THAT Newcastle were still in danger of relegation with just 45 minutes of the season left to play speaks volumes about the manner in which the club has been run by billionaire owner Mike Ashley.

For too long the focus has been on the balance sheet, not the score sheet.

Yes, the club is now in a healthy financial position but there has also been a chronic lack of investment in the playing squad.

Last season it was the sale of midfield lynchpin Yohan Cabaye that derailed a team just six points off top spot on Boxing Day.

The Frenchman was not replaced and Newcastle lost 14 of their next 20.

This season it was the departure of Alan Pardew for Crystal Palace. When Pardew left for the bright lights of London exactly half way through the league season, Newcastle were sitting in the relative comfort of ninth place, on 26 points.

They’d started the season slowly and were languishing in the bottom three after seven games.

Then a run of five consecutive wins saw the Magpies rise to fifth and Pardew was awarded the manager of the month award for November.

To celebrate, he oversaw the first defeat of Chelsea in any competition.

It was a solid foundation for the right manager to build on. John Carver, however, was not the right manager. The club lost 12 of their next 19, a run that included eight defeats in a row.

His departure, which foreshadowed Steve McClaren’s appointment as manager, was inevitable.

Yet while Carver was clearly out of his depth in the hotseat, it would be harsh and too easy to lay all the blame at his feet.

It is significant that those eight straight defeats coincided with Papiss Cisse’s lengthy ban for spitting.

The club had chased Loic Remy in the summer but when he decided to head for Chelsea there was no experienced second choice lined up.
Instead, the youngster Ayoze Perez, who was supposed to be eased into the Premier League gently, was all too often given the responsibility of scoring the goals.
The January transfer window saw no players recruited but defenders Davide Santon shipped off to Inter Milan while Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa’s loan move to Roma was made permanent.
Predictably injuries and suspensions forced Carver to play a back four held together by midfielders, string and sticky tape in the second half of the season.
Newcastle were goal-shy up front, weak at the back and had the wrong man in the dugout for the second half of the season, all because they try to work on a tight budget.
It nearly cost them dearly. Before the nervy final game of the season in which they guaranteed safety, Ashley gave his first TV interview and acknowledged that while the club was performing well financially they now needed to build on that with investment in the team. He’s right of course but actions speak louder than words.