Newcastle United look set to bounce back from relegation last season, by gaining promotion from the Championship this time around.
Andros Townsend has admitted to the Telegraph that Newcastle United’s squad may have believed they were simply too good to go down last season.
Townsend joined Newcastle in January 2016, as the North East side battled against the drop.
The Magpies, on paper, had more strength and quality in their squad than many of their relegation rivals.
However, Newcastle simply couldn’t pick up the results required to carry them to safety and ended up dropping out of the top tier of English football.
And Townsend admits that his Newcastle teammates may have been too complacent going in to the run in.
“The main thing I took from that is that a team is never too good to go down,” Townsend said.
“Maybe last season we were looking around thinking ‘we’ve got good players, we’ll be all right’ and in the end we weren’t.”
Townsend made a big impression in the few months he spent at Newcastle, but he was not willing to stick around for a Championship season.
Townsend ended up moving to Crystal Palace, but he is yet to find his top form at Selhurst Park.
Newcastle, meanwhile, look likely to bounce straight back from their relegation, with Rafael Benitez’s side currently in a strong position to earn promotion back to the Premier League.
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