BERNIE SLAVEN:

I WANT to see Gordon Strachan given the backing to do some serious squad rebuilding.

At the moment the players just don’t seem capable of mounting a promotion challenge. It’s baffling really because on paper our best starting XI looks as good as any in the Championship.

Maybe the lads are still suffering the blow in confidence that they took when they were relegated in May. That seems to have knocked the stuffing out of some players and the likes of David Wheater look a shadow of what they were a year ago.

With Strachan not having the immediate, positive impact that we hoped he’d have the squad needs an injection of new blood to get them going again.

I want to see us bring in a centre-forward, a central midfielder and a winger in January. Goals will get us out of this division but at the moment we are not creating sufficient chances.

I can’t see that changing unless the manager is given the money to bring in three quality players to give us a lift.

I see Darren Beckford from Leeds United has been linked and that would be a start although I’d like to see us get people with proven quality rather than going for boys with potential.

MALCOLM MACDONALD:

MY wish is that the owner prepares himself to finance the recruitment of new players so that Newcastle have a team with a viable chance in the Premier League.

Barring a disaster it looks as though Chris Hughton’s side will end the season as champions. But I am worried that Mr Ashley will not put his hand in his pocket and make the mistake of thinking that the current squad is strong enough to survive next season. It isn’t.

Newcastle supporters are not fooled and know that these players may be too good for the Championship but have nowhere near enough quality for the Premier. We saw that last year and the current squad is even weaker than the ones who were relegated with the likes of Shay Given, Obafemi Martins and Damien Duff having moved on .

Next summer the owner should give the manager tens of millions to attract genuine top-class players.

Not loans or people whom other clubs want to offload.

We have seen too much of that sort of thing.

Newcastle supporters deserve a team that can challenge for a top half place but this team will struggle to make any impact unless half a dozen top players are added to the bunch of hard workers Chris Hughton currently has at his disposal

MICKEY HORSWILL

FIRST off, I’d like to contradict what Malcolm has just said and say that I hope Mr Ashley continues doing what he’s done because that will allow Sunderland to continue as the top dogs of North-East.

We don’t want the Magpies catching us up!

As far as Steve Bruce is concerned I think he needs to bring in four new players in January.

He must stabilise the team because there have been signs in the last few weeks of the old Sunderland, the yo-yo club.

Who are the real Sunderland this season – the one that beat Arsenal or the one that lost at Wigan?

Bruce bought well in the summer but there is more work to be done that’s for sure.

I’d be disappointed to see us dragged into yet another relegation battle and I don’t think that will happen this season.

We can’t expect miracles but the way we’ve hit the heights against the top sides and then dipped so dramatically suggests this team still has a weakness running through it.

I’d like to see at least two new defenders come in and someone with a bit of pace in midfield.

Steed Malbranque and Kieran Richardson have gone off the boil and we need some quality on the wing.