LET’S start with a statistic. In just under two-and-a-half seasons, Newcastle United have now conceded four or more goals in a single game on ten separate occasions. Ten. So roughly one game in every nine that they play ends with them conceding at least four goals.

That should provide some context to the debate that is raging in the wake of the latest debacle at Crystal Palace, a 5-1 thrashing that has heightened fears of relegation and placed renewed question marks over the future of embattled head coach Steve McClaren.

McClaren is not without blame for the current mess. Five days after Sunderland had provided a template for how to negate Palace’s explosive counter-attacking threat, why on earth were Newcastle so open, so tactically naïve and so susceptible to the kind of lightning-quick breaks that enabled Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha in particular to run riot?

Whatever was going on in those “feisty” training sessions last week, presumably defensive organisation wasn’t on the agenda.

Yet for all that it is possible to look for very specific explanations for Saturday’s collapse, the root causes go much, much deeper. This was not a one-off. This was yet more evidence of an entrenched institutional failure that has transformed Newcastle into a laughing stock. No longer ‘everyone’s second favourite team’, the Magpies have become ‘the team that everyone wants to see on Match of the Day so they can have a good chuckle’. From top to bottom, they are an embarrassment.

That is the environment that Alan Pardew felt he had to get out of, and it could well prove to be the backdrop that also costs McClaren his job in the long run. Would anything be better under a new man? On all available evidence, you’d be mad to think so.

Newcastle’s problems start at the top and trickle down from there. Mike Ashley’s slavish pursuit of a strictly-defined transfer policy, and almost cultish devotion to the supposed alchemy of Graham Carr’s scouting skills, has saddled his club with a squad that is not fit for purpose.

He has squandered millions on players who are either not good enough, or not prepared to display the character that is required to be a success in the Premier League, and stubbornly refused to invest in areas of the squad that have been in chronic need of improvement for a number of seasons.

Hence, you get what we saw on Saturday. You get a skipper whose commitment disappeared years ago, along with the running power in his legs, and who should have been jettisoned in the summer when there was an opportunity to move him on.

Instead, he was retained because the purchase of an experienced replacement was deemed too costly. So Fabricio Coloccini soldiers on, standing off Connor Wickham as the former Sunderland striker set up James McArthur for Palace’s first goal and sliding to ground senselessly as one of three Newcastle players who missed the ball completely as Bolasie drilled home his side’s second.

You get Chancel Mbemba alongside him, a much-trumpeted £8m summer addition from Anderlecht, but also a 21-year-old centre-half who is having to learn on the job as he attempts to hold back the tide of opposition attacks that are ushered straight through to the Newcastle back four.

His unsuccessful dive at Wickham in the build-up to Palace’s third goal was the act of a player whose head had gone. Is that a surprise, though, when he is so raw and inexperienced? Still, at least his sell-on value might be decent.

And you find yourself with Moussa Sissoko and Georginio Wijnaldum, established internationals, talented footballers, and players who clearly believe that even the notion of tracking back to defend is beneath them.

It’s pointless even talking about team spirit when two of your most experienced and important players are not even prepared to follow their runners beyond the halfway line and back towards the Newcastle penalty area.

When Zaha drilled home Palace’s third goal, he found himself in a huge pocket of space inside the box. Why? Because Wijnaldum was standing 20 yards away with his hands on hips, having watched the player he should have been marking race away from him. That’s not down to a lack of coaching, that’s a lack of basic commitment, self-motivation and a desire not to let your team-mates down.

“The players have to do it for each other,” admitted a clearly dejected McClaren after the game. “Sometimes, it’s not about me, it’s about doing it for each other.

“That’s a team thing, not just on the field, but off it as well. I’ve been amongst dressing rooms that are not together, and it’s about peer pressure. It’s about pride, working for each other, and not letting down the player that’s next to you. At the present moment, we’ve not got enough of that.”

His challenge is to cultivate a sense of spirit within the current squad, but all available evidence suggests it could be a task that is beyond him, beyond anyone. This squad needs some hard-edged experience, and some leaders who would not be prepared to tolerate such indolence. Come January, it’ll probably get the addition of another 23-year-old French midfielder instead.

Perhaps the most dispiriting thing about Saturday’s collapse is that it came on a rare occasion when Newcastle had established a position of strength.

Papiss Cisse’s tenth-minute opener was reward for a bright start, and over the full 90 minutes, the Senegalese striker was probably the one Newcastle player to play at a level that could be deemed even remotely acceptable.

McArthur’s deflected equaliser was unfortunate – although the mistakes in the build up to it were not – but with Bolasie and Zaha also netting before half-time, Newcastle were at sixes and sevens long before the break.

A switch to a three-man central defence did little to stem the tide, and Palace scored a fourth two minutes after the restart when Damian Delaney nodded across the area for Bolasie to lash in from close range.

The scoring was complete in stoppage time, with substitute Jamaal Lascelles miscuing an attempted clearance across the area, and McArthur drilling a low shot past Rob Elliot.