New signing Henri Saivet has stated that a club of Newcastle United's stature should be consistently near the top of the Premier League table.

Despite being one of the most historically important clubs in England, Newcastle have endured a lean spell in recent history and are currently struggling to avoid the drop during the current campaign.

French midfielder Saivet does not believe that Newcastle should be anywhere near the relegation zone though and has stated that the Magpies are a club who deserve to be achieving success.

Saivet said: "The image people have in France of Newcastle is that it is a massive club, it is just struggling to get on track.

"Everything we like about Newcastle. It is a good traditional English club. It is a little bit of a shame that they are not at the top of the Premier League where they deserve to be."