Strip the heart out

In a really practical sense it is obvious that we're going to need to really sort the club out, and if we go down its a time for radical re-evaluation.

Over and Out
We know the players who will have gone if we're down (Owen, Viduka, Martins, Gutierrez, Collocini, Gonzalez, Xisco, Geremi, Cacapa), we'll make little or no money from any of these apart from Martins, but will see annual wages reduced by £20m.

Who would I keep?

Steve Harper
Habib Beye
Jose Enrique
Sebastien Bassong
Steven Taylor
Peter Lovenkrands
Danny Guthrie
Ryan Taylor
Nicky Butt
Andy Carrol
Nile Ranger

subs
David Edgar
Fraser Forster
Kazenga Lua Lua
Haris Vukic
Ben Tozer

This is a pretty decent side, with a nice balance of experience and youth. While we would clearly need another striker and central midfielder, we should have enough to cover everything else in the Championship and get us back up. The young talent of Vukic and Tozer should be able to step up to cover the forward and left back positions which are obvious gaps, but the like of Butt and Beye would be essential to get us back up.

What about the rest?
Joey Barton - we need to build spirit and therefore need the 'right type' of players
Kevin Nolan - not a 'Newcastle' player, so let him go back to Bolton
Alan Smith - There's no clear role for him at the club and his wages are too high
Shola Ameobi - no need to comment really
Damien Duff - not the player he was, but someone must want him!

These lot while bringing in around £15m would also save us a further £5-6m in wages, which would mean the club overall would be saving £25m in wages, and around £20m back in through transfer fees. Surely this would allow us to build for the future???

This would be getting rid of 14 players, and while thats never going to happen (all of 'the rest' are likely to stay next season where ever we are), it would allow us to build bottom up. There is the chance that if we do go down that Bassong and Beye would go as well which would be a disaster for the club. We'll just have to wait and see...