Who is to blame for the mess at Newcastle?

MIKE ASHLEY

As with any organisation, ultimately the main responsibility for Newcastle’s failings has to lie with the man at the top.

The flaws in Ashley’s formula for running the Magpies have become all too apparent in recent weeks. A lack of quality and depth in the squad reflects a failure to adequately invest for a number of seasons despite the much-trumpeted profits, while the refusal to sign a single player in the January transfer window was a huge error given the obvious problems that were apparent in both defence and attack.

Ashley’s policy of signing young, relatively unproven players from overseas might offer the potential to make money when those players are sold on, but it also results in the assembly of a squad that lacks the stomach for a relegation fight. Where are the leaders in the current group of players? Absent, because Ashley doesn’t like signing experienced performers without what he perceives to be a sell-on value.

Ashley’s other main error in the last five months was the failure to appoint a permanent replacement for Alan Pardew when the former boss left to join Crystal Palace. Whether it was complacency because of Newcastle’s league position in the top half of the table or an attempt to save money, the decision to promote John Carver was fatally flawed. Would Newcastle still be in this mess if they had turned to a proven manager at the start of the year?

LEE CHARNLEY and GRAHAM CARR

While Ashley is unquestionably the man in overall charge at St James’, he has ceded much of the day-to-day authority over club affairs to managing director Lee Charnley and chief scout Graham Carr, whose wide-ranging remit effectively makes him a de facto director of football.

Neither figure should be absolved from blame when the growing threat of relegation is assessed, with Charnley in particular increasingly looking like a figure who has been promoted above his level of competence.

The former administrator played the leading role in the process to identify Pardew’s successor, but despite interviewing Remi Garde and sounding out Steve McClaren, he decided to stick with the status quo. That now looks a serious error. He was also the prime mover in the decision to sell Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa and Davide Santon in January without recruiting a defensive replacement.

Carr’s reputation soared when he brought the likes of Yohan Cabaye, Cheick Tiote and Mathieu Debuchy to Tyneside, but his more recent raft of signings have flopped. The £6m paid for Emmanuel Riviere looks like wasted money, while Remy Cabella’s unsuitability for life in the Premier League should surely have become apparent during Carr’s numerous scouting trips to France. And given Siem de Jong’s dreadful injury record, wasn’t putting so much faith in the Dutchman always going to be dangerous?

JOHN CARVER

Carver is a decent man who clearly has a passionate love for his hometown club. However, by agreeing to take over as head coach for the second half of the season, he assumed a role he was incapable of performing to an adequate standard.

His failings have become increasingly apparent over the last couple of months, and as Newcastle’s results have nosedived, so his attempts to halt the slide have proved completely ineffective.

Tactically, he has appeared naive, attempting a variety of midfield formations that have simply not worked. His faith in the likes of Ryan Taylor, Jonas Gutierrez and Riviere is surely misplaced, and it has becoming increasingly clear that the players have little or no respect for his position.

His public comments often seem like a naked attempt to court favour with the Newcastle fans – something else that has proved ineffective – and while his criticism of Mike Williamson at the weekend might have been refreshingly honest, it was also completely ill-advised given the internal politics of a football dressing room.

THE PLAYERS

As ever, if Newcastle are relegated, the players are the one group who will escape relatively unscathed. They will either remain on lucrative salaries in the Championship, or head off to pastures new.

Yet almost to a man, their performances since the turn of the year have been little short of a disgrace. No passion, no spirit, no desire to fight for the shirt. Far too many players appear to have simply given up.

There is the odd exception to the general dereliction of duty – most notably Tim Krul, Jack Colback and Ayoze Perez - but it says much about the malign nature of Newcastle’s dressing room that some of the club’s most poorly-performing players since Christmas have been some of the most senior names on the books.

The likes of Fabricio Coloccini, Moussa Sissoko, and Papiss Cisse have conducted themselves dreadfully in recent weeks, and the parallels to the 2008-09 relegation season, when another group of experienced professionals chronically underperformed, are stark.

THE PARDEW OUT CAMPAIGN

It might be a controversial issue to flag up, but the ‘success’ of the ‘Pardew Out’ campaign in terms of driving the former manager from the club increasingly looks like a Pyrrhic victory.

For all his failings, and there were plenty, Pardew achieved a decent level of success in the first half of the season. When he left, after the Everton game, Newcastle had claimed 26 points from 19 matches. In the 16 games since, they have added another nine.

Pardew presided over a similarly dreadful run in the second half of last season, but had he still been in charge now, it is hard to imagine that Newcastle would be languishing on 35 points.

Sometimes, you have to be careful what you wish for. Pushing Pardew through the exit door removed one part of Newcastle’s set-up that was perceived to be failing. Ultimately, though, might it have brought even more damaging issues and personalities to the fore?