“A common strategy for managers taking a team up into the Premier League is to “give the lads who got us there half a season, it it doesn’t work, bring in new blood”. A parallel technique has largely been used over the past couple of seasons on descending into the Championship. Newcastle decided to bank on those who ushered the club down to usher them back up and this is a policy that appears largely to have succeeded. True, some particularly coveted jewels were offloaded in Owen and Martins, but the Magpies’ decided to gamble on an automatic return.” (thetwounfortunates)