It was on June 10th, 2015 that Newcastle made one of their worst management appointments ever – maybe even in our history.
Steve McClaren had just been sacked by Championship club Derby County on 25 May 2015, but Managing Director Lee Charnley thought the signing of McClaren would be a perfect fit for Newcastle and he signed him on 16 days later after McClaren had been on holiday to Greece.
Charnley was wrong – dead wrong.
And it was this appointment that doomed Newcastle to a second relegation to the Championship in 2016 when even Rafa couldn’t save the team.
That was even though we earned 12 points from our last 6 games and hammered Tottenham 5-1 on the last day with only 10 men.
Lee Charnley kept faith in his appointment for far too long when it was obvious the manager was in over his head from early on in that season.
Having Steve on the Board who decided those things didn’t help either.
#ONTHISDAY 2015:
The club confirmed that Steve McClaren was the new #NUFC Head Coach. In an awful club statement, this quote stood out beyond the rest.
“Managing director Lee Charnley said: ‘From my first meeting with Steve I knew he was the perfect fit for Newcastle United.'” pic.twitter.com/sh3X3yICPh— NewcastleUnitedONTHISDAY (@ONTHISDAYTOON) June 10, 2019
And that was even after Mike Ashley had decided to spend some money in the summer of 2015 – a record net and of over £50M.
[table “39” not found /]The appointment showed just how much Lee Charnley knows about football: not much and just a little bit more than Mike Ashley.
Comments welcome.
26 comments so far
Shoulders knees
Jun 10, 2019 at 1:51 PM
Comment #1Oh dear don’t remind us Ed
Jail for Ashley
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:00 PM
Comment #2Not the only one who described him as the perfect fit eh Jibbers, wink wink nudge nudge 😀
Bills Son Is Back
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:03 PM
Comment #3Schteve’s dutch accent was even worse than his management.
And zats schtaying schumshink.
Shadow_Shearer
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:08 PM
Comment #4Dare I even say it. Even Pardew was a better manager than him. And pardew was absolutely clueless.
RobLeenio
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:09 PM
Comment #5I remember (parts) of one night on the Reeperbahn in Hamburg. After several beers I started speaking English with a German accent, couldn’t stop. Really wierd. Woke up fine the next day.
Schteve had no such excuse, unless he’s perma-p!ssed.
I had a Scottish teacher for German and French lessons at school, I’ve been told I speak German like a Bavarian, which I don’t think is complimentary from Hamburgers (the folk, not the meat patty).
Posh_Geordie
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:11 PM
Comment #6I remember saying give him a chance. I guess I should not have been so optimistic about NUFC’s future 😉
Bobbybee
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:11 PM
Comment #7Wow Ed, traumatise us a second time why don’t you? 🙂
Hibbett from previous. Apparently other fans will call even those of us who’ve carried on going, ‘glory hunters’.
We can live with that though matey, I’m sure we’ve all been called worse – on this blog ffs!! But, as you say, well need to expand the ground to let the new glory hunters in. After all, we’ve all been living off the last 60 years of glory supporting Newcastle.
The lad’s right though, we will get abuse. Frankly, if it means success, abuse away you muppets!!
Bobbybee
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:13 PM
Comment #8Posh Geordie, you wanna know something? I say that to every manager who comes in. I’m desperate for them to shock us all and be a roaring success. Nobody can accuse us of pessimism eh? 🙂
Jail for Ashley
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:15 PM
Comment #9Shadow_Shearer,
To be fair to Steve he was better than Carver 😮
Bills Son Is Back
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:16 PM
Comment #10Schteve also had the knack of talking absolute crap whilst maintaining a look of studiousness and a voice resonating with total conviction.
No wonder he was so fluent in dutch.
lochinvar
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:19 PM
Comment #11McLaren was one of the worst ?
Then who was the worst ?
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Bobbybee
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:19 PM
Comment #12I still don’t want the new owners to buy a title of any sort. All I want – all I’ve ever wanted – is for NUFC to be run like a normal club, to show ambition and TRY to win something. Just give us the hope of competing with the top eight and keep improving every season because its being run properly. That’ll do me. A cup here and there won’t go amiss though. Just give a chance, that’s all.
The next Mike Williamson
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:22 PM
Comment #13Let’s pray we never have to put the fate of our club in the hands of Charnley/ Ashley again. If Ashley had appointed a knowledgeable footballing man at the beginning of his tenure to choose our managers we’d have never been relegated.
Jail for Ashley
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:24 PM
Comment #14Bill’s,
His coming out grinning like a deranged Orangutan after a five one thrashing was maddening, as though grinning and laughing about it showed he had everything in control. Why the foot they were determined to land a bloke who’s failure at another club hinged on him signing for us, he wouldn’t have come anywhere near us if he’d got Derby promoted.
The next Mike Williamson
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:25 PM
Comment #15I agree Bobby. I am glad to hear somebody else saying it. It looks like I’ve lost my 2nd club Gateshead this month, I just hope my main club doesn’t lose it’s soul. If we stick within the FFP I will be happy. But it will be difficult to catch up without cheating like Man City & PSG have. But the fact they have ignored the rules completely and not been punished opens the gates for other teams to do it.
jazzyp
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:25 PM
Comment #16Hyderabad: Dubai-based Bin Zayed Group will invest $2 billion in various infrastructure projects in Telangana with an MoU being signed between the state government and Bin Zayed International LLC in Dubai on Tuesday
Any body know what this group are worth if this takeover of fakeover goes ahead
RobLeenio
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:25 PM
Comment #17To be fair, the reason that the Man Citeh fans are called plastic is because of the wide expanses of vacant seats at Maine Rd when they were relegated. A more recent example of the same is the huge numbers of empty seats at the Emirates during the home leg of their Champions League Semi-Final vs Spurs.
This is an allegation that can’t be levelled against us. We bring in 30,000 plus for a League-Cup 1st round match midweek vs Blackpool in the p!ssing rain.
Posh_Geordie
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:26 PM
Comment #18A team that tries to win every cup every match and has the players and depth to actually have a change is what I’d love to see again. Oh and Rafa not Mourinho. Even though Sir Robson taught him everything he knows his behaviour has always put me off. Also he’s never won at St James Park so not a good record to start with haha.
Jail for Ashley
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:29 PM
Comment #19Bobby Moncur:Lee are you sure Schteve will sign for us he might get Derby promoted?
Lee Churnley: Nah, he’s useless, they’ll sack him and we won’t have to pay compo.
Bobby Moncur: Excellent idea Lee!
The next Mike Williamson
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:30 PM
Comment #201. Souness
2. McClaren
3. Dalglish
4. Pardew
5. Carver
6. JFK
Not much between them really. All about 0/10. Maybe Souness can get a -10/10 as it has taken us decades to recover as it did for most of his other teams
Bobbybee
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:31 PM
Comment #21Rob, we know that mate, but it won’t stop the name calling. Tbf, City always had a solid 35k support base, even in the third tier, but they still get dog’s abuse for being glory hunters.
I think they built the ground based on future support at City, rather than on what they can fill now. They’ll fill it over the next few years as genuine glory hunters pile onto their success.
Bambams
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:36 PM
Comment #22An appointment by Lee Charnley ……
Enough said
DubaiMicky
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:37 PM
Comment #23jazzyp, that was 2017 you know?
jazzyp
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:40 PM
Comment #24Dubai
Yeah I know mate ,But the question still remains the same. No body has yet stated any concrete evidence what he..Or the consortium are actually worth
DubaiMicky
Jun 10, 2019 at 2:50 PM
Comment #25Well if they could afford to put in $2billion 2 years ago, I would expect them to take back many, many times that over the next 25.
Rule of thumb guess? BZG has got to be worth $20bn+. (You don’t invest more than 10% in any project, and even 10% is pushing it).
WLtoon
Jun 10, 2019 at 5:03 PM
Comment #26I read that the BZG are worth 28 bilion, hope that helpsl