Would Coloccini's departure spell trouble for Toon?

Necastle boss Alan Pardew must be asking himself what he has done wrong for all this bad luck he has currently being handed, and Fabricio Coloccini has added to his misery by asking him for a move back to Argentina.

What a difference a season makes. The Magpies were flying high this time last year, however a mass of injury problems and a busy schedule has seen their form plummet quicker than  Mike Ashley's pint of beer from a few years back. The club have now won only 2 games in 16 attempts and their exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Championship side Brighton and Hove Albion epitomises how their season is going, but the one man who Pardew would have thought he could count on to pull his sleeves up and help Toon get out of this slump appears to be bailing on them.

Since his £10m from Deportivo La Caruna, Coloccini has appeared on more than 150 occasions and has established himself as the club's captain, and although he signed a new 4-year deal last season, he is pleading with the management team to let him return to his homeland because of 'personal matters'.

So what does this mean for Pardew and the rest of the squad? Well things will now be that inevitably harder for them if the popular, fuzzy-haired defender does leave, but it adds to the reasons for why they need to capture extra cover at the back during this window. The 30-year-old has played in 13 of the Geordies' 21 league games this term but injury and a reported row with the gaffer has seen the Argentine grow frustrated with life in England, but whilst he is on £3m a year in wages, I very much doubt a permanent move to South America is on the cards just yet.

Can Alan Pardew pull his men away from the struggle? What do you think?

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