Nicky Butt doesn't shy away from describing Newcastle United as a "frustrating club to play for".

"Yes. It's a frustrating club to play for," Butt admitted to the Sunday Sun. "Frustrating for players, but more so for fans.

"At the end of last season and the start of this, we were thinking 'wow, we've got a great manager here in Keegan, who everybody - players and fans - loves', we bought some good players in Coloccini, Gutierrez and a few others, we drew against Manchester United and we beat Bolton.

"Yeah, we went to Arsenal and lost, but they can put three or four goals past anybody on their day.

"And you thought: 'Buy one or two more decent players now, and we'll definitely be up there'.

"But then all of a sudden, bang, Kevin (Keegan) goes and we get knocked straight back down. That's the frustrating part of it.

"When I'm speaking to other people, ie my friends at Man United, I do get frustrated thinking: 'Why are we in this position when we're such a big club, with such a massive fanbase, and a club which has got money - we're not in debt?'

"We've got everything going for us, yet we're down there. If you look around the changing room at Michael (Owen) and Oba (Martins) and (Mark) Viduka - all these great players - you wonder what's going on.

"Hopefully now we can turn the corner, touch wood. But we've said that so many times now . . ."