Will the world cup, cost Newcastle?

The most obvious cost looks likely to be the loss of defender Mathieu Debuchy, who has already hinted at an exit, stating that he is missing champion’s league football.

The defender, who is attracting interest from Arsenal and Paris St-Germain, is thought to be valued at around 10million, but what difference if any, that would actually make a difference to Newcastle’s already threadbare squad remains to be seen.

But the real cost of the World Cup for Newcastle, could very well turn out to be Mike Ashley’s gamble on the waiting game.

Where it is often difficult to get toon fans to totally agree on much, we do seem to agree, that reinforcements are desperately needed.

But with Mike Ashley, acting like he is sitting in one of his beloved casinos, waiting to see who will fold first, as he continues, the clubs head first rush into obscurity, you would think he would realise by now that, gambling with reinforcements does not often pay big.

How many times have we ‘just’ failed to get someone over the line?

And while I am willing to give anyone a chance, Lee Charnley has yet to prove that he can operate in the roll given to him, after the Kinnear fiasco, I would prefer to see signings in before I concede that he may just be capable of the job, and not just another of Ashley’s drinking buddies.

We need to be making movement now, not gambling that we can get a perfect deal, if we just wait.

As we become more desperate, prices will rise and we simply won’t pay them.

Because make no mistake, without reinforcements and assuming our late season form continues (and so far I see no reason it wouldn’t) we will begin the season as relegation fodder.