Auf wiedersehen, Pet

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Picture by Hal, some rights reserved

It was the last day of the Premier League season yesterday and, along with West Brom and Middlesbrough, Newcastle United were relegated to Division 1 the Championship. I'm quite sad about this in a way, because Newcastle have always been a popular Premiership team (apart from with their North East neighbours), and there's no question that their supporters are some of the best in the league.

Unfortunately, the club is in turmoil: almost a dozen different managers in the last three seasons, a hugely-unpopular owner (who tried and failed miserably to sell the club last year) and his hugely-unpopular friends (AKA the Cockney Mafia) have taken a huge toll on the club. A last-ditch attempt to rescue the club saw them bring in "King" Kevin "The Messiah" Keagan... only for his tenure to be swiftly ended.

The introduction of Alan Shearer, Newcastle legend, really was an act of clutching the last straw. It, not unsurprisingly, failed. With just eight games to go and a squad comprising has-beens and ne'er-will-bes, Newcastle's relegation was pretty much inevitable. Over the course of the season, they simply weren't good enough: their dying throes in yesterday's game turned out to be just a whimper.

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