The end of player power at St James' Park?

First we had Joey Barton and his contract saga. Then we had Kevin Nolan and his refusal to sign a new deal. Now we have Alan Smith being told that he can leave for free according to some reports.

Now those three players are pretty universally regarded as key personnel when it comes to squad harmony. Granted they may not be the best players that we've ever seen at St James' Park, but they are passionate and played a huge part in our revival from the Championship culminating in our fairly comfortable Premier League survival last season.

Performance wise we had Joey Barton showing us what he can truly offer us, arguably for the first time in his four years at the club. Then we had Kevin Nolan, who ended up as top scorer for us. Then there was Alan Smith, who never really did a lot on the pitch for us but was key behind the scenes apparently.

Those three senior players were said to be part of the Newcastle side who had a shake up from within on our relegation from the Premier League. They were the hub of a supposed players committee that used to regularly hold meetings and meet away from the club under Chris Hughton. He was happy for it to continue so what harm could it have done? Everybody seemed fine with it.

However it did start off rumours of player power at St James' Park. It used to be a standing joke that Nolan would tell Hughton what team to pick and which formation to play and so on. Now it may have been said mainly in jest, but there have been rumblings of player power at St James' Park for quite some time now.

Which makes you wonder doesn't it? Is this stance by the club some form of attempt to try and stamp out this alleged player power? Maybe not directly, but it's a canny coincidence is it not? I mean three members of this alleged player committee, all being messed about with at the same time? Funny eh?

Maybe it's a good thing? Maybe it's a bad thing? Perhaps it's not even something that the club is looking at? However I happen to believe that these latest moves by the club are indirectly aimed at wrestling back at least some of the power within the dressing room.

Chris Hughton may have been happy with it, but there is nothing to say that Alan Pardew has to be. For all we know he runs his ship entirely different to Chris Hughton. He may not want the players running about in cliques behind his back and may prefer to have that bit more control over things.

So is this the end of player power at St James' Park? Maybe not directly, but it certainly looks as though it's something that is on the agenda.