Guthrie eager to prove Magpies doubters wrong Newcastle are already being touted as relegation candidates, but Danny Guthrie insists Newcastle’s players will pay no attention to predictions of a season of Premier League strife.

Many bookmakers make the Magpies third favourites to drop into the Championship next season, behind Blackpool and West Brom, the two sides that accompanied them into the top-flight in May.

With Chris Hughton’s spending power limited, despite last week’s purchase of defender James Perch, many of the players lining up for Newcastle will be the same ones that suffered relegation two seasons ago.

But having confounded expectations as they romped to the Championship title, Guthrie is confident his teammates will upset the odds again this term.

“A lot of people wrote us off before a ball had been kicked in the Championship,” said the Magpies midfielder. “So whatever is thrown at us in terms of pre-season predictions, we’ll just ignore it. We have to.

“If we had worried about what people were saying about us 12 months ago, we might never have got promoted.

“There was so much doubt last year, it doesn’t bother us if people are saying we’re going to struggle in the Premier League. It was nice to prove people wrong and hopefully we can do that again this season.”

Nevertheless, with a trip to Manchester United representing the toughest possible start, Guthrie accepts Newcastle will have to get used to their new status as underdogs.

“Last year, we were the team everybody wanted to beat, the scalp everyone wanted to take,” he said. “It’ll be completely different coming back into the Premier League.

“We were the top team in the Championship, but the roles are going to be slightly different this season. We know it’s going to be a lot harder for us, home and away, but we’ll still go into every game believing we can win it.”