Newcastle Have Swept The Mess Under The Carpet
Things have rarely looked as serene at Newcastle United since Mike Ashley waddled through the door two years ago, but that should be when we all start to get scared.
Newcastle United are unbeaten, sit proudly at the top of the Coca Cola Championship and their previously ridiculed caretaker manager Chris Hughton is about to pick up a richly deserved Manager of the Month award for August - the first time a United boss has managed that since Sir Bobby Robson in 2003.
But is everything really as sound as it seems? Personally, I think we are about to find just how suited this United team is to life in English football's second tier.
The last time Newcastle appeared to have put their troubles behind them was under Joe Kinnear, when back-to-back victories over Portsmouth and Tottenham Hotspur last December led Ashley to take the club off the market for the first time and talk stupidly about pushing for a Uefa Cup place ahead of a 5-0 home thrashing by Liverpool.
Five months later, Kinnear was recovering from heart surgery and Newcastle United were tumbling out of the Premier League and the ridiculous rotund one was trying to sell the club for the second time in a year. See what I mean when I say this is when we should be scared?!
Hughton has done an excellent job, one which has pleasantly surprised me and plenty of others. It has been a good start, but it is worth pointing out that four of Newcastle's six games this season have been at St James's Park.
The next two games come at in-form Cardiff City on Sunday and is followed by a trip to the seaside on Wednesday night to take on Blackpool in front of a sell out crowd at Bloomfield Road.
This is the what the Championship is all about when you are the glamour boys in the division, in your face away trips where everyone is out to ruffle your feathers any and which way they can!
Pass these two tests with, shall we be ambitious and say six points, and I'll start to agree with those who are starting to talk about this division being a piece of you know what.
It has been nice to spend the international break in a state of relative calm - even if there has been the usual reports of a breakthrough followed by a lack of any actual progress regarding a takeover - but it's time for the daily grind to kick in now.
Newcastle's squad remains short on numbers and dangerously so. There still haven't been any loan signings, although we are told they are imminent.
I will reserve judgement until I actually see who they are. Until then, as far as I'm concerned, this squad is just a couple of injuries away from a major crisis.
There are 41 league games left to play this season so nobody should be getting over excited, least of all Ashley and his cronies.
The mess at Newcastle United has been tidied up but you suspect it has only been shoved under carpet.
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Luke Edwards - is Chief Sports Writer of The Journal and uses his blog to give a unique and entertaining insight into events at Newcastle United and Sunderland.
Personally Luke I think you're being unrealistic if you think we should be looking at 6 points from our next 2 games to show we are too good for this division, we will lose games on the way especially at somewhere like Cardiff or Sheffield Utd but as long as we keep winning at home then that should be the main thing.
After 5 years of rubbish in the Premiership I'm just happy to see us winning games and I'm enjoying visiting some new away grounds on the way.
Btw Luke what clubs in the Championship have more strength or depth than us?
It's what the championship is about, you won't find many clubs with a squad of 25 experienced pro's.
On the one hand people seem happy to talk about some of the bright young players we've got coming through the academy but then go weak at the knees at the thought of us having to put one in the first team when a player is out injured, if that's the case we might as well scrap the academy and save ourselves some money.
"Mike Ashley waddled through the door "
"ridiculous rotund one"
Hahahaha, love it!
You may have a point Matt and I can see where you are coming from. I was being purposefully over-ambitious with my six point thing just to emphasise the fact we should not think anything is going to be easy in the Championship. As for the cover int he squad, again you may have a point, but I bet they at least have more than one player who can play at left-back. I would also argue they are not delving straight into a pool of untried youngsters as soon as anyone gets injured or have to play a right-back at centre-back when one of them is missing. The squad is still too small, in defence and attack.