They've had it rough lately, there's no denying that. The general consensus is that they are on the verge of a relegation crisis, and after their incredible performance in the league last year, you wonder where it all went wrong. Well, I'll tell you. First off, injuries to key players have hardly helped matters. Newcastle don't have much strength in depth, and that's shown already, unfortunately. Which brings me on to my next reason, and it's a strange one for Newcastle of late. An inability to sign the right players this summer has cost them dearly, and that's not just signing players such as Debuchy, a transfer that made sense, and that everyone thought had gone through only to throw the club further into disarray. I also mean tying current players down. While his form has picked up somewhat lately, the uncertainty surrounding Demba Ba's future won't have affected just his performances, it'll have affected the entire teams. The dressing room is always happier if it feels every player is happy, committed, and playing well. It will happen (again) for Newcastle at some point. I just hope it's not too late in the season, or they, and Alan Pardew for that matter, really might be in trouble.