Who is responsible for the current St James' Park shambles?

Yet when he was discussing his former club’s plight on Match of the Day on Saturday night, the former skipper hit the nail firmly on the head. “The whole club is in a mess, from top to bottom,” he concluded.

Steve McClaren might be cast as the chief fall guy, with his position continuing to hang by a thread as Newcastle’s board attempt to identify a replacement willing to take over until the end of the season, but he is not the only person to blame for the horrendous campaign that sees the Magpies in 19th position with ten games remaining.

Newcastle’s story is one of deep-rooted structural and institutional failure, with a number of different people responsible for the club’s plight.

STEVE McCLAREN

Appointed amid much fanfare last summer, McClaren’s tenure has been an unmitigated disaster. From tactics to team selection, man management to media responsibilities, the former England boss has been found wanting.

He arrived on the back of a dreadful run at Derby County, and after Saturday, he has now won just nine of the 43 matches he has presided over since the start of March 2015. In short, he is someone who seems to have forgotten how to set up a team to win.

Even now, almost nine months into his reign, he is still experimenting in an attempt to stumble upon a team line-up that works. How else do you explain the sudden appearance of Yoan Gouffran in the starting line-up at Stoke and the even more inexplicable decision to start with Emmanuel Riviere at the weekend? Like a gambler desperately throwing their final chips onto their lucky number on the roulette table, McClaren has been crossing his fingers and blindly hoping something comes off.

He has failed to inspire the players working under him, and for all that he has cultivated a reputation as a respected coach, there is no evidence at all that his work on the training ground has improved the squad he inherited.

Defensively, Newcastle continue to be all over the place, and while injuries to key defenders have not helped, the Magpies have leaked soft goals whoever has been in the back four this season. At the other end of the field, a lack of attacking cohesion has also been consistently apparent.

The supporters have grown tired of McClaren’s nauseatingly upbeat post-match reactions – talk of “progress” and “not getting what we deserved” hasn’t reflected the reality of what has happened on the pitch – and his departure continues to feel inevitable.

THE PLAYERS

All too often when things go wrong at a football club, the players on the pitch are excused their share of the blame. Even on Saturday, when Newcastle had played so desperately against one of their relegation rivals, the majority of players were applauded from the field while McClaren was roundly condemned.

Yet this is a Newcastle squad packed with players whose attitude is abhorrent. Some are simply not good enough, yet others are established internationals who have commanded sky-high fees. Their failure to meet even a remotely acceptable standard is inexcusable.

Moussa Sissoko has started all bar one of Newcastle’s league games this season, yet has contributed pretty much nothing. His lacklustre performance on Saturday, which was peppered with mis-hit crosses and futile runs, was symptomatic of his whole campaign. Little wonder the decision to substitute him was so roundly applauded.

Georginio Wijnaldum, undoubtedly the most naturally talented member of the Magpies squad, is another player with serious questions to answer. Having constantly gone missing during away games, he is now equally anonymous at home.

There was a moment in the first half of Saturday’s game when he stood motionless as Adam Smith surged past him to set up a chance for Benik Afobe, and his attitude reeks of a player who thinks he is too good to be involved in a relegation fight. The parallels to 2009 are all too obvious.

Aleksandar Mitrovic has been a huge disappointment, more interested in rolling around on the floor than trying to outmuscle a defender and score, while Fabricio Coloccini’s commitment is easy to question given that he has tried to leave Newcastle on two separate occasions, only to be handed back the captain’s armband each time.

LEE CHARNLEY

As managing director, Charnley has presided over the day-to-day running of Newcastle for the last year. With Mike Ashley having taken a conscious decision to take a step back, Charnley has been in charge. He has presided over a disaster.

There is no evidence that he possesses the skills required to lead a club like Newcastle, either as an ambassadorial figurehead or a hard-headed businessman taking the tough decisions that are needed at executive level. Perhaps that should be no surprise given that he previously held a relatively junior managerial position under chief operating officer Russell Cushing in the Freddy Shepherd era.

It was Charnley who championed the appointment of McClaren, Charnley who drew up and enacted the flawed recruitment process that has resulted in a squad that is not fit for purpose, and Charnley who has helped foster a general atmosphere of bitterness and acrimony at St James’ Park.

Yes, Newcastle have spent £80m since the end of last season, but they failed to land most of their leading targets – Alexandre Lacazette, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Joel Matip – and so found themselves chasing over-priced, flawed alternatives instead.

January was an especially shambolic month. It was blatantly obvious to anyone who had watched Newcastle all season that the defence and attack desperately needed improvement, yet Charnley sanctioned a £30m outlay on three midfielders. Then scrambled at the last minute to bring in an unfit Seydou Doumbia on loan.

Charnley’s refusal to adopt a public persona is also a major issue. It leaves Newcastle completely devoid of visible leadership at boardroom level, creates a sense of unaccountability that alienates fans and forces the head coach to continue to carry the can for decisions he is unable to seriously influence. If McClaren’s position is untenable, then surely Charnley’s is too?

GRAHAM CARR

It isn’t too long ago that Carr was being championed as a scouting alchemist, capable of transforming unknown overseas youngsters into established Premier League stars. It is safe to say his star has waned considerably since then.

Officially described as chief scout, but effectively a de facto director of football, Carr has a huge say over who arrives at St James’ Park. Over the last couple of seasons in particular, his signings have been an unmitigated disaster.

Having watched Hatem Ben Arfa, Remy Cabella and Sylvain Marveaux all flop on Tyneside, what on earth made him think that Florian Thauvin, another lightweight French winger who looked completely ill-suited to the Premier League, would buck the trend and succeed? And why on earth did he pay £13m to find out?

Did he really think Mitrovic was ready to flourish in the Premier League after one good season in Belgium? And what about his previous decisions to spend a fortune on the likes of Riviere and Siem de Jong, players who are simply not good enough?

Given that he is supposed to be a specialist when it comes to Ligue 1, why weren’t Newcastle in for N’Golo Kante, a midfielder who has helped transform Leicester’s season despite costing just £5.6m from Caen, or the sensational Riyad Mahrez, who cost £400,000 from Le Havre in 2014. And why did he think Thauvin was a better bet than his Marseille team-mate, Dimitri Payet?

Carr persuaded Ashley to stock his side with young, unproven players from overseas, and then enacted the policy with a succession of signings that have simply not worked. The policy has to change, and the chief scout has to disappear with it.

MIKE ASHLEY

Having delegated the day-to-day running of Newcastle to Charnley, it could be argued that Ashley is not directly responsible for this season’s failings. After a succession of transfer windows blighted by a failure to adequately invest, it is impossible to claim the owner has buried his head in the sand this time around.

It is the club’s money rather than his of course, and Newcastle had previously banked more than £30m in profits due to previous careful house-keeping. However, by giving the green light for more than £80m of investment on players, Ashley had a right to expect a better return than the one he has witnessed.

Yet to fail to flag up the previous failings of Ashley’s reign is to ignore some of the root causes of the current mess. That Newcastle feels such a toxic club at the moment is largely down to the attitude of the man at the very top.

With its ubiquitous Sports Direct branding, St James’ Park feels more like a giant advertising hoarding than a football ground. Last year’s Sky Television interview fooled no one – most fans believe Ashley continues to preside over Newcastle because it suits the rest of his business interests, not because he wants to win something.

By openly admitting he wants to sign players to sell on at a profit, Ashley has created a squad without a soul. How do you develop a team ethic when the main rationale behind a player’s decision to move to Newcastle is that they think they’ll be heading somewhere better a couple of years later?

Ashley’s disdain towards the press is damaging – whereas once Newcastle were everyone’s second favourite team, now they are persistently portrayed in a negative light – and he has created a club that exists simply to stumble towards the following season. Perhaps it will serve him right if that next season is in the Championship.