Satursay Spotlight: Where did it all go wrong?

MUCH has been made of the record-breaking deal for Afonso Alves, although questions also have to be asked about the decision to invest a small budget on three unproven players last summer.

While Didier Digard and Marvin Emnes arrived with glowing references, it is incredible to think £7.2m of what Southgate had available went on the pair. Justin Hoyte was then a surprise £3m recruit from Arsenal, but only after Luke Young had been sold for £6m.

2. A failure to tinker in January

AT a time when all signs pointed towards relegation, Middlesbrough refused to do business. They retained the unsettled Stewart Downing and Gary O’Neil rather than gambling on cashing in and reinvesting. Was Marlon King worth exchanging for the more disruptive Mido for six months? It is very much doubted.

3. Afonso Alves

WITHOUT a Premier League goal since January 10 and with just four league goals this season. It’s amazing what £12.7m – and rising – buys you these days. Whether he goes on to score goals elsewhere is irrelevant, the financial outlay on the Brazilian has been an absolute disaster.

4. Lack of goals

WHILE Alves has failed to live up to his price-tag, there is also no disguising that goals have been a rarity throughout the squad this season. With just 27 in 37 matches – the worst return in professional football – Middlesbrough’s scoring record has been abysmal.

5. Lack of experience

IT IS an accusation that has been thrown at the squad since the summer. Having allowed George Boateng, Mark Schwarzer and Young to depart, Southgate chose to pin all of his hopes on the relatively inexperienced.

There may be numerous internationals in his squad, but the majority have no real influence in the dressing room.

6. No on-field leadership

MANAGERS always like to refer to players they would enjoy having alongside them on the pitch when the going gets tough to lift spirit and morale.

Unfortunately, despite the calibre of some of the players, the Middlesbrough team has lacked the combative characters required for a relegation battle.

7. Unsure of his best team

WHEN injuries and suspensions have hit, Southgate’s problems have been clear. Even with his players available he still hasn’t known his favoured starting line-up. Jeremie Aliadiere, Tuncay and Matthew Bates have played in a variety of roles, while Downing’s appearance as a left-back and right-winger at St James’ Park recently summed things up.

8. Lack of investment

SINCE being handed the £12.7m for Afonso Alves 15 months ago, Southgate hasn’t had much money to spend and what he has had he has wasted. But a sign of the times arrived in January when Boro refused to match Wigan’s wage offer to Championship midfieder Ben Watson and Marlon King was the only new arrival when the squad was in desperate need of investment.

9. Struggled against division’s weaker teams

IN FEBRUARY they defeated Liverpool. In December they drew with Arsenal and in November they won at Aston Villa. So why, then, has Southgate been unable to orchestrate good results in vital fixtures at home to Wigan, Portsmouth, Blackburn, West Brom and Bolton? If he knew the answer to that, Boro might be sitting a little more comfortably.

10. Dreadful away form

FOURTEEN away defeats in one season is another, unwanted, club record in the Premier League for Middlesbrough. Even when they went down in 1997 they only lost on their travels ten times. Throw in heading to Upton Park tomorrow on the back of another record – 11 straight away defeats – and it is difficult to imagine things improving.

Newcastle, by Scott Wilson

1. Too much upheaval

NEWCASTLE have stumbled from one crisis to the next for a number of years, but this has been the season when their failings have finally caught up with them.

Less of a football club, more of a soap opera, there has been a chronic lack of stability at every level of the club in the last nine months.

If every week produces a turning point, you end up going round and round in circles.

2. Freddy Shepherd

HE hasn’t even been involved this season, but relegation would still be the culmination of a series of events that started under Shepherd.

Persistent overspending by the previous regime led to a dangerous accumulation of debt, with Shepherd helping himself to a healthy dividend while the problems mounted.

“They have to look at themselves,” Shepherd said earlier this week of the current regime. “Every year we were there we made a profit.” Hmm.

3. Mike Ashley

BUT if things started to go downhill under Shepherd, they have turned into a landslide under Ashley.

It’s hard to know where to start when it comes to the beer-swilling businessman, but failing to do any due diligence, appointing a London-based cabal of hangers on and trying and failing to sell a club halfway through a season isn’t bad to be going on with.

In years to come, Ashley’s reign will be a template for how a club should not be run.

4. Not so Wise

YET for all his faults, Ashley was not even the most hated man in the Newcastle boardroom for most of the season.

Dennis Wise took that honour, as well as pocketing more than £1m-a-year for a job that seemed to entail antagonising everyone on the footballing side of the club.

Wise played a crucial role in Kevin Keegan’s departure, an event that wrecked the early months of Newcastle’s season.

5. Managerial instability

NEWCASTLE have had four different managers this season, and one of them, Chris Hughton, has been in charge twice. That’s the same number of managerial spells as they’ve had home wins.

Kevin Keegan’s departure was a crushing early blow, and it was exacerbated by a month of inertia under the caretaker control of Hughton.

Joe Kinnear’s arrival was unexpected and unproductive, and things got even worse when Hughton took over for a second time. Alan Shearer’s appointment was much, much too late.

6. Bad summer signings

WAS Keegan responsible, or did Wise do the recruiting? In the end, it doesn’t matter a jot.

Newcastle bought badly at a time when they could not afford to make mistakes.

Fabricio Coloccini cost £10m, and yet incredibly he is not the worst of last summer’s transfer dealings.

Xisco for £3.2m trumps all comers, although Jonas Gutierrez’s £5m ‘free transfer’ is also worthy of debate.

7. Unbalanced squad

XISCO arrived, of course, at a time when Keegan was telling all and sundry that he needed defenders.

As a result, Newcastle played the entire season with one recognised left-back (Jose Enrique) and one recognised right-back (Habib Beye). The fact that the former is injuryprone didn’t seem to matter.

8. Lack of creativity

AS well as lacking defenders, Newcastle’s squad is also chronically short of creativity.

The likes of Nicky Butt, Danny Guthrie and Kevin Nolan are honest enough plodders, but there is no one with the passing ability required to supply the strikers.

Similarly, there is a lack of pace that runs all the way through the side. Never has a Premier League team done so little, so slowly.

9. Too many cast-offs

IT is a refrain that has been heard regularly this season.

‘Newcastle’s squad looks strong on paper’.

It would be more factual to say, ‘Newcastle’s squad would have looked strong on paper four seasons ago’.

Butt, Damien Duff, Alan Smith, Mark Viduka, Michael Owen – all good players in the past, all past their peak by the time they arrived at Newcastle. If they were still any good, their previous employers wouldn’t have sold them.

10. Michael Owen

PERHAPS it’s unfair to single one player out above all others, but Newcastle’s captain deserves a category of his own.

He’s supposed to be one of the best strikers in the world – but he’s only scored once since December 13. He earns more than £100,000-a-week – but he’s only started six games since the end of January.

In short, he’s the worst of a bloody bad bunch.

Sunderland, by Andy Richardson

1. Too nice

SUNDERLAND are a nice club run by nice guys. But successful Premier League managers have to be capable of dealing with some very difficult characters: look at how Nicolas Anelka and Cristiano Ronaldo have been handled by their respective managers.

The failure to get the best out of feisty individuals like Pascal Chimbonda, El Hadji Diouf or Djibril Cisse reduced the team’s match-winning capabilities.

2. Ignoring the youngsters

NOT promoting talent from the Academy of Light questions the club’s youth policy. Sunderland reserves were league champions and the youth team go from strength to strength.

But Academy products like Jack Colback and Jordan Henderson found their route to the first team squad blocked by Daryl Murphy and Carlos Edwards.

3. Lack of progress

THIS was supposed to be the season when Sunderland began to compete with the middle tier of clubs.

But a failure to take a single point from West Ham, Portsmouth or Manchester City is a measure of the club’s arrested development.

4. New captain

ROY Keane’s departure was an ideal time to bring new ideas in to the squad. A new skipper could have invigorated the team.

Dean Whitehead is a willing workhorse but too often Sunderland have lacked leadership and motivation on the pitch. Anton Ferdinand, Kieran Richardson or stand-in skipper Phil Bardsley should have been given a permanent opportunity to lead the side.

5. Home support

THE size of crowds hasn’t been a problem but the Stadium of Light is not a sufficiently intimidating place for away players.

At home to Manchester United in April, many Sunderland fans seemed starstruck by Rooney and Ronaldo (even applauding the Portugal star as he warmed up) and cheered their own players at the end of a 2-1 defeat.

The Corinthian spirit appears alive and well among the Sunderland crowd where, apart from Newcastle and Boro, visiting players were given a very easy ride.

6. Listening to the players

WHEN the Sunderland squad began agitating for Sbragia to be appointed as manager, Niall Quinn should have smelled a rat.

The players’ motives for wanting to have the popular Scot as their boss has ultimately looked more like a desire for an easy life rather than a belief that Sbragia was the perfect man for the job.

7. Static defence

THE £4.5m spent on George McCartney last summer has so far proven to be a poor investment.

An everpresent in West Ham’s side last season, the Northern Ireland international has struggled for fitness and form in his second spell on Wearside.

Calum Davenport’s marauding run and cross at Pompey this week was a reminder how much Sunderland have missed attack-minded defenders.

8. Team spirit ONLY once all season have Sunderland won after conceding the first goal.

Teams who take the lead against the Black Cats can usually expect to win.

Too few of the squad have a genuine affinity with Sunderland Football Club and haven’t shown the desire to dig out results when they’ve gone behind.

9. Over-reliance on strikers

THE midfield have scored a total of seven league goals all season and Danny Collins’ opener at home to Villa was the only league goal from any Sunderland defender.

Only once all season have Sunderland won when Cisse or Jones haven’t been on the scoresheet. Had Malbranque, Reid and Richardson weighed in with five goals apiece the club could have qualified for the Europa League.

10. Failing to compete with top six

SUNDERLAND are a soft touch for the Premier League’s strongest teams.

Aside from two well-deserved draws against Arsenal, the top sides found it all too easy to take maximum points from the Wearsiders.

Stoke City took six points from the top six placed teams this season – Sunderland managed only two.