How the mighty have fallen.

Over a period of 3/4 years, Newcastle, Sunderland and Aston Villa have endured more than their fair share of mediocrity, disappointment and embarrassment. These traditional, historic hotbeds of footballing fervour have been reduced to largely unhappy clubs with a list of issues going on and on.

Owners who seem to lack either the necessary passion or nous, managers who the fans have despised, and playing squads lacking the necessary quality to do anything other than scrap gamely for survival - this is no way to reward the tens of thousands who follow each team religiously for their long-suffering support and commitment to the club.

These regions need big, successful football clubs. The midlands and the north east have been some of the traditional heartlands of football ever since its conception, and the regions deserve better than to see their teams simply struggling to stay in the top-flight. The masses of fans who turn up to games week after week show the appetite is still there, they just need some spark of excitement or a moment of magic for them to believe again.

Newcastle may at last have that following Sunday's blockbuster 6-2 win against Norwich, but for Sunderland and Villa the wait for their season to roar into life goes on. For the Black Caps, next weeks derby against their Geordie neighbours will be absolutely vital - with their astonishing record against Newcastle in recent years, could this be their moment?

A word of caution, though. Even if Sunderland do secure a win against the Toon, and even if Villa put some good results together, the myriad of deep-set, institutional issues inside all three clubs will be nowhere near solved. All three have chairmen who are not entirely popular with the fans. All three have squads which represent a significant comedown on teams from within the last 10 or 15 years, and all three have been racked by instability in the boardroom and in the dugout.

These ingredients all add up to a situation where success is almost impossible - survival and mid-table anonymity realistically is the best they can hope for, for this season anyway.

But it wasn’t always like this. Newcastle made the Champions League only 12 years ago, and were in Europe in one competition or another until relatively recently. Aston Villa regularly finished 6th under Martin O’Neill, and Sunderland at one stage harboured designs on regular top-finishes under Roy Keane and Steve Bruce.

At one stage not so long ago, it could be assumed that all three teams would be regularly finishing in the top half of the league - now they regularly occupy the bottom three slots over the course of a season and success will be measured by how far they are away from the drop zone come May. Times have changed indeed.

It is hard to tell whether these grand old men of English football can ever scale the heights that they have in the past, or once again give their supporters memories and moments to savour like they used to. The latter deserve so much more. For the north-east, a part of the world where football allegiances are as tribal as they come, not to have a successful Premier League team is appalling, and for the midlands to be similarly bereft is equally terrible.

What a terrible shame it all is.

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