Gutierrez: Magpies set to fly back into top flight

Aug 21 2009 by Steve Brown, The Journal

HE may be the Spiderman, but Jonas Gutierrez wants to fly. Thankfully for him and Newcastle United right now, he’s got plenty encouraging him to.

The Argentinian international could be forgiven were he not focusing on the positives coming out of St James’s Park, and Buenos Aires, these past few days.

Off the pitch, the Magpies remain in turmoil. The sale of the club remains frustratingly up in the air, and might yet not happen at all, should Mike Ashley remove it from the market once more.

Either way, Alan Shearer – or any other potential manager – waits.

And so too a squad already depleted by enforced sales, but which could yet see more.

Gutierrez, however, believes there is good cause to be upbeat.

Though his friends back home are still struggling to comprehend how a club of United’s magnitude could find itself slumming it outside the Premier League, Gutierrez has received assurances from Argentina coach Diego Maradona that, even in the Championship, his international career will continue.

He did admit that were that not Maradona’s stance, he would have been presented with a “difficult situation” – and could have left Tyneside.

But now Gutierrez wants to reaffirm his own commitment to the club while thinking nothing of the possibility of yet more team-mates departing.