Buzzin Championship Football

Can the morale at Newcastle United get any lower as the Championship prepares to kick off for a new season on Saturday?

Newcastle are still desperately trying to find a buyer for the club, but every step forward appears to result in a further two steps back. It is fair to say that there have no doubt been many time wasters involved in negotiations with the club, the latest consortium to pull out of a potential purchase, The Profitable Group, never looked capable of securing the necessary financial backing to take the club forward.

And so there appears to be no real positive signs of things changing in the immediate future, Mike Ashley must just want to hide in the locker room and hope that it all goes away.

Newcastle are currently without a contracted manager, Alan Shearer stayed around for a while after relegation, but like everyone else is anxious for the club to find a new owner. His return to television as a Match of the Day pundit will also make viewers wish that the club finds a buyer – and soon!

Joe Kinnear, who appeared to be the only candidate daft enough to accept the managers job, albeit on a temporary basis, ending up needing triple heart by-pass surgery after his short time at the helm. Kinnear has today revealed that he has turned down the chance of a two year contract to take up the Newcastle challenge again.

Although Kinnear has made much progress in his recuperation programme, he is loathe to make a commitment until his life is back on track. He says he is keen to return to club management but needs to pace himself through the next few months.

Meantime Newcastle have once again turned to regular caretakers Colin Calderwood and Chris Hughton to be in charge of the team until further developments with the sale of the club. Newcastle visit fellow relegated team West Bromwich Albion on Saturday.