Too big to go down?

Following last weekend's round of Premiership fixtures two of the biggest clubs in England are rooted to the bottom of the table, namely Spurs and Newcastle.

It is difficult to know who is actually worse off but what is not in doubt is that neither will be challenging for Europe this year and both have sets of fans that are not very happy at all but for very different reasons.

The situation on Tyneside has reached the farcical and with no solution in sight supporters probably have the most to worry about. According to one report 17 experienced managers turned down the opportunity to take the helm before the surprise choice of Joe Kinnear was given his chance after years out of the spotlight. Being friends with Denis Wise obviously has some benefits but given his lack of popularity at Newcastle these are few and far between.

On Saturday a home fixture with Blackburn was an ideal opportunity to silence the critics but in a bizarre admission it was revealed that Kinnear was actually serving a two-match ban from his last job almost two years ago. Only at Newcastle could two caretaker bosses be in place at the same time. Of course, the Magpies went on to lose this game 2-1 and are now second bottom with only four points.

It is obvious that Mike Ashley wants to sell the club and depending on which report you believe any number of rich billionaires are interested in taking over but he is asking for a lot of money and the longer relegation is a possibility the less likely someone will want to take a risk - there is little investment opportunity outside the Premiership.

When it will happen, as it surely will, is impossible to predict but Ashley's future since the departure of Keegan is an inevitability and the only question is how much damage will be done before yet another fresh start can be made at the self-styled 'best supported team' in England.

Meanwhile, down south, at London's underachieving equivalent, is Tottenham Hotspur who have only two points following their 2-0 loss to Portsmouth on Saturday. The problems here are of a very different kind as the management duo of Ramos and Poyet are well respected in the club, by the players and within the game. However, any side that manages to sell their three international strikers, Berbatov, Keane and Defoe for a total of £57.5 million (BD39.19 million) in less than nine months must have some underlying issues.

Again rumours are rife of a foreign takeover, this time from Asian billionaires, but it is hard to ignore, in light of these transfers, the accusations that the club is more interested in profit than buying quality players. The team appears to be a very poor second to the bottom line of 'company' and no wonder the Spurs fans are left wondering what the future holds.

What is making these clubs' life even more difficult is the success of those around them. The promoted clubs are actually doing well; Hull City's famous win at Highbury being the astonishing weekend result, teams such as Manchester City have become the richest team in the world and Aston Villa demonstrating how to move a club forward steadily and productively. These are tough times for the so called 'big clubs' and more worrying for them is that the gap between themselves and the top four is growing wider by the season and there looks no sign of this trend being abated.

Newcastle have fixtures against Everton, Man City and Sunderland coming up whilst it is Hull, Stoke and Bolton for Spurs along with their European game against Krakow this week. Ironically enough, even though Newcastle are probably in a worse state than Spurs, it is the London club who will be under the most pressure should the next three weeks go badly.

This is because everyone knows how bad a state the Tyneside club are in, turmoil, in fact, but in London only the real underlying problems at Spurs are beginning to surface and in the end it will be revealed that if you do not have the quality of players it does not matter what structure above you have, you will just not win games in one of the most competitive leagues in the world.

As with most organisations it is the staff that matter most and the Spurs board seem to have forgotten this during the recent transfer windows and paying the price. Only time will tell whether it will affect them significantly but they are taking an awful risk that may ultimately backfire.