Last season Mike Ashley sacked Chris Hughton and replaced hom with his cockney casino mate Alan Pardew . January 2011 Andy Carrol went for £35 million and who did Newcastle United get as a replacement in the next transfer window , a free transfer from West Ham.
This seemed to go from bad to worse with the sale of Jose Enrique , Kevin Nolan andeffective sacking of Joey Barton. Oh but undersoil heating was installed on the training pitch and there was an influx of French players with exotic names.
Fans were hoping to avoid relegation and maybe get one over on the Mackems , but that was about it.
However with Tim Krul , Stephen Taylor , Coloccini etc Newcastle's defense looked more than competent . Midfield similarly with Cheikh Tiote , Yohan Cabaye , and Jonas Guttierez all providing creativity and attractive football and Demba Ba scoring like theres no tomorrow.
Since January there's been the emergence of Hatem Ben Arfa and aquisition of Papa Demba Cisse , who despite £10 million being spent on him and needing time to bed it is scoring goals at the rate of one every 70 minutes.
Newcastle United sit in fourth place three points ahead of Tottenham Hotspur who at one point were fifteen points ahead of Newcastle and played them off the park in a five nil thrashing earlier in the season, and four points ahed of a resurgent Chelsea.
Yes Mike Ashley managed to annoy everyone taking down the St James Park signs and putting up Sportsdirect Arena signs , but everybody know what it really is.
Basically the Toon are in a Pardew Wonderland with a distinct possibilty of European Football next season , who have guessed that in September?