Newcastle reaching crisis point in relegation battle thanks to Mike Ashley's atrophy

Fed up with the lack of progress under the regime of the disgraced former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, their patience had reached snapping point, so a mass boycott was organised. Unlike at Newcastle a couple of weeks ago, this was done with military efficiency.

But they did not leave it at that. While tens of thousands swerved the game, a few went in to watch. Those who attended did not stand idly by. In fact, they gathered together in the stands, forming themselves into a human tableau spelling out the word ‘Basta’ (enough) in giant letters. There they remained for the entire duration.

In Newcastle the grumbly discontent with the ownership of Mike Ashley has not yet coalesced with such competence. But if Ashley thought the notion of protest had gone away, he needs to think again. For Newcastle supporters things are about to get a whole lot worse. Theirs is a club being fast tracked to relegation. And how they are torn: one the one hand, they realise that the players need their support now more than ever. But on the other, they recognise that now is the best time to make their feelings known.

And without question Newcastle are in peril, their Premier League status under severe threat. Under the management of Ashley’s appointee John Carver, they have lost their last seven games. Carver is a good man, a decent football obsessive who loves the club and clearly hurts with every defeat. But he is powerless to do anything about it. Jose Mourinho, Juergen Klopp, Diego Simeone, all of them would struggle to make a mark at an institution that operates as Ashley’s Newcastle does. It is hard to conduct a miracle when your hands are tied behind your back.

Because the rapid decline as the season reaches its business end is a corollary of the way Ashley runs the club. His business model is based on maintaining mid-table mediocrity. He is not prepared to invest for progress; he is not interested in underwriting ambition. He regards players in the same way he does the goods in his Sports Direct empire.

Not as athletes who might bring success, joy and a sense of achievement. But as commodities, stock to be bought cheaply and sold at a profit as quickly as possible. Team building is subservient to the requirement to maintain the bottom line. Glory is for losers. Money is what matters.

The irony in that approach is that it is propelling the club towards eviction from the very competition where the money is made. Without question, the best way to maintain a presence in the Premier League is to try and win it. Clearly not everyone can. But at clubs like Swansea and Stoke City, the plan is at least to do everything within their economic means to try. At these places, the manager is given the resources by enlightened owners constantly to improve the team. That way they have become permanent fixtures at the top table, enabling them to progress and develop through the accumulation of wealth.

That is not simply sensible business. It is also the very purpose of being involved in sport. Ashley, though, doesn’t do sport. What he does is profiteering. And ultimately the two are not comfortable bed fellows.

At Newcastle, the institutionalised parsimony is facing its inevitable consequence. Three months ago, when Alan Pardew decided that Crystal Palace was a more ambitious option, Newcastle were 19 points ahead of Leicester in the table. Should Nigel Pearson’s team defeat the Magpies tomorrow, they will be just one point behind. That is as close a definition to sleepwalking to relegation as you could find.

The only thing that might prevent such woe-begotten decline is the incompetence of others. Unless Queens Park Rangers and Burnley win this weekend, they look likely to fill two of the relegation places, however shambolic Newcastle’s performances might be. Which, with Hull suddenly discovering how to acquire points and Aston Villa on the up, leaves Ashley’s outfit in a straight fight with their near neighbours for the third spot. And if any club is even more hapless than Newcastle it is Sunderland.

They have gone into freefall at precisely the moment Leicester have revived. And like their hated rivals, they still have to play Pearson’s fired up Foxes.

As the Premier League plot reaches its seasonal climax, it appears at least one of those grand old teams is going down. Maybe both of them. Not since Margaret Thatcher was in power has the north east faced such an assault on its self-esteem. These are woeful times in a place that was once the cradle of the game.