With hindsight - January

[andyh]

I read something somewhere recently that said, 'it's easier to stay in the premier league than to get into it'.

I sincerely hope we haven't given up our place for an extended period of time.

[brontebilly]

Wasn't Garde after the same players Allardyce got in Jan? Crucially though he went to war publicly with the charlatans in the dressing room, which maybe was music to the ears of the fans but ultimately was a high stakes gamble that didn't pay off. Betrayed inexperience maybe

In hindsight Garde was the wrong man in Jan, in hindsight keeping on Sherwood after the cup final was the wrong move.

In truth, this relegation has been staring us in the face since MON left. Sherwood postponed an almost certain relegation last term by getting the likes of Benteke, Delph, Cleverly, Grealish, even Bacuna and Gabby playing for 8-10 weeks and we fell over the line.

[chrisw1]

Garde was dealt a very bad hand, but getting us no results in very winnable games around Christmas is what killed us.  If we had got some momentum then, I always thought the club would have been more ready to back him and players more ready to join us.  Since January he has done nothing to squeeze any performance out of the squad or even luck our way to the odd result.  Quite how he gets such a forgiving ride from fans I just do not know.  He really couldn't have done a worse job.

[peter w]

Who knows? But seeing that the forward we were after did nothing for Newcastle I doubt much would have changed. It may have also been a dead weight around our necks that we'd struggle to shift next season which could have further harmed our chances of spending money in the right places.

[montague]

No but we might not have been humiliated as we have been and dismissed as the worst prem team ever

[AVH87]

Who knows? But seeing that the forward we were after did nothing for Newcastle I doubt much would have changed. It may have also been a dead weight around our necks that we'd struggle to shift next season which could have further harmed our chances of spending money in the right places.

In his defence he targeted Khazri from Bordeaux, who has done a good job for Sunderland, but our board wouldn't stump up the cash.

[edgysatsuma89]

Mate of mate's yoga instructors aunty's dog groomer stuff here but apparently someone working at some villa christmas gathering repeatedly heard Fox say 'When we go down...'.

Could be mega bollocks but I can kind of imagine Fox saying it.

[avfcdale]

Fox went down on a dog at the groomers? why have we not been told about this before?

[cheltenhamlion]

Mate of mate's yoga instructors aunty's dog groomer stuff here but apparently someone working at some villa christmas gathering repeatedly heard Fox say 'When we go down...'.

Could be mega bollocks but I can kind of imagine Fox saying it.

In my dealings with Fox for the Trust he was always at pains to point out that "we haven't accepted we will go down" when we asked "in the very likely event of relegation" questions so I would be surprised if that was the case.

[Clampy]

I agree with what Ian Taylor said around the time and what Gareth posted earlier. Bringing in 1 or 2 wouldn't have been worth it. It needed to be at least 5 because the confidence was shot to pieces. Debuchy and the goalkeeper we were after probably wouldn't have made much difference.

[ciggiesnbeer]

With hindsight it was still a terrible and shameful decision. We were within touching distance beginning of January which is when we should have brought in the players we spent all December looking at & sounding out. Even if we did not get promoted we should have been strengthening with an eye to a unified squad familiar with each other for the Championship.

The idea of the twats on the board slapping themselves on the back for not spending this window makes me rather angry actually.

[cheltenhamlion]

It wasn't back slapping. 3 deals were afoot. The goalie (kalinic?) was done and got fucked by the FA. Doumbia (who hardly got a touch for Newcastle) was on loan until seasons end with a view to permanent. Garde's boy and the funds in place even though we knew it might be a forlorn hope. Debuchy was keen as well but there was no point spending a fortune on borrowing him when the previous two went down the pan.

They might not be inspiring or have kept us up. The deals were real though and Lerner agreed to finance the lot. Completely chucking the towel in come January isn't fair as an accusation. We just shouldn't have been hoping Richard Sharpe could lead us up the breach of Badajoz in the first place.

[Drummond]

Unless we'd paid off,  or (hahahahahaha) sold,  the full squad, then bought the best  from everywhere else, no. We were already well gone.

[N'ZMAV]

IF we'd have spent money then we'd be in an even bigger mess now. We needed more players than we was ever going to be able to sign.

[Jean Quereue-Quereue]

Newcastle next season will be doing what we could have been doing.  If they break even or profit with their sales then yes, maybe we should have done what they did.  If, however, they have no money for player sales because other clubs are treating them as desperate sellers getting rid of a dodgy car, offering low-ball sums because they have no other choice but to accept, then we have done the more sensible thing.