da premier bet： The Tyne-Wear derby remains the pinnacle of North Eastern football and whilst it hasn’t exerted much influence over the top end of the Premier League in recent times it could still provide a hotly contested battle next season. Will the French revolution allow Newcastle to dominate the North East or will Paolo’s overhaul of Sunderland allow them to gain the upper hand?
da bet7： Here we assess the potential of both clubs to make their mark on the Premier League next season.
Newcastle
The only real spark in the transfer market this summer has been the controversial appointment of Joe Kinnear to the backroom staff at Newcastle. It was expected that an incoming director of football would accelerate action in the transfer market, but this hasn’t materialised so far. Aside from a loan for Loic Remy, the club have been particularly quiet in terms of incomings this summer. Whilst fans love to see big names on the horizon, a quiet window could be exactly what the ‘magpies’ need especially after the upheaval of last season. A summer of stability allowing all the signings from last year a chance to finally gel and settle could provide an excellent platform from which Alan Pardew can build a force for next season. That being said an addition or two may well be necessary in reviving their fortunes.
An improvement on their lowly 16th place finish is a necessity for Newcastle next year, and I would imagine they would have aspirations of a mid-table finish at the very least. Pardew and Kinnear may well have to enter the market at some point to bolster a squad which risks falling behind their rivals. Many of the teams in the mid-table shakeup have spent big this summer and brought in genuine quality, Norwich and Southampton are prime examples of this. Without serious investment in the side Newcastle risk another relegation dogfight, and perhaps this summer of stability will need to be short-lived.
Sunderland
Paolo Di Canio’s Sunderland have enjoyed a radically contrasting window to their rivals so far this summer. Unhappy with the leftovers from previous regimes, the enigmatic Italian has decided to conduct a complete overhaul of his first team options in a bid to improve on last seasons shambolic offerings. The captures of Emanuele Giaccherini and Jozy Altidore for a combined £15m are just examples of a huge array of new talents that the Italian has brought to the North East. Clearly change was needed to avoid the ignominy of another relegation scrap, but over 10 new additions is surely taking it too far? A number of the deals look like excellent acquisitions, but at such an early stage the jury is very much out on the kind of impacts they might have. Sunderland represents a seriously unknown quantity going forward next year, something that should excite and frighten the clubs fans in equal measure next term.
A decent pre-season should give ‘black cats’ fans hope, and a particularly impressive showing against Tottenham in the Barclays Asia Trophy showed the kind of performance we can expect from them next season. In terms of aims I think a comfortable mid-table finish would again represent a decent year, whether they achieve that is anyone’s guess with some pundits tipping them for a top half finish and others relegation.
Verdict
I cannot see either team troubling the top half of the table next year, with too many quality filled squads likely to be ahead of them. As it stands I believe Sunderland are the better equipped to lead the challenge for the North East with what appears on paper to be an exciting new look side. I cannot see Newcastle going down, but I also cannot see them bettering their near neighbours until they delve into the market. A difficult call to make considering how hard it is to predict the way Paolo’s new look side will fare, I do expect them to do well but equally I wouldn’t be surprised if they flopped next year. Sunderland seem the better side but I expect the Tyne-Wear battle to be a closely fought contest next season.
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