Permutations: what’s needed for a Toon top 10 finish?

Posted on May 20th, 2011 | 22 Comments |

Premier League table as of 20th May 2011.
9th - 14th possible
What are the permutations for Newcastle United’s finishing position this season?

I am a bit of a geek and the thought of permutations makes me moist with anticipation. I therefore had to inflict said permutations upon NUFCBlog’s readers.

Realistically, we will finish somewhere between 9th and 14th in the Premier League this season.

The fact that a span of 5 places all rests on the final is perhaps an indication of how close things have been outside of the top 6 or so this season.

The matches that affect us this weekend are:

Newcastle v West Brom (obviously)
Stoke v Wigan
Bolton v Man City

And if we don’t win, the following matches could affect our finishing position too:

Aston Villa v Liverpool
West Ham v Sunderland

If we lose we have the easiest to work out – but least desirable – situation. The highest we can finish is 12th and we could end up as low as 14th if Villa take any points and/or Sunderland win (if Sunderland draw they can’t jump above us).

If we beat West Brom we will be on 48 points and finish at least 11th. Then if either Bolton or Stoke don’t win, we’ll finish 10th and if both Bolton and Stoke don’t win we’ll finish 9th.

If we draw we’ll finish with 46 points and we need both Stoke and Bolton to lose and Villa and Sunderland not to win in order to sneak into 10th place.

Of course if we won 8-0 then the Fulham v Arsenal game would come into play and we could finish 8th, but I think we can ignore that possibility!

If there are errors in the mathematics, please assume Worky did all the calculations, otherwise I’m happy to take responsibility!

Either way, even a 14th position finish is 3 above the 17th position we allegedly targetted at the start of the season.

Who knows what the summer will bring? Ashley is certainly unpredictable but I don’t share the opinion of the worst of the pessimists: I think we will get a wodge of money to strengthen the squad and I hope it’s used wisely so that we can look forward to next season with optimism.

Howay The Lads!

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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22 Responses

  1. i am going for us to win on sunday…i am also going for ashely way less than the optimists think! 10 million tops..plus moving on enrique for ten million.. and barton for 3 million..so all i nall..he will net profit 3 million this transfer window.

  2. So the best we can do is 9th & worst case 14th, we’ve na chance of getting 8th unless as you say we win 8-0 & fulham lose to Arse-nil, who will be desprate to claw back that 3rd place from Manc Citey, so you never know what may happen there!!

    My optimism says Ashley is going to let Pardew have the full £35m but that will include wages & agenst fee’s, so I expect us to spend around £25m on players, but as Ashley is as you said unpredictable, who knows for defo!!

    I can’t see us spending £10m+ on any players so you can count out Zogs & Defoe unless we get them on the cheap & for some reason, I doubt Whelen will allow Zogs to leave, espeicially to Ashley on the cheap & we all know that floppychops will want top dollar for Defoe, even if he is 28 & no longer wanted at Shyte Arse Lane….

    I also see a few freebies comin in to ad strength & depth to the team, so all in all, I say around 5 or 6 players in, 2 or 3 out!!!

  3. Ashley is a Geordie. I think we’ll spend 25mil and we’ll keep Enrique and Barton. I’m also hung like a donkey and live in Narnia :)

  4. Surely we don’t have to win 8-0. What if(say) Arsenal beat Fulham by a few goals?

  5. We don’t have to win 8 nil to finish 8th. If we win 4 nil and fulham lose 3 nil we go 8th on goals scored.
    Still unlikely!

  6. We dont need to win 8-0 to finish 8th…
    If Aresnal suddenly click into gear and tank Fulham by 4 or 5 then we still need a big win against WBA :-)

    I think we will win, and end up in 10th. And to be fair I would be happy with that!

  7. i think we will win,

    But

    I dont know if we would have a team to win big against a tidy defense

  8. Guys, I dont mean to be too optimisitic here, but if we did some how win 4-0 and Fulham lost 4-0, we could finish 8th, highly improbabale, but you never know. What is more realistic is we win 2-1 and Fulham draw 1-1. Anyway, its been a good 1st season back in the prem, highlight without doubt the 4-4 with Arsenal, I don’t think that will ever happen again, one to be treasured. Howay the Lads.

  9. i love the fact that all we ever make reference to when it comes to the funds is the 35 million from the carroll sale. What about our actual transfer kitty?? What if we had never sold carroll?? We should have 50 million quid to spend on players this window…fking jokers, ashley and lambiarse.

  10. All our problems in recent years stem from expectations that we will win both from players and fans. West Brom are a tidy organised side who under Roy Hodgson are having a great run. Lets just concentrate on making a great atmosphere and getting behind the lads as we used to do years ago and giving them a great send off. Lets show the rest of the country who we really are and what we are about. Pride in our area, pride in our team proud to be a geordie. Lets show the players and the board and the country the true potential here of the atmosphere that can be created.

  11. Every game we play we try to win, just simple like that. But I don’t knoow how good we can do. Hopefully it’s good enough to win against WBA this Sunday.

    Nobody know how much our transfer fund available. Normally we should have 35m+ transfer fund (maybe 10-15m) but I just can’t predict anything from our transfer market. Let’s finish the season on style and looking forward to next season on high. HWTL !

  12. exactly ginkoh lets finnish the season on a high, re transfers the likes of larsson and reo coker will be avail on frees and just because they arent signed from Real Madrid for 16-20 million (owen) doesnt mean they wouldnt add to what we have got so for me fees arent as important its more about who we bring in,

    as for Ashley, I remember westwood/seymour/mckeag all noted for their real lack of investment and contempt of the fans. For you younger lads they were on a real different level to the guy in charge now and we spent years in div 2 under them in a ground dropping to bits. Who can remember the ground plans they used to have in the programme of how the ground was going to look when they demolished the leazes, you have to laugh now but I tell you they were miles worse than the current fella !

  13. bb,
    you make some good points mate, past owners/chairmen were total tosspots, at best.
    Ashley is almost a joke baddie compared to some of them.

    :)

    That’s lost on some of the young ‘uns though man.
    ;)

  14. Ah craig Jizzem, still as upbeat as ever….yawn :evil:
    Its not about the money man, more about finding the right players to improve our squad.
    It will happen, then you can feck off back down the little shyte hole you oozed out of.
    You must be so proud of yourself.
    Cant wait till 31st Aug. What will you have to moan about next season? I’m sure you’ll find something.
    Get your apolgy prepared now it’ll save you time later.
    sad, negative, defeatest MUPPET.

  15. What £35m? The tax man took a huge chunk of it on 6th April. Why do you think Dalglish paid over the odds for Judas…..to get rid of the cash.

  16. Jaysus ! what`s up ?
    Everyone bummed out or what ?
    Just got my wish list sent to Santa for the summer window.
    Given (Citeh)
    Izaguirre (Celtic)
    Coleman (Everton)
    Bassong (Spurs)
    Ireland (Villa)
    kranjcar (Spurs)
    Ba (W/Ham)
    Sturridge (Chelsea)
    Johnson (Citeh)
    Long (Reading
    None of these guys would hurt us and of course cant expect them all, but maybe three or four or more, would go a long wat in making us a better side.
    But then what do i know ?

  17. @17…BB….

    Dont be a dickhead all your life….just cos i dont agree with your drivel dont mean you or i am right. its called a blog you closet hard man. i can say as i please and i dont need to play along with the pap you spout out, and i wont either. i will never ever think anything of ashley, ever. its not just about the cash, its the whole thing. i am all for bringing in class for free or cheap. How about sorting out our two best players onto new contracts? Bartons is simple, give him four years on less money. Why offer a 28 year old a 2 year contract extension ffs? Enrique we have lost now anyway…. you think you are the nufc oracle but many of the senior guys in the team are saying we need investment, nolan, barton, jonas, jose, harper, tiote, the list goes on.
    so BB…. i will happily come on here and say i was wrong if we strengthen in the summer….. i wonder if you are man enough to hold your hands in the air if we weaken though.