Newcastle are dying a slow death

One of the enduring myths of football is that a club which does not seek to improve its playing staff in the summer stagnates, or stands still. It does nothing of the sort. It goes backwards, because all around, rivals with previously weaker teams address their problems, strengthen and, in time, overtake. In the years when Arsene Wenger worked with budget restrictions, Arsenal may have idled, but their opponents did not, which is why Wenger’s team fell through the mini-group at the top of the Premier League table from first place to fourth. A club does not have to sell its best players to go backwards; inertia can be equally harmful.

And so to Newcastle United who are not so much standing still, as stepping into a tray of setting cement and preparing to take a header off the Tyne Bridge. It has long been the case that club strategy seems to be decided by Mike Ashley, the owner, gathering all of his advisers in a room and asking them: “What would a complete madman do in this situation?” But even by Ashley’s standards the reaction to relegation from the Premier League has been particularly deranged.

Everything is on hold while the club is sold. As it is, no buyer is going to make the same mistake as Ashley when he bought the club two years ago, rushing to seal the deal without first completing due diligence, so there could be some delay.

Ashley got a few nasty surprises as reward for his haste and no future investor will hand over £100m before discovering the precise dimensions of this black and white hole.