10 Embarrassments That Made Newcastle A Laughing Stock

10. The Big Screen Problems

Just when you think things can't get more comical at Newcastle, the club unveils plans - encouraged by the IRB for the Rugby World Cup next season - for an LED giant screen, and then manages to fudge a four week window of opportunity to test and double-test the fittings. Instead of putting the screen up two weeks before their next home fixture, Newcastle teamed up with ADI to install the 60m2 screen (a good addition to the stadium, by the way) just days before the Leicester game. Inevitably, something went wrong, the panels around the screen looked precarious and the kick-off was put back an hour. That would probably have been fine if it wasn't Newcastle - just as the size (the biggest in the Premier League) wouldn't have been. But given what else is going on, it just looked like another step in the Tyneside soap opera. The great irony of the big screen problems - which will go beyond embarrassment as the club faces a punishment (most likely a fine) - is that it merely distracts from the real issues at the club. The manager isn't working, the team are under-performing and the approach to transfers is patently wrong, but now everyone is grumbling over a screen.