20 teams in 20 days – Newcastle United

By on August 8, 2014

Manager: Alan Pardew
Stadium: Sports Direct Arena (or St. James Park)
Nickname: The Magpies
Finish Last Season: 10th

There is no better way to start off at Newcastle United than to take a look into the club’s owner, Mike Ashley. The Billionaire keeps his private life incredibly secret, it was a surprise when he even did as much publicly as but Newcastle. And during good times, the he would sit and travel with Newcastle’s supporters – even controversially drink at a stadium which did not sell alcohol and did not allow it within sight of the pitch. Yet during bad times, he almost steps into the shadow, and go as far as putting the club up for sale twice when the supporters were rebelling against him. From what Ashley has allowed the public to see of his life, he seems to be more of a supporter than owner. It almost seems like a supporter is running the club at times, what with the instability – in two years they went from a club relegated to one finishing in a European position. Much trust seems to be put in his manager during good times and with the right manager. With Kevin Keegan in charge, all that seemed to be stripped away from the manager by Ashley.

For the most part, this sums of Newcastle, instability. Granted, that is only a bad thing half the time. And this season, the clubs supports must be baffled once again. Ashley had reportedly forced the sale of the likes of Demba Ba, Andy Carroll, Yohan Cabaye, and more key players including Mathieu Debuchy over the past few seasons, leaving them falling to tenth last season, but for the first time in a fair few seasons that money has been smartly reinvested in the future. With a strong backbone consisting of Tim Krul, Cheick Tiote, Fabricio Coloccini, Papiss Demba Cisse and more, manager Alan Pardew has splashed that with the likes of the exciting Dutch 2014 World Cup squad member Darly Janmaat, star prospect Remy Cabella, and Facundo Ferreya on loan from Shakthar Donestk. Alongside existing young talent like Moussa Sissoko, next season looks exciting for Newcastle. Though it is hard to foresee anything that goes on at the club – last season they were headed for a good finish before Pardew’s headbutt and a bad spell sent them spinning down the table.

But all things considered, they are surprisingly strong coming into the new season. They have good depth interior squad in most positions; if Cabella proves himself or they invest in one star player then they might just sneak in and nick a European position again.

Notable Transfers In: Remy Cabella (Montpellier), Emmanuel Riviere (Monaco), Siem de Jong (Ajax), Daryl Janmaat (Feyenoord), Jack Colback (Sunderland), Facundo Ferreyra (Shakhtar Donetsk, Loan)

Notable Transfers Out: Mathieu Debuchy (Arsenal), Dan Gosling (Bournemouth), Shola Ameobi

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.