To me, NUFC's problems largely stem from the media creation and encouragement of the Toon army: ultra-passionate, replica-top clad morons, obsessed with the coming of the next Geordie messiah. From my own experience of living in the North East, these people were a minority. The great majority of fans I met in the pubs of Newcastle were a phlegmatic bunch: hoping for the best but generally resigned to mediocrity. At the most hoping that the vast income they generated for the club might result in some halfway entertaining football and a cup run.
Unfortunately for the club, the vocal minority, people who seemingly spend all-day everyday outside St James's eating Gregg's pasties waiting for a transfer story to break, appear to have the exclusive ear of the local / national media and set the tone for the perception of the club ("best fans in the World", utterly obsessed with attacking football etc). It seems that every Chairman for years has spent millions pandering to these people: vainly attempting to appease a tiny number of people who wouldn't be satisfied if NUFC won the league with a team of homegrown miners and shipbuilders playing in a ten-up-front formation.
The result: no stability and a litany of players and managers bought solely for short-term gains and back-page headlines. NUFC supposedly have at least 15 players on wages of >£50k per week. Pretty much none of these have any transfer value, being either old, injury-prone, rubbish, having a bad attitude or all four (Owen, Viduka, Duff, Barton, Colloccini... ). They'll all be content to see out their contracts in the Championship - pretending that they are sticking with the club out of a sense of loyalty whilst continuing to draw full salaries (Ashley supposedly didn't know to insist on relegation clauses).
Still.... all part of life's rich pageant - the Premier league will be duller without them (although it might give the Championship some much need coverage). And the perception of them as a big club, too good to go down, made me some money. I won a few hundred quid betting against them in the final days: the odds on teams to beat them (and the other bottom clubs) were ridiculously generous - seemingly based on their need rather than their ability - the myth that relegation threatened teams play better when desperate.