley wrong in his ‘unambitious, mediocre profit making’ utopia but the joke would soon be on us. This Premier League situation is grim, soul-crushing and heart-breaking but relegation won’t fix it, it’ll make things worse.

Saturday only provided a draw against West Brom but it stopped the rot. John Caver can’t be trusted to drag the team over the finish line but there’s just enough quality to gain sufficient points. Hull could very feasibly beat Tottenham – who are in awful form and have a self-destructive habit in such silly games. So we’re not safe yet, there’s still one more huge push needed to get that win.

Hope

And looking forward? The manager’s role seemed destined for Carver or Steve McClaren but the latter burnt his bridges by rejecting Ashley’s emergency plea, whilst the board surely know that Carver is a disaster. As loyal and grateful as he is, he has almost ruined everything – he’d finish the job next season. Suddenly, Newcastle could be open to other candidates, ones who may actually be a positive appointment – Paco Jemez, Paul Clement, Remi Garde etc. It’s very dangerous under Mike Ashley to say there’s hope but, if they avoid relegation, there could accidently be some.