With the Championship season now underway, Newcastle started as favourites to go on and win it and when you look at the squad that they've assembled, you can see why. They have arguably the best squad in the league, most experienced manager and history is on their side as well. It'll be a long season but a lot of people do believe the title is already decided and it's only promotion for the rest to play for. Last time Newcastle were in the Championship, they bounced straight back up by winning the league with 102 points. Despite all of the positives leading up to the season, it's been a disastrous start. They are still many people's favourites and they could very possibly still go on to win the league but they will have to improve.
Their squad is surely the envy of all of the other Championship teams. Although they have lost a few top players like Wijnaldum, Cisse, Coloccini, Townsend and Taylor and they seem likely to lose more players like Krul, Tiote and Sissoko before the transfer window ends, their recruitment to replace them has been impressive. Hanley from Blackburn and Clark from Aston Villa will help boost the defence, Hayden, Ritchie and Diame bolster the midfield and Dwight Gayle has been brought in to lead the front line. With the likes of Shelvey, Perez, Mitrovic, Colback, Janmaat and Dummet all staying despite relegation and with younger players hoping to make it into the first team like Aarons and Armstrong, there is a good mix of international quality players and young players eager to prove themselves.
They have a manager who has won promotion a couple of times in Spain and gone on to win major tournaments such as the Europa League and Champions League and was even the manager of Real Madrid only a year ago. Rafa is the most experienced manager in the Championship and has about seven years of managerial experience in English football with Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle last season. There aren't many other managers in the Championship with the same level of top tier experience. Reading have Jaap Stam who has had a few years coaching in the Ajax system and Aston Villa have another Champions League winning manager with Di Matteo. The competitiveness and quality level in this years Championship might mean that Benitez will have to use all his experience from getting promoted during his time in Spain more than competing at the highest level to help his Newcastle side bounce back up.
Now two games into the season, they find themselves at the wrong end of the table without a single point. It is early days but the Newcastle fans would expect results from day one. Newcastle have one of the biggest fan bases in England and are always very demanding. Perhaps their expectations are too high because over the last twenty years, they have seen their team go through highs and lows. The mid nineties saw Newcastle achieve multiple second place finishes and more top six finishes. From 2002 to 2004, they managed to finish in the top five for three years in a row. Even more recently in 2012, they finished fifth in their second season back in the top flight. They are capable of being a top ten team in the Premier League and should really be pushing on from that to try and win domestic cups and try to get a European place but instead they find themselves constantly flirting with relegation and competing in the second tier of English football.
The recent poor seasons at St James' Park have seen the fans turn on owner, Mike Ashley, for his lack of funding and poor footballing decisions. The appointment of Benitez and the money spent during last season show that Ashley was trying to turn things around. Over £75 million spent last season and over £40 million spent so far this season shows that it isn't for lack of trying but maybe the problems cannot be solved just by throwing money at them.
It's easy to get carried away after a couple of poor results but if Benitez's men don't turn things around soon and pick up some points, there will be plenty of angry fans asking questions. They ended last season with a 5-1 win over third place Spurs so the squad do have the ability but they just need to use it in the games that matter. If they can't, they could decline quite quickly and find themselves at home in the Championship like other former Premier League teams like Fulham, Blackburn, Wolves and Leeds who have fallen and been unable to drag themselves back into the top flight. Whatever happens, this could be a year to remember for Newcastle fans, for better or for worse.
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