Andy Gray on Newcastle's Euro prospects
Every week, Betfair Football's star tipster Andy Gray picks out and answers his favourite question out of those he is asked on Twitter and Facebook. Here's his answer to this week's poser...
"Can Newcastle United secure a Europa League spot this season?" - @gypsyparis
In short, no. Newcastle have had some terrific results - the humbling of Sunderland and the win at the Emirates being the highlights - but their home form remains questionable. They lost to Blackburn at St James' Park in midweek and prior to that they were defeated by Stoke and Blackpool. If you want to get into Europe, you simply cannot drop points at home against mid-table opposition.
Bettors have to be wary of promoted teams who make promising starts to the season. Burnley began well last season and went down while Hull, in their first season up, earned some great results before descending into a slump which meant they only avoided relegation by a point.
Chris Hughton has done a very good job and deserves to treated better than he has been by the club. However, the current Newcastle one is not radically different from the one that was relegated a couple of seasons ago. Many of the players are the same and just because the Magpies are a big club with a great fanbase, it does not mean they will necessarily be able to sustain their strong start.
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Published: 11 Nov 2010
Michael Jones (November 11, 2010 3:50 PM) said:
I am getting somewhat weary of lazy pundits like Andy Gray who say things like "However, the current Newcastle one is not radically different from the one that was relegated a couple of seasons ago. Many of the players are the same"
Where are Given, Bassong, Beye, Duff, Martins, N'Zogbia, Owen and Viduka ?
That's 8 players who contributed to the relegation and in fact were major reasons for the relegation, since they all appeared to think they were to good to scrap for points, and expected the players around them to do it for them. But 8 from 11 means only three were trying. No wonder Newcastle were relegated.
toon ernee (November 11, 2010 3:56 PM) said:
I can`t believe this man is a pundit. same team that went down that would be minus M(oney bags) Owen M Viduka D Duff. S Given D Edgar Geremi Habib bye S Bassong O Martins N Butt J mIlner
C NZogbia
12 Players andy and one or two or three only there for the money. One day newcastle utd will be up there again and the pundits will be saying " I knew they would be back one Day2 and telling s how they always wanted newcastle to win blah blah blah.