Newcastle United: The best team in the Championship
With 20 games to go it seems that, despite a couple of key injuries,Newcastle United are equipped to complete the task of making an instant return to the Premier League.
Chris Hughton is not everybody's cup of tea but has somehow worked within the system he's found himself in and delivered so far.
The diplomatic figure of Hughton will have a bigger problem if Newcastle do win promotion, but surely that is a problem that everybody wants to happen come the end of the season?
In signing Danny Simpson, Wayne Routledge and Mike Williamson he has captured three players who are yet to prove themselves over a long period of time in the top flight, but certainly all three have promise.
Nobody knows whether they will be a success in the Premier League if they are given the chance to prove it with Routledge the most experienced of the trio when it comes to first class experience.
That's for the future and with loan signings such as Patrick van Aanholt and Fitz Hall now on board to bolster the squad in the absence of Steven Taylor and Jose Enrique it should be the right short-term measure.
The long term future of Newcastle still has a lot of question marks over it.
But in terms of winning promotion, you wouldn't bet against Hughton finishing the job he started on July 1 when the Toon players returned for training.
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Lee Ryder - Proudly born and bred on Tyneside, the Chronicle's chief sports writer has followed the fortunes of the club over the last three decades as a Toon fan and football writer.
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Man for man NUFC have a better squad than Nottingham Forest, so perhaps Billy DaviesâÂÂs side are the best team in the division? Or perhaps West Brom are - theyâÂÂre certainly a lot more entertaining to watch than Newcastle and outplayed HughtonâÂÂs team over two games this month. A negative view perhaps and I think weâÂÂll finish in the top two, but Newcastle have been edging games this season not dominating them and questions have to be asked about the quality of our team play.
Routledge should be an asset to our promotion push and Williamson had a solid debut but thereâÂÂs usually a very good reason why players command small transfer fees - I wouldnâÂÂt get too excited just yet.
I strongly agree with the article but we need more aditions. When I say that I mean top quality players to face good teams like Arsenal and Manchester United otherwise we shall have problems again.
I agree with both of the above comments as the players are yet still unproven, however as we have the best defence in the league and Leicster were undoubtably the better side for much of Saturdays match we still did not concecede and the new boys did not put a foot wrong, we were tacticaly nieve and poor attacking them, when we should have been using Routledge to run at them every oportunity. Instead of playing to our strengths we appear to be attempting to counter the oppositions surely if we want to win we must be the team who make the running. Come on Chris you have a decent side why not let them lose and see what they can realy do, ps Drop the Frenchman he is Crap!