Carroll the bright, strong centre forward. English - you pay a premium for that , as we have with Henderson. Suarez the darling off the back end of last season.
All the troubles of the signings have reared their ugly head. Carroll attitude on and off the pitch. Suddenly a £35m tag around his neck. The player is clearly not worth that much. Perhaps even £10m would have been too much. Adam too slow for the pass and move of Liverpool. Suarez and his antics. Henderson, and a promising U21 player (worth £16m).
But it isn't all about the money, why should that bother us.
We did play good football up to 26 Feb 2012. When the season finished. Bubbly , Wembley, and a cup. Winning trophies again.
Today really doesnt matter. We all knew we would lose (I did anyway), why because we are on holiday in the league. We have lost our way. Confidence, mental strength. The same as a team winning, a team losing has momentum. Take a look at Wolves. They incidentally sacked the manager, hasn't changed their fortune.
Now we have 2 league games, before the big one. I doubt it will get much better. We'll play our big 'final' and we have a 50/50 chance in a cup game. Just like the underdogs in any league in the world. All form goes out the window.
The season end can't come soon enough. The summer will again be very interesting who comes in , who goes out. Players like Suarez and Lucas may have a look at what has happened.
If we are ambitious, which at the start of every season we have blind faith, and emotions. This could be our year.
We have dug ourself a massive hole in the league. I don't expect us coming out of the trenches fighting in the league games left.
Football can be a funny old game, but tonight I doubt anybody is laughing much apart the Geordies who sold their hero to us. And Mike Ashley after all the vile hatred that went on just under 2 years ago.
Newcastle have come a long way in a very short time. Still trophyless in near 40 years.