Living in Australia and refusing to pay the extortionate rate for pay-TV means I don't see Premiership matches unless a mate records them to DVD, but I have seen the Newcastle United play a few times over this season. They are the same as they've always been - my experiences starting in 1969 - and that is inconsistent.

Incredibly inconsistent. A good game or two and then bloody awful. The defence has at times been capable (which is all you ever want) then naive, dithering and schoolboy.
  • Why can't we develop into a consistently good team?
  • How much blame does the board carry - buying (or not buying) the right players at the right times?
  • How much can be put down to team management?
You can only blame the management for as long as the personnel have been at the club (give or take a couple of months). I can't continue to blame Graeme Souness or Ruud Gullit any more than I can blame preceding managers going all the way back to Joe Harvey and earlier.

Is the board, much perceived as complacent and greedy for personal gain, at fault for not spending money on the right management team? Or are they to blame for not employing what many of the fans insist is required – a management team strong enough to stand up to chairman Freddy Shepherd, who is widely regarded as knowing a lot about scrap but nowt about football?

Is it possible that the problems lie with the players? Too much money, too easily obtained. No need to burst a blood vessel for your club when you know that £50,000 a week (often much more) will be deposited into your bank account. Were teams more consistent in the 1950s (the last time The Toon won anything of note) when the players were treated almost like indentured workers?

You played when you could take time off from your 'real' job - football wasn't a profession but a pastime and you were paid a pittance. There was a  maximum wage in those days, not a minimum wage. Would it make any difference if a salary cap was introduced for the Premiership and lower leagues? Lower the individual wages to something more sensible. I mean, what can you do with 50K a week? You can only live in one house at a time, you can only drive one car at a time.

A more realistic salary structure would help all teams in a league - it would flatten and more fairly distribute the skills throughout all the teams - no more Abramovic effect. Pay the players bonuses based on results. It may even allow gate prices to be dropped as the consolidated wage bill would be lowered. Cloud cuckooland, I know, and no chance of it even being trialled.

Does all this really explain why my team cannot string a few games together where they play as a team; the defence copes with everything the opposition can muster; the attackers score more goals than their opponents and we win matches consistently?

This season, even when we've won, we have not been convincing in the way Arsenal (surely the best pure football team at times) or Chelsea or even Manchester United are. Two of those teams have a long-standing and stable management team with class coaches, Chelsea have Jose Mourinho, without a doubt an exceptional coach. Would it have made any difference if The Toon had had Arsene Wenger or Alex Ferguson for more than 10 years or if Mourinho had come to understudy Bobby Robson before taking over when eventually Robson moved upstairs?

I don't know.  I don’t have the answers and I’m not certain there are any - and that's as frustrating as my Toon are.

What is the problem at Newcastle? Let us have your views at Sportingo.