It has been an encouraging start for Steve Bruce. In fact, no, it's been more than that. It has been a very good start to the season for Sunderland's ambitious new manager and fans should have been given plenty of cause for optimism since the start of August.
However, a small squad is always a vulnerable one and Bruce's plans are being undermined by the gamble he took not to add/keep more bodies this season. We shall see that at White Hart Lane.
]]> With Lorik Cana and Kenwyne Jones suspended and Lee Cattermole still injured, Sunderland have lost three of their five best players.As we have seen with Liverpool this year without Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, that is tricky to deal with no matter how good the rest of the players around them are.
They will also have to cope with the absence of two other experienced campaigners in Bolo Zenden and John Mensah and are taking on a team which, despite its own recent slip in form, has an outside chance of breaking the Big Four's monopoly of the Champions League places.
Sunderland's squad has more quality players than in recent years, but it doesn't have anything like enough of them. Bruce was prudent in the summer. He did not - unlike some other managers I could mention - sign players just for the sake of it to provide cover.
That, though, underlines the fact this is a long term project. Bruce is not trying to achieve success overnight and he should be applauded for that. However, that is consequently Sunderland's biggest weakness at this stage of the project.
I have talked about European qualification on this blog before, but while Sunderland's first choice XI has a chance, I don't believe the squad is good enough.
This is a massive test of their resources against Spurs, a tough away game for a team which has only taken four points outside of the Stadium of Light this season, even if one of those came against Manchester United at Old Trafford.
When you consider that is followed by a visit from in-form Arsenal immediately after next weekend's international break, Sunderland could quickly be slipping back into the obscurity of mid-table.
Then again, plenty of people said that when they faced Manchester United and Liverpool last month and they drew one and won the other. They did so, however, with a fully fit squad!
It was interesting to hear Bruce talk about the January transfer window this week and he will look to strengthen, no doubt about that.
However, he also knows this is not the time to get good value for money as average players go for high fees and good ones charge extortionate ones. Sunderland have money to spend, but it is not stupid money. They aren't Manchester City!
Bruce has a strong interest in Middlesbrough winger Adam Johnson, but so does half the Premier League and Boro will fight tooth and nail to keep hold of him, at least until the summer.
Instead, Sunderland will try to sign defenders, full backs and a centre back, but we might not be able to see the second phase of Bruce's rebuilding work until the summer. In the meantime, the fewer injuries and suspensions the better to try not to shove anyone out the way Kenwyne!
]]>Winning ugly is a popular phrase in football, particularly if you are the manager of a team of limited ability but high on passion and commitment. At the moment, that is precisely what Newcastle resemble under Chris Hughton.
Nevertheless, as the boys among you will know, when you haven't pulled in a while your standards lower and you'll pretty much take home anything you can get your hands on in a nightclub.
]]> Personally, I don't think Newcastle have played well for an entire 90 minutes since the 4-0 win at Ipswich Town at the end of the September. They made that win look easy and even I began to believe promotion could become a formality.Since then, they have wobbled badly at the top of the table, the rest of the pack has closed the gap on them and, for a while, it looked as though all of the squad's weaknesses would be exposed and a slide down the table would follow.
That it hasn't owes much to the effort and commitment of these players. They were hurt by the criticism which followed the away defeats at Nottingham Forest and Scunthorpe and have complained about it to journalists like me.
I've no problem with that but I, like you, expect a reaction and they have responded with two back-to-back victories.
Neither were achieved by playing good football, neither was secured by out-passing the opposition or battering them into submission with wave after wave of attack. That is disappointing, but we can't be overly critical in these circumstances.
Newcastle remain a club in turmoil. This weekend should see the return of organised protests against Mike Ashley, understandable given his latest horrific blunder in trying to sell the name of St James's Park to the highest bidder, but not exactly helpful to those one the pitch.
In the meantime, while the fractious and divisive atmosphere escalates in the stands, the players must continue to get on with their promotion task, ignore the distractions and continue to grind out victories any and which way they can.
Indeed, having seen far too many go through the motions in recent weeks, the most impressive thing about the win at Sheffield United was the collective determination not to buckle under the home side's pressure.
Newcastle have perhaps been guilty of having more style than substance in the past, but I don't think you can accuse this team of that.
It isn't particularly enjoyable to watch, but for once should we care? Promotion, promotion, promotion. I can't say it enough, that's all that matters this season. That and the hope Ashley will eventually find a buyer and disappear for good.
And there are some positives to cling to. Alan Smith and Kevin Nolan are finally justifying the reputations they arrived on Tyneside with and in Tamas Kadar and Andy Carroll, Newcastle have two exciting young players who could go on to achieve big things.
Kadar was a little shaky on his debut against Doncaster, but he hardly put a foot wrong against a physical Blades outfit. He is good on the ball, strong in the air and quick on the ground. He certainly looks good enough to play regularly at this level if needed.
As for Carroll, his decision making isn't always great and he needs to curb his wilder behaviour off the pitch, but the raw talent is there for him to become a fantastic target man.
He more than held his own against bully boy centre half Chris Morgan on Monday night and was Newcastle's best player.
He is gaining priceless experience this season and if he keeps his listening and learning, Newcastle might have unearthed a precious jewel from their Academy - not something we've been able to say for far too long.
]]>Any team which takes four points from two games against Manchester United and Liverpool has to be doing more than just something right and it is difficult not to start thinking about European football at the Stadium of Light next season.
]]> Of course, thinking about something and that something turning into a reality are two very different things and so much is going to depend on injuries and suspensions.In fact, as I've commented before on this blog, I still find it difficult to understand why Bruce decided to enter the campaign with such a small squad.
The folly of that decision has been exposed this week with the news Lee Cattermole is going to be missing for at least three months with a knee injury.
Lose another midfielder in the next couple of weeks and it will be square pegs into round holes time until the transfer window opens in January.
Momentum has to be maintained to mean anything substantial and the biggest question is whether Sunderland can manage to do that with such a glaring lack of strength in depth.
Cattermole has been outstanding, a brilliant buy by Bruce. Indeed, I'm sure the sight of the England Under-21 international playing so well for the Black Cats has in someway contributed to Gareth Southgate's demise at Middlesbrough.
That decision to sell the Academy graduate last year has regularly came back to haunt him, particularly as one of Boro's major problems has been a lack of bite in the centre of midfield. It was like selling a bag of magic beans in exchange for a cow!
However, it says something about the success of Bruce's transfer strategy when Cattermole cannot comfortably be called Sunderland's best summer signing.
Darren Bent and Lorik Cana would definitely have something to say about that and I'd be interested to know who would come top of an early season fans poll.
How Bent has not managed to force his way back into the England squad is beyond me and forget about cult heroes, Cana is fast becoming a Black Cats legend after just a handful of games in English football.
When you throw centre-back Michael Turner in the mix as well, Sunderland's spine has been brilliantly strengthened by the new manager, who would also argue Fraizer Campbell's addition to the squad has been an astute decision as back up to the excellent Bent-Jones partnership.
Indeed, is it too early to start talking about the Bent-Jones axis as the best double act in red and white stripes since Kevin Phillips fluttered around Niall Quinn and Peter Reid briefly looked as though he would bring continental competition to Wearside?
Sunderland probably still need a bit more pace down the flanks, despite the signing of Bolo Zenden, and cover for Cana and Cattermole in the middle to be able to sustain their excellent start to the season
I'm sure Bruce still has an eye on strengthening his defence as well, particularly in the full-back positions as I'm not entirely sure he is convinced by either Phil Bardsley or George McCartney.
All in all, though, Sunderland fans have every right to be excited about what the future holds. An excellent chairman with a talented English manager and a team which is already ruffling feathers. What more could you want after two years of relegation battles? Sign well in January and the Europa League beckons.
]]>Whether a run of four games without a win will change Mike Ashley's mind about appointing Hughton on a full time basis remains to be seen. But I doubt it. That ship looks like it's sailed and Alan Shearer wasn't given a boarding pass.
It is too early for everyone to start rushing for the emergency exits, but you should probably at least have a quick look round to check where they all are because if Newcastle get into trouble they will crash quicker than a stock market which has just been told a meteorite is on a collision course with central London.
]]> What it has done, however, is give Hughton the first must win game of his tenure at home to Doncaster Rovers on Saturday.Lose that and the whole thing might come tumbling down around him the precise moment he is able to take the caretaker bit away from his name.
Newcastle's performance was much improved against Scunthorpe, but that isn't anything to celebrate. It couldn't have been much worse than it was against Nottingham Forest and Scunthorpe are hardly one of the Championship's most formidable foes.
Yet, it was the home draws against QPR and Bristol City which did the real damage, although I was not alone in failing to appreciate that at the time. Newcastle are always going to have to deal with the "cup final" thing whenever they travel in this division which means they are always going to be vulnerable to dropping points on the road.
Teams will raise their games - trust me I've seen it happen often enough with Leyton Orient when we take on big clubs ( it was 6-2 in the summer right?!) and shocks can happen. What must not be allowed to happen is that these sorts of results become the norm rather than an aberration.
When you have had two together you inevitably start to worry there are major problems behind the scenes. There could be, but we shouldn't just pounce on the manager because of a couple of bad results.
Emotions are running high at the moment because of the apparent collapse of Barry Moat's takeover and the seemingly inevitable decision by Ashley take the club off the market for the second time in a year, but let's not round on Hughton for the sake of it.
He is in the firing as a symbol of a deeply unpopular regime, but he did pick up the manager of the month award two months running at the start of the season and has the support of the dressing room at this stage.
Newcastle can still get promoted this season. Two defeats do not change that, but Hughton suddenly has a lot to prove again doesn't he?
It is no coincidence that these poor results have come when injuries have started to bite in the squad. Hughton has lost his two first-choice centre backs at the same time.
He has lost - in theory at least - his best midfielder in Joey Barton and his best striker Shola Ameobi. That is the spine of the team and as we have seen at Liverpool, that's tough for any team to deal with.
I don't think Hughton is the best appointment, he does not look like a manager who will take the club forward should they ever get back to the Premier League, but I'm still hopeful he can make the best out of a bad situation and get them back there in the first place.
There is something cool and calm about him which could be just what is needed this season given the constant drama elsewhere at the club. Talking of drama, I wonder whether Joe Kinnear has been sounded out about a return as Director of Football....
Stop it, don't throw that computer screen anywhere, I was speaking hypothetically!
]]>I do not dispute that Ashley has invested a lot of money in Newcastle United over the last couple of years - firstly to repair the damage done by Freddie Shepherd and then to bail out his own mistakes - but perhaps he should simply put it where his mouth is - literally.
His latest pearl of wisdom, hot on the heels of describing the appointment of Alan Shearer as "the best thing he had ever done" and that Joe Kinnear did a "fantastic" job, we get the I put more money in than all the fans put together so I can pretty much do what I want - and he has done just that by offering Chris Hughton the manager's job permanently
]]> Depressingly, to a certain extent, he is right. He owns the club, it isn't a public company, he doesn't answer to share holders, he doesn't answer to any higher authority, he is the dictator and what he says goes. Football clubs are not democracies.However, he is mistaken if he thinks that is the best policy. Newcastle United are nothing without a good set of players, a good manager and the thousands who support it. He has ABSOLUTE power but he is absolutely mistaken if he thinks he can carry on running the club with that sort of attitude.
It has been remarkable how many fans have turned up this season to watch the team and that will continue out of loyalty to the club crest, not the man who sits in the director's box in replica shirts surrounded by nodding yes men.
But if they, for whatever reason, began to filter away, Ashley will be the one left covering the cost out of his own pocket. The club has been stabilised financially after relegation and Ashley has done well to do that, but it won't stay stable for long.
One more year in the Championship could lead to meltdown and if Ashley can't sell the club now he's surely got no chance if League One looms.
He needs to protect his investment just as much as fans want to see their club back in the top flight next season.
If Ashley ends up staying at St James's Park - which seems more likely than ever - he will be as unpopular as ever. However, that does not mean he can't do things properly.
If he wants to ignore Alan Shearer and appoint Chris Hughton that is his decision and while it is not ideal, I don't think we can deny the caretaker boss has handled things pretty well so far this season despite the defeat at Nottingham Forest on Saturday. The Magpies are, don't forget, still four points clear of third place with 12 games gone.
However, having given Hughton the job, it is imperative he gives him the resources to do it properly and that means money to sign players in January and, possibly, even a couple more loan signings before that.
All that matters this season is promotion. Whether Hughton is the man to take the club forward in the Premier League is open to considerable debate but he has as good a chance as anyone of getting them back there, which has to be Ashley's number one objective over the next seven months.
As for Barry Moat, I just can't see it happening anymore. I really do hope he can raise another £40m in the next seven days and meets Ashley's deadline.
However, I've been saying for weeks, if it was going to be done it would have been done by now. I've never wanted to be more wrong about things but the offer to Hughton is a clear indication Ashley does not believe he will ever come up with the cash.
He has had all summer to raise the money and still appears to be struggling to do it. He wants to pay in instalments, even though Ashley has supposedly reduced the price to £80m, so how on earth was he going to complete a deal at £100m and how on earth is he going to fund the club once he has bought it?
In the meantime, all we can do is hope Newcastle's players continue to paper over the cracks with a good result at Scunthorpe on Tuesday night because they were a massive disappointment against Forest.
Too many played badly, so it's over to you Marlon Harewood, Peter Lovenkrands, Andy Carroll, Danny Guthrie, Kevin Nolan and Jonas Guttierrez.
I wouldn't like to be Hughton if he takes the job on a permanent basis and is immediately forced to defend himself after a defeat at Glanford Park. That would be four games without a win.....
]]>Nope, it's not going to happen so take your kilts and your comedy Ginger wigs and keep on preparing for those trips to Inverness and Aberdeen because, while you might want to make a bit of extra money out of television deals and so on, we don't want you.
]]> Nothing against our neighbours as such, it just makes me feel uneasy. I know money shouts loudest in football but why should we accept two massive clubs with gigantic fan bases into the English league and who on earth is going to vote for that to happen?If you're the chairman of Bolton, Blackburn, Wolverhampton Wanderers, or even Sunderland, why would you vote to allow two rivals, with more financial muscle than you, and considerably bigger followings, to come and play in your league when the gap between the rich and poor is already an unbridgeable chasm.
Now, I know Welsh clubs play in English football, but how can two Scottish teams play in the English league when the Scotland FA has made such a song and dance about refusing to allow any Scottish players represent Great Britain in the 2012 Olympics.
The Scottish FA want to remain separate for obvious reasons, to protect their national side from Fifa's meddlers who could, in theory, say we should have a British team for international competition not four separate ones.
However, they don't want to mix and play nicely at the Olympics so why should it happen week in week out in the Premier League?
As for the supporters, well they cause enough headaches for police forces up and down the country when they play in pre-season friendlies and who can forget how well Rangers fans behaved when they travelled to the Uefa Cup final in Manchester last year?! I can't see PC Plod giving the idea any support either.
No I reckon the Glasgow giants would be better focussing on revised attempts to create a new North Atlantic League incorporating the big clubs from Scotland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Holland.
All of those league are struggling to compete in Europe and have significant financial trouble keeping pace with the rest of the continent. This could be a timely shot in the arm for all of them, while also potentially spicing up European matches by creating a league which is strong enough to compete with England, Spain and Italy.
However, isn't it sad that this what football has become? Scottish teams, like the Dutch, Swedes, French and Greeks, used to stand toe to toe with the likes of Liverpool, Manchester United, AC Milan, Juventus, Real Madrid and Barcelona with at least a fighting chance of victory.
Now we are talking about the need to scrape their domestic leagues in a bid to ensure their biggest clubs are able to survive on the continent. It's the way of the world where capitalism rules but that doesn't make it right.
Progress always seems to come at a price and it's the poorest who end up paying for it.
]]>First things first. I've met Barton a handful of times and, like the journalists who enjoyed a "fishing and shooting" day with him last week I also found him to be surprisingly articulate, engaging, funny and interesting. In short, he is good company and a good talker to boot
I don't have anything against him on a personal level, although I would quickly add he has generally been a disappointment when he has been fit/available to play for Newcastle United.
]]> Sensibly Barton has resisted the temptation to talk about his conviction for two assaults in the summer of 2008. He has kept his head down and he has got on with trying to rebuild a once promising career as a professional footballer.The silence, though, has not lasted. I'm sure his advisors and staff at the Sporting Chance clinic - an ever lasting supply of chances in Barton's case - thought it was a good idea to get a few high profile national journalists down for the day to tell "his side of the story" in a sympathetic light. It wasn't.
A lot of what Barton said was evocative and he has put a few things into some sort of context. His description of prison life was moving and, yes, he has had to cope with a lot in his life, including an upbringing on a tough Liverpool council estate. He hasn't had a drink in nearly two years and thankfully he has attended anger management classes.
But ultimately he still comes across as a spoilt brat with a massive chip on his shoulder. At no point does he apologise for what he has done, whether it is repeatedly smashing someone in the face outside a McDonalds restaurant in the early hours of the morning, fracturing the eye socket of a former teammate or undermining the authority of two Newcastle managers in the space of four months by attacking their ability and record in the dugout.
Yes, he and Alan Shearer have since shaken hands at a race meeting, but that doesn't make everything alright. That peace reigns is news to Shearer anyway and I doubt Barton will be at SJP for very long if the former United skipper does ever become permanent manager.
Let's recap. Barton was sent off in the final minutes of a 3-0 defeat at Liverpool - his first game for months after injury - and responded to criticism - not for the first time in his life - by going on the offensive, verbally lashing out at the coaching staff and teammates.
Joey, though, just calls it sticking up for himself. Poor him. When he reads the papers, he likens his write ups to Hitler.
Erm, just accept the fact you're in the wrong Joey. You keep pressing the self destruct button, you've done some despicable things and you have been rightly criticised for them. That's all.
He is not the only high profile footballer from a background where fists were flung first and questions asked later.
Yet he is the only one who has been banged up in recent years and he is the only one who has been banned by his own football club from turning up at the training ground because of what he has said to the manager.
He followed his fall out with Shearer by doing something remarkably similar to Chris Hughton at the start of this season, yet we are still expected to say, oh yeah, sorry Joey, you're trying to change, all is forgiven.
Gosh hasn't your life been hard, of course that excuses everything, all those nasty people saying nasty things to you, and you'd had a drink, so yeah, you're right, that explains the violence. You just get on with things, we'll forget all about it now, don't say another word.
In fact, I wish he wouldn't say another word. He has been punished for the assaults and has served his time.
Every man has the right to get on with their lives after that, although if you or I had done what he had I doubt very much there would have been a job waiting for us when we got out.
Ultimately, he keeps making the same mistakes, over and over again, and still wants to blame everyone else for them. He has been given numerous chances and has struggled to take any of them.
From a purely football point of view, I hope he can get things right because he is an asset on the pitch if he does (or at least one Shearer can sell for a few bob) and Newcastle need players like that more than ever at the moment.
But will he - he's 27 now - ever get his head round the fact he is to blame for his problems, nobody else? Until he does that, I'm afraid it is difficult to have any time for him.
]]>Well, of course they can. They've qualified and you've got to be in it to win it, as it were. Then again, theoretically speaking, you can also win the National Lottery every time you buy a ticket, but I'm still waiting for the millions to come rolling in.
However, without getting caught up in the usual Tsunami of hysteria which greets England's participation in a major football tournament, I've got a good feeling about this one!
]]> Alright, so I had a good feeling about the World Cup in Germany as well. I thought we'd win then with our "golden generation", but with hindsight that was never going to happen as soon as Wayne Rooney was less than 100% fit, Michael Owen got injured against Sweden and Sven Goran Eriksson belatedly decided Theo Walcott should have been building sandcastles on a family holiday rather than cluttering up the England squad without playing a single first team game for Arsenal.Ah Sven, good old lady loving Sven. Three major tournaments, three quarter-final exits. At least we were consistent and, it could be argued, with a bit of better luck in penalty shoot outs we may, indeed, have gone on to win something.
Sadly, this is just what ifs and buts. Sport is full of them. I might have been a professional footballer if I'd had a bit more talent, natural athleticism and desire.
But with Fabio Capello at the helm, England have a manager who keeps the ifs and buts to a minimum. England have been ruthlessly efficient in their qualifying campaign and appear to have a tactical flexibility which will be vital when we actually come up against anyone half decent.
England also have a core of players who are good enough to win football's ultimate prize. Rooney is, of course, the talisman. a player good enough to get into any national team and it is imperative he remains fit and healthy. We don't want any last minute fitness races at the end of this season thanks very much!
And then we have the likes of Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Theo Walcott....oh alright as much as it pains me to say it, Frank Lampard as well, players who are good enough to at least hold their own against the world's best.
Yet, it isn't always the team with the best players who win major tournaments. Unlike a league campaign, a World Cup tournament lasts a few weeks and the winners will only play seven games.
It is about the team or squad which can adapt quickest to the needs of the tournament while also finding something approaching its best form. Indeed, it is normally the case that the team who triumphs tends to improve as the games go by, rather than starting and finishing impressively.
In 2006, the two finalists France and Italy were both widely criticised in the group stages, as were England back in 1990 for those of us who can remember that far back.
And that is where Capello comes in. He is an iron-willed pragmatist who will drill what is necessary into his players without letting them get caught up in the hype and hyperbole which will inevitably follow them.
England will travel to South Africa focused on the job in hand, not what their wives are wearing or how many column inches they have got in that days newspapers.
They will be in the best possible frame of mind to get the job done and with a bit of luck along the way, we might just be partying in the streets next summer.
Yet, as a winner, Keegan also looks like a loser. As the wronged party he has himself been guilty of so much wrong. In his pursuit of damages, Keegan appears to have been blinded by cold hard cash.
In his determination to maximise the reward from a compensation claim, Keegan can be accused of greed, arrogance and, worst of all, a willingness to damage the club he supposedly loves for personal financial gain.
]]> Ultimately, while Keegan has done far more for Newcastle United than Ashley ever will, the ugly nature of this dispute ensures nobody really comes out of it with any credit.Whether Keegan can come back from this as a football manager is unlikely. We should remember the wonderful things he did as a manager in his first spell, and before that, as one of the best players to have ever pulled on the black and white jersey.
He remains an iconic figure in the club's history and let's just leave it at that for now.
His reasons for quitting are understandable and he has been fully vindicated by the findings of the FA panel which heard the evidence. He did not want to sign Ignacio Gonzalez and Dennis Wise, that most easily disliked of men, told him tough.
Keegan got greedy with his claim - he will not be the first or the last to do that - and the Panel saw through it.
He should not have been seeking such a large sum, a claim which has been made to look even more ridiculous now that United have just about staved off the threat of administration following relegation.
That is sad, but the real scandal is a football club which freely admits it has lied to supporters as a public relations exercise. Time and time again, from former chairman Chris Mort to Dennis Wise to managing director Derek Llambias we have been told Keegan had the final say on transfers. He did not.
Who can ever trust the Ashley regime again? I have sat in a room with Llambias and heard him defend everything from Ashley's expenditure on transfers to five year plans, from his personal commitment to the club to a detailed strategic plan for the future.
Were they all just lies designed as a public relations exercise? When club employees freely admit to having done this in the past through official club publications it is difficult not to conclude that everything else has been little more than cynical media manipulation.
The bottom line is Mike Ashley's created a dubious management structure and employed the wrong people to make it work.
Dennis Wise was no Executive Director, Tony Jimenez was no head of recruitment and Keegan was never likely to be the sort of manager who can take other people meddling in the transfer market.
It has cost him a £2m pay out, but the real cost is credibility, not just for United's owner, but for a football club which continues to give the rest of the country far more entertainment off the pitch than it does on it.
These sorts of disputes, secret deals and political shenanigans are rife in football. But once again it is Newcastle United who have hung the dirty laundry out in public for everyone to point and stare.
]]>Despite the setback against QPR, however, I think we can all agree United are in far better health this season than we ever envisaged in the summer. Back then, Newcastle United looked capable of keeling over at any minute, a club dying on its feet after relegation..
There is still plenty of reasons to worry about the future under Mike Ashley and his blundering regime, but in terms of the here and now on the pitch, a three point lead at the top of the Championship and a five point cushion back to third is a good place to be after ten games.
]]> In football speak, we would have taken that at the start of August so we should be pretty happy now we've got it. It hasn't been perfect by any means, but when is anything in football ever perfect?Interestingly, although United faltered against QPR on Wednesday night and will have to prove they are not suffering from the sort of complacency and big club arrogance which has blighted Newcastle so many times before against Bristol City at the weekend, their stumble has been far less costly than their rivals'.
West Brom have lost back to back games in the league and Middlesbrough have taken just one point from their last three matches. The Baggies take on third-place Preston this weekend and that is a real test for new manager Roberto Di Matteo, as well as his team's promotion credentials.
After all, defeats can quickly turn lost ground into an insurmountable gap, even at this early stage of the campaign.
As for Boro, the mood on Teesside has turned ugly - I'll refrain from making a joke about it never exactly being pretty, oh hang on I just did - and Gareth Southgate's young squad are in trouble of slipping down the table at a rapid rate of knots.
Boro are a well run club, you can't fault chairman Steve Gibson for what he has done at the Riverside over the last 15 years or so and it is easy to like Southgate as well.
When they went down back in May, they did not seem to have anything like the same sort of trouble as Newcastle. Boro looked stable and while they had to sell some of their best players to balance the books it was done calmly and without anything like the hysteria which surrounded the Magpies.
However, appearances can be deceptive. The club is a powder keg waiting to explode. In fact, they are possibly only one or two more poor results away from combustion.
So where does this leave Newcastle? Well, they are in a strong position at the top of the table and appear to have - particularly following the loan signings of Danny Simpson, Zurab Khizanishvili and Marlon Harewood - the strongest squad on paper in the division.
However, as we know, that view sometimes isn't worth the paper it is written on. If Newcastle managed to get relegated last season with the players they had six months ago then they can definitely still make a mess of a promotion push.
Teams will start to work out how to play against them, home and away. QPR didn't do anything particularly exciting at St James's Park, but a team with pace is always going to trouble United on the counter-attack.
For all of the power in midfield, it is slow. Like a tank, when it is heading the right way it can be unstoppable, but is vulnerable whenever it has to try and turn quickly to move in the other direction.
It is not a coincidence the two teams who have really troubled Newcastle this season - QPR and Blackpool - have had nippy wingers, dynamic midfielders and pace up front. There are sure to be others like them in the Championship.
Newcastle have made a good start, but it is nothing more than that. I talked about them making the Championship look easy against Ipswich last weekend, but I'll only really believe that if they are still top of the league after another 30 games.
Let's not assume anything because they could make an ass out of you, me and the club!
]]>This season, probably more than any other, a long run in the competition would have been an unwanted distraction at best. It might have even turned into a disastrous expedition where the cost far outstrips the reward.
Let's face it, Newcastle never got close to winning it under Sir Bobby Robson so they were never going to do it with this lot were they. Harsh but fair I feel.
]]> Nobody wants to lose a game, but this is probably the best outcome, all things considered, and at least it gave Peterborough's fans something to remember!Newcastle's single most pressing priority this season is to bounce straight back into the Premier League. Promotion is the be all and end all. End of story.
If they don't manage to do that the financial problems of the summer will not only start again, they will be considerably worse because every single high earner in the squad will be shipped out.
Newcastle may not have played well at times this season - in fact I thought they were poor against both Blackpool and Plymouth last week - but they still have individual players who, at this level, are going to be match winners. That is why they are second in the table without a permanent manager.
Some of their football has been slack and sloppy. They lack creativity and pace, but they still have some talented players in the team who are too good for the Championship.
They need to get back into the top flight while they are still able to hold on to them because the longer you are stuck in the second tier the harder it is to get out of - unless you are going to follow the likes of Nottingham Forest, Charlton, Norwich, Leeds United, Leicester City and Southampton into Coca Cola League One that is!
However, what Tuesday night's defeat at Peterborough also highlighted is the fragile nature of the Magpies first team squad. Indeed, in making so many changes was nice guy Hughton also trying to make a potent point to Mike Ashley?
Underneath a group of maybe 15 or 16 players there are a load of kids who are simply not ready for this level of football. In fact, some of them probably never will be.
In isolation, as cover in one off games, they might - and I repeat - might be able to do a job in the league, but if Newcastle pick up a load of suspensions and injuries they are screwed.
They have already picked up two red cards - Danny Guthrie's sending off at London Road coming a little over a week after Alan Smith got his at Cardiff - and they are going to start losing players who have picked up five yellow cards soon enough.
That will expose the limitations they have and Hughton still needs to bring in another couple of players on loan. A centre forward and a left midfielder with pace are vital if the good start to the promotion campaign is going to be maintained.
It starts at 12:30pm and goes on for an hour or so.....
]]>I don't things could have gone any better for Bruce since he arrived at the Stadium of Light bigging up his North East roots in, erm, Corbridge, Northumberland.
Yes, I know the team could have won at Stoke City and Peter Crouch could have popped up north with Abigal Clancy, but generally speaking he has had the ideal start to his new job.
]]> First and foremost, results have been good and the Wearsiders are already looking like side which is far superior to the one which only narrowly avoided relegation last season thanks to Newcastle United's ineptitude.Nine points out of a possible 15 is the sort of form which will lead to top half of the table finish and possibly even Europe.
A manager lives and dies by his signings. You can be the best man manager, the best motivational speaker and the cleverest tactician, but you ain't going to get very far if your players aren't good enough to turn your ideas and words in performances.
There are plenty of footballing geniuses out there, just not many artists to turn their ideas into a reality.
Let's start from the back and work forward. Michael Turner, big powerful centre back who likes to keep the game simple. Good signing as far as I'm concerned, although time will tell with this one.
Seems a good character though and you have to admire the way he refused to celebrate in front of the Hull fans on Saturday out of respect for them. Personally, I would have adopted the more confrontational Emmanuel Adebayor approach but there you go!
Paulo Da Silva and John Mensah? We don't know much about them, and it seems to have taken them forever to make it over to England, but they are the captains of Paraguay and Ghana and that says plenty about their character, as well as their ability.
It may take them some time to settle in the Premier League - it normally does - but Bruce has an excellent transfer record when it comes to signing foreign talent so we should be optimistic. Mensah is likely to start for the first time against Burnley next weekend, as Phil Bardsley has a knee problem, so we will know more about him then.
In midfield, Lorik Cana and Lee Cattermole have been brilliant and I do not use that word lightly. Robust, energetic and capable of knocking the ball about as well.
They have the makings of the perfect midfield partnership, albeit one which misses more than it's fair share of games through suspension.
I don't think any teams are going to be able to over run the Sunderland midfield this season, which is something that tended to happen all too often under Roy Keane and Ricky Sbragia. Bruce knew this was a weakness before he came and he has done superbly to bring in these two to rectify the situation.
Up front, Frazier Campbell doesn't really look ready for regular first team football in the Premier League, but he will get better with age and experience.
He will be happy, for the time being, to play a supporting role as well which helps group dynamics.
Sunderland possibly need another striker to act as cover in the squad, but Kieran Richardson can play up there if bodies are thin on the ground and David Healy hasn't left yet.
And then we have Darren Bent, whose four goals in five games say it all. He has been re-born at Sunderland after two miserable years at White Hart Lane and he could just be the signing of the season if he carries on like this.
His partnership with Kenwyne Jones could be one of the club's all time greats, and yes I do think it could eventually be favourably compared to the legendary Kevin Phillips and Niall Quinn.
Bent not only gives pace, he gives hard work and commitment and he will buzz around Jones waiting for the ball to drop to him all afternoon.
He is a predator and a goal scorer and I believe he may well do enough to break back into the England squad before next summer's World Cup.
I mean, are Crouch and Carlton Cole really better players than he is!?
Just follow the links from the Journal Live website to the live webchats and you can give me a grilling, pick my brains or simply tell me what an idiot I am.
Actually, I'd rather you didn't do that but freedom of speech and all that. Hopefully hear from plenty of you from 12:30 onwards
]]>