What now for Newcastle United?

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley has shown a complete lack of ambition during his time with the club from the north east

Newcastle suffered a 2-1 home defeat against Arsenal at St James Park on Saturday.

The defeat was the Magpies fourth defeat in their last five Premier League games.

The situation could be a more worrying one if the side from the north east had not already collected 35 points.

John Carver’s team are ten points clear of the relegation zone and it would take a major turnaround for men from Tyneside to get dragged into the bottom three.

Limbo

Newcastle United seems to be a club in perpetual limbo in the last few seasons.

They have not quite managed to hit the heights of 2012 and their fifth-place finish, but they have never really looked like being relegated either.

It has meant the past couple of seasons have been campaigns of mediocrity and nothingness for the St James Park faithful.

Owner

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley comes in for a lot of stick from Newcastle and at times rightly so. By all accounts he is a shrewd businessman and that shows in the way he runs the Magpies. He treats the club as a business.

Ashley is quite happy to own the club while he is taking money out of it and collect the season ticket money season after season. Newcastle fans are some of the most faithful in the country and despite complaints about the clubs owner they will always support their club.

Every season no matter what their team’s fortunes are on the pitch, the Newcastle fans seem to remain loyal and renew their season tickets.

It seems that Mike Ashley completely lacks ambitious for the club from the north east. He appears to be content as long as the Magpies remain in the top-flight.

If Ashley can keep Newcastle in the Premier League on the cheap he will. He has got lucky in the past that the likes of former-boss Alan Pardew and head scout Graham Carr managed to bring in decent players for reasonable fees. If they had not then Newcastle may have been in the Championship by now.

Potential

Newcastle United Football Club has so much potential. If they were located in London and not the north east no doubt a mega-rich foreign owner would have bought the Magpies by now.

Newcastle is a football mad city and that shows by the amount of fans that attend every game at St James Park for home games. The football club is a big part of the city and the community. Newcastle fans are so passionate about their team, but owner Mike Ashley does not seem to share that passion.

The Magpies have the potential to be a major player in the English game, but a lack of investment in the team and poor management has meant the club have remained a midtable team stuck in limbo.

Struggling

Newcastle are currently down to the bare bones squad-wise and had just 13 fully-fit senior players for the home defeat against Arsenal. They went in at half-time two goals down, but came back in the second half and were unlucky not to rescue a point in the end as they laid siege to the Gunners goal.

Boss

Current Newcastle boss John Carver was the cheap option when he was appointed back in January. The 50-year-old’s record so far is far from encouraging, having won just two of his 12 games in charge of the team and losing seven.

Carver is Newcastle born and bred and no doubt has a similar sort of passion for the team and club as the fans. However, passion is not good enough at the top level of the game.

To be fair to Carver his squad is currently very low on numbers, but his reign as Newcastle boss could be a short one and it would be a major surprise to me if John Carver is still the Newcastle boss come next season.

Stalled

Newcastle fans will be looking for signs that their team are moving forward and improving, but in truth it looks like Newcastle have stalled as a club. Until the current owner leaves the club it is unlikely that the Magpies will move forward in the near future, which is major shame for the success-starved Toon Army.

Can Newcastle move forward under the ownership of Mike Ashley?