Championship / Mike Norman / 02 June 2009 / Leave a comment

It's been a season of woe in the north-east, not least for our 'man up north' "Mystical" Mike Norman. Mike's a realist though, and here he tells us why and where it all went wrong for Middlesbrough and Newcastle...

Fortunately for me I had a week-long break in Turkey planned immediately following the last game of the Premier League season. The reason I say fortunate is because, as a fan of north-east football (and Middlesbrough especially), two of the region's biggest clubs were relegated from the highest echelons of the game, and I, for one, wasn't in the mood to be around for the immediate post-mortem.

As far as I was concerned, my club had just died, and no explanation in the world would bring it back to life. All I wanted to do was get away from it all - I was that low.

It's only now, nine days later that I can reflect on a season of disappointment and speculate where it all went wrong, what the implications will be, and what each club needs to do to get back into the Premier League.

You'd have gotten long odds that, after Middlesbrough had beaten Spurs on the first weekend of the season and Newcastle had drawn away to Man Utd, that both clubs would eventually be relegated. But hindsight is a wonderful thing, and the reality is that Gareth Southgate had made one, if not two monumental errors of judgement, whilst 30 miles up the A19, Newcastle United were like a volcano just waiting to erupt.

In the centre of midfield, Boro had lost the experience of seasoned pro George Boateng, that bit of class in the form of Fabio Rochemback, and the tenacious 'wear his heart on his sleeve' local lad Lee Cattermole. Southgate replaced the trio with Didier Digard, a young French midfielder who had never played in England previously.

But Southgate's biggest mistake by far - and we all knew it beforehand - was to not replace the massively experienced goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Instead the Boro boss chose to put his faith in two back-up keepers, Brad Jones and Ross Turnbull. Immediately following Middlesbrough's 5-0 mauling at home to Chelsea I received an email from Betting @ Betfair editor Jamie 'The Pacman' Pacheco that simply said, "I think you need to go goalkeeper shopping in January". Jamie was right of course, but what the rest of the country could clearly see, Southgate couldn't, or at least refused to acknowledge.

In a nutshell, as the season progressed it was evident that Middlesbrough's squad was too small and too inexperienced to cope with the demands of top-flight football. Frequent injuries to almost all of the back four, plus the misfiring fortunes of Afonso Alves (that's putting it nicely by the way) would ultimately see Boro win just twice in 26 league games and create an unwanted club record of 12 straight defeats on the road.

Newcastle's problems were completely off-field. Kevin Keegan resigned, Mike Ashley disappeared, Chris Hughton took over, only to be replaced a few games later by veteran manager Joe Kinnear. Kinnear developed health problems and was replaced by Hughton, who was replaced (are you following?) a few games later by the ultra-smug Alan Shearer, who despite Newcastle's form and lowly position, insisted would keep the club in the Premier League.

Shearer was wrong of course, and his position at the club is still to be resolved... so too is Mike Ashley's position... and Michael Owen's, Mark Viduka's, the tea lady's... and after a few games into next season, probably Chris Hughton's!

The implications are quite simple. Middlesbrough and Newcastle will play in the Championship next season, big name players will leave for pastures new, attendances will drop, and money will be tighter than ever before.

If either of these famous clubs are to be long term members of the Premier League ever again, then they must come back at the first attempt. Birmingham City have just done it, but conversely, Norwich City, Southampton and Charlton Athletic have just been relegated to the third tier of English football, this coming less than four years (two in the case of Charlton) after being proud members of Europe's finest league.

Both Middlesbrough and Newcastle are strong enough to bounce back (I will preview this much closer to the start of the season), but would you want to back them at [9.4] and [5.6] respectively (to win the Championship that is) so soon after their season of turmoil?