Relegation looms for Newcastle, Villa

Newcastle United manager Steve McClaren considers their 5-1 defeat against Crystal Palace a hurtful one for the fans.Once upon a time Aston Villa were the champions of Europe and Newcastle United could boast the most entertaining team in the Premier League. Today they occupy the bottom two places, and deservedly so based on a series of hopeless displays this season.

The days when Villa were beating Bayern Munich in the 1982 European Cup final and Newcastle were wowing audiences in the 1990s with champagne football (David Ginola, Faustino Asprilla, Les Ferdinand, Peter Beardsley) are but distant memories. Both of these big clubs now symbolise what can go wrong if the set-up at the top is…