Those who stayed after relegation have proven their commitment to the cause ... after a notable few were quick to bail out.
Damien Duff was bound to get away, and was quick to call his time on Newcastle "hell".
The foreign bigade of Beye, Bassong, N'Zogbia and Martins were always looking for pastures new, while Michael Owen can go and rot in hell as far as most Toon fans are concerned.
Jose Enrique: “Do I think the players who left the club regret it? I don’t know.
“What I can say is every player who stayed at Newcastle following relegation did so because they wanted to. They decided it was better to try and help the team win promotion than leave straight after relegation. That was the same for me.
“I wanted to play in the Championship because I knew we had a great chance of getting straight back to the Premier League. Looking back now, I know it was the right decision.
“Even last summer when I said I wanted to stay, I meant it. I don’t lie. People will now believe and realise why I did it.
“For me, the worst games this season were the first ones.
“I remember saying to Jonás (Gutiérrez) at the end of games ‘I still don’t believe we are in the Championship, it has not sunk in.’ It felt as if we were missing out on something because the Premier League is so massive.
“But in many ways, it has not felt that we are out of it. We get nearly 50,000 coming here every week and away from home, there are always two or three thousand. It has never stopped feeling like a big club, a Premier League club.”