Newcastle United are good at cliches: last season was a season of two halves, fan attempts to dethrone Mike Ashley were marred by in-fighting and theoretical clashes and the side were almost relegated because of the one thing that no side can do without - goals. It's no surprise then that the club also flirted outrageously with the old adage of being "too good to be relegated" before slipping with a quiet sob and a deflected own goal out of the Premier League at Aston Villa, much to the glee of the locals. For their part, they rubbed the old Geordie Messiah cliche in our tear-stained faces as we went. Whether that side truly were truly good remains to be seen - what is obvious is that they weren't too good to be relegated as the final Premier League table proved otherwise, and Mike Ashley was left counting the cost of a season without Premier League TV money and being forced to survive on paltry parachute payments that most League clubs could only dream of. As Newcastle once more stare down the barrel of the relegation gun after two seasons and seven games of disappointment (with a brief period of under-achieving last year that pushed the side up into the top half) the question of being too good to get relegated has reared its head again. Some media outlets and journalists - notably Mark Douglas and Paul Merson - have stated that the club will be fine by the end of the season, and that somethings will inevitably start to go right. For fans seeing the endless gloom of Alan Pardew's association with the club continue, that is somewhat difficult to imagine. And it is especially concerning at this stage in the season that Newcastle have just four points, when that relegation season started with FIVE points from seven games, including one against Man Utd. If that ultimately downed side was better at this stage of the season, and had played harder games, what hope can there be for the current team under Alan Pardew? Because frankly, it's a lot harder to see them as "too good to be relegated" at the minute with him in charge. With that in mind, we want your opinion: which of the 2008/09 first team do you think would make it into the current Newcastle squad? Concerningly, looking at those players, Newcastle are worryingly close now to the same uninspired make-up of 2008/09. For Nicky Butt, read Jack Colback; for Gutierrez read Gouffran; an under-performing Coloccini is an under-performing Coloccini and occasionally prolific, but ultimately disappointing Michael Owen is just Papiss Cisse in another form. And in the shape of the likes of Bassong, Beye and Jose Enrique, there are some better alternatives to what we currently see in the first team. And the attacking options were an embarrassment of riches compared to what we currently have. So are we too good to go down? Well no, because a better team already have before.
