THE Newcastle Jets had been in a tailspin in the lead up to the 2012-13 seasion.
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Owner Nathan Tinkler hit the eject button in April and announced that he was handing back the club's A-League licence to Football Federation Australia.
A meeting between Tinkler and FFA chairman Frank Lowy, fittingly in an airport hangar in Brisbane, prevented the ultimate crash landing.
Six months later, not only were the Jets airborne, but rarely had there been as much hype and anticipation about the start of an A-League campaign.
Tinkler's business interests may have been under pressure but that didn't stop the coal baron from splashing out on a marquee player and recruiting former England striker Emile Heskey to a seven-month deal worth $700,000.
Almost instantly, the Jets went from outsiders to contenders for the top four.
Heskey's experience and ability to hold the ball up and bring the Jets' young flyers into the game was the final piece to a puzzle coach Gary van Egmond had been shaping since he returned to the club after three rounds of the previous season.
Once the ownership issue was resolved, van Egmond quickly went about overhauling his roster.
Regulars Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Jeremy Brockie, Tarek Elrich, Francis Jeffers and Ali Abbas were among 11 shipped out and replaced by athletic, technically sound, versatile youngsters tuned to play van Egmond's up-tempo game.
Heskey, seemingly, completed the picture, adding power to compliment the pace of Ryan Griffiths.
"To get someone like Emile is fantastic, not only for the club but the whole of the Hunter area and the whole of the code," van Egmond said.
Heskey had played 28 games for Aston Villa in the English Premier League the previous season. The 34-year-old had been linked with moves to Stoke, Norwich and an emotional return to Liverpool, where he won the FA Cup and UEFA Cup in a four-year spell, before agreeing to terms with the Jets.
Van Egmond said Heskey's crowd-pulling power, experience, strength and ability to hold up the ball made him an ideal marquee signing.
He also predicted the striker would be a menace in front of goal, despite a strike rate of one goal every 4.6 games in English football.
"I think we have to get things in perspective here," van Egmond said. "We're talking from the EPL to the A-League and if you want to compare him not getting as many goals in the EPL to him not maybe getting as many goals in the A-League, I think that's a pretty tough comparison."
For his part, Heskey, who had scored 111 goals in 512 Premier league games at Leicester City, Liverpool, Birmingham, Wigan and Aston Villa, was confident he would be a force up front.
"Everyone always says you didn't get enough goals, you didn't get enough goals," Heskey said after touching down in Newcastle. "But I'll get my fair share of goals, plus I will help produce a lot of goals. That is one of the main things that I do."
Heskey, Sydney FC's Italian maestro Alessandro Del Piero and Japan superstar Shinji Ono (Wanderers) became the faces of the A-League.
It had the makings of a red-letter day for the Jets. Heskey was on deck to lead the line against Adelaide and there was a buzz about the 14,868 Jets faithful who had filed into Hunter Stadium hoping - expecting - a winning start to the campaign.
The buoyant mood lasted 59 seconds.
That is how long it took for Dario Vidosic to open the visitor's account. The Jets never recovered. By full-time it was 2-0.
Next was Sydney FC and Del Piero at a heaving Sydney Football Stadium.
"I know it's going to be a massive game," Heskey said.
It delivered in spades.
A record regular-season crowd of 35,419 watched in awe as Del Piero elegantly curled a free kick from 20 metres over the wall, past helpless Jets keeper Ben Kennedy and into the top left hand corner. Pure class.
Heskey provided his own brand of magic five minutes before the break.
The imposing striker monstered his way in front of Adam Griffiths to meet a Ryan Griffiths cross and bury it in the right corner.
In the end, the Jets prevailed 3-2.
"HESKEY for England?'' the headline screamed on a prominent UK soccer website after the Jets' marquee man scored a brace in a 2-1 triumph over Melbourne Victory to take his tally to four goals in four games.
The win was Newcastle's third straight.
"From our point of view we were always confident [of a good start] with the work we did in the off-season," van Egmond beamed.
But after winning four of the opening six games, the Jets dropped five games out of six in a horror slump mid-season.
In 11 rounds van Egmond had only retained the same XI once. It had been 273 minutes since the Jets' last goal - a penalty to Ryan Griffiths.
Fans started to jump up and down as uncertainty over the financial future of owner Nathan Tinkler mounted.
In a bombshell, Jobe Wheelhouse quit on January 31, effective immediately, after the club confirmed the captain wasn't part of their future plans.
Only six weeks earlier Wheelhouse, 27, declared he wanted to be a Jet for life after becoming the first home-grown player to notch 100 games.
In making the decision Van Egmond said there was "no room for sentimentality in sport" and was influenced by the salary cap..
Wheehouse had interest from Melbourne Heart and Central Coast but opted to walk away from the professional game.
"The club didn't show any indication that they wanted to re-sign me, so I think that's pretty plain," Wheelhouse said. "My heart's not here any more, I guess that's the main thing. I think I'd be cheating myself and cheating my teammates if I were to pick up a pay cheque for something I just wasn't in it for."
Ryan Griffiths, the Jets' leading goal-scorer with nine, was the next to go, gaining a release in late February to take up a mega-rich deal in China,
The Jets fielded the equal-youngest side in A-League history against Victory in round 23 - featuring teenagers Connor Chapman, Josh Brillante, Craig Goodwin, Mitch Cooper and Andrew Hoole - and were thumped 5-0.
A season that promised so much ended with a listless 3-0 loss to Western Sydney Wanderers to finish eighth, 26 points behind the leaders.
The limp exit was the final straw for supporters who bombarded the Herald's website with calls for the coach to be sacked.
Speaking at the Jets awards night, Palmer hit back at criticism of the club.
"We did not make the finals, we are disappointed at that," Palmer said. "That is sport, it's unpredictable. Gary is not going anywhere. I'm not going anywhere. The players are not going anywhere. We are committed to building on what we worked on this year, and building something that the people of Newcastle can be proud of."
Palmer confirmed that marquee Heskey had agreed to a new one-year deal.
