Who should leave in the summer?

I realise that this may be a bit premature given the fact that we are not actually guaranteed safety yet, but I'm sure that the even the most pessimistic fan must now admit that it would take something special to see us go down.

Of course this is Newcastle, and if there is a banana skin to be found then you can be pretty sure that NUFC will do their level best to find it so I won't be shouting just yet, but surely there has to be three teams worse than us in the grand scheme of things?

The goal once survival is assured is to then strengthen the team and carry out a bit of rebuilding work over the summer. We know where there are weaknesses in the squad, and hopefully the chaps who can do something about it over the coming months actually pull their finger out and address those areas of weakness

Ultimately, the nuts of it is about who is brought in, and that is generally where most of the attention seems to go. What about the current crop of players though? Some of them will need shifting on, but which ones? Let's take a look at who I think we should be waving goodbye to over the summer.

Sol Campbell - The time is up for the former Arsenal defender surely? It's sad to see as I remember him when he was at the top of his game, as I'm sure many others do. Unfortunately though that kind of performance is a thing of the past from Sol and age seems to be getting the better of him.

He's out of contract in the summer although he does have an option to extend his stay for another year. If it's an extension based on performances then I'd like to know where I could sign up to the club as I wouldn't be much worse.

Alan Smith - To be honest I'd probably try and keep Smithy around, if he agreed to a significant wage drop, as he is supposed to be quite good behind the scenes. He must be, as he isn't very good on the pitch anymore, and he takes home a huge £60,000-a-week in wages. For that wage there has to be better out there?

I do have some degree of sympathy for him however as I feel that Manchester United ruined him. After the horrific injury that he suffered at Anfield he was dropped back into midfield to play a more defensive role, which ultimately he isn't that good at. Gettting back to what I said earlier, if he'll take a wage drop then keep him. If not then try and get rid.

James Perch - Need I say more? I was one of the few who gave the lad a chance and didn't rush to criticise him like many did at the time. He hasn't done an awful lot wrong to be honest, he's just not very good.

I feel Perchy pays for his alleged versatility by not being able to settle in the one position. If you are just employed as a right-back you could probably concentrate on areas of his game a bit more, but the fact that he tends to be played here, there and everywhere probably doesn't help him as you need slightly different attributes for each position. Perch is the jack of all trades, master of none.

Ryan Taylor - Deep down you knew his name was coming! He is probably the only player signed to just to stop him scoring against us. Signed from Wigan in January 2009 the Scouse lad arrived with a reputation of being a set-piece taker. Fast forward to April 2011 and I've yet to see any real evidence of that reputation.

Again I feel that Raylor suffers due to his versatility. He can't defend which rules him out at right back, and he can't attack which rules him out on the right wing. He has little pace, has a poor range of passing and can't tackle and I struggle to see what he brings to the team

Those are my four priority picks for who should leave in the summer. If we could get rid of all of them then we'd probably rake in £2 million from sales, which isn't great, but it would shave around £6.5 million off the wagebill each year that could be used on new contracts.

Agree? Disagree? Have your own suggestions?

Then why not tell us why by leaving a comment?