The five players who will be leading Newcastle’s summer clearout:

Newcastle’s success this season has primarily been down to Alan Pardew’s manipulation of the transfer market. Whilst there have certainly been other contributing factors, you simply cannot beat selling Andy Carroll and replacing him with Demba Ba, Papiss Demba Cisse and a whole bunch of pocket change. The addition of the likes of Yohan Cabaye, who has slotted neatly alongside the energetic Chieck Tiote in midfield has added further stability to a Newcastle side that is constantly looking to improve.

But, as is often the case in an improving side who have made good use of the transfer market, there are Newcastle players out there who clearly aren’t up to snuff. In fact, there’s enough of them that I’d fancy Newcastle may host a summer clearance sale to get rid of the players who aren’t getting a look in and bring in players who can compete for a place in the Magpie’s first-team.

Alan Smith joined Newcastle back in 2007 on a five-year contract that will wind up this summer. Smith hasn’t had the best of time with the Toon, thanks to a stress fracture and the emergence of Cheick Tiote. He’ll always be remembered as a hard-worker, but I think it’s fair to say that his time is up. There remains the possibility that he’ll make his Milton Keynes Dons loan move permanent.

Then there’s James Perch who has always been on the fringes of this Newcastle side. Though he has shown signs of improvement this season, I’d still argue he’s not good enough for a Premier League side with aspirations of getting into Europe. Hopefully his performances have raised his price-tag, though I have to confess, I won’t be all that sad to see him move on.

Then there’s Nile Ranger who quite simply doesn’t deserve to wear the shirt. For all the talk of his potential, he has been an absolute nightmare to manage and should be forced out of the club as soon as possible.

The rise to prominence of Newcastle’s double-Demba strikeforce has forced Peter Lovenkrands out of the side. Truth is, though he has performed well sporadically over his time with the club, he’s not the dynamic, natural goalscoring forward that Newcastle tend to favour.

Finally, it looks like Newcastle goalkeeper Fraser Foster will make his Celtic loan move permanent. With Tim Krul between the sticks I just can’t see Foster getting a game.

I’m sure Alan Pardew will look to get whatever he can for these players and invest it wisely back into the squad. Perhaps if Newcastle have another successful transfer window they can go on to challenge for a top four place next season?

What’s your take? Am I being too harsh on Perch? Is there anybody else I should add to this list?

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