Steve McClaren has left the building!

Nicky Toon

Newcastle United manager Steve McClaren has officially been relieved of his duties as manager according to the club’s official website this morning.

With rumours floating around regarding McClaren’s imminent departure yesterday, it appears the club has finally put the ‘Wally with the brolly’ out of his misery by sacking him.

As per our story yesterday, Rafa Benitez is expected to take over his post at St James’ Park with just 10 Premier League games remaining to save our season. The Spaniard is reportedly in Tyneside as we speak thrashing out a deal with the powers that be at Newcastle with the club hoping to ‘present’ him as the new Magpies boss tomorrow.

Lee Charnley, Newcastle’s managing director said on nufc.co.uk: “I would like to thank Steve personally for his services to Newcastle United. He is a man of integrity and class and he has conducted himself with great dignity during this difficult time.

“Steve worked tirelessly to try and bring success to Newcastle United. He has the utmost respect of all the players, staff and management and he leaves with our very best wishes and sincere thanks.

 

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481 thoughts on “Steve McClaren has left the building!”

  1. Who knows if we’ll survive but we’ve certainly increased our chances with Rafa.
    Even if we went down and Rafa stays, I would still be positive as he will control transfers and we would see a change in Ashleys club structure which has been poor since he arrived.

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  2. Troy – he won’t be staying if we go down.
    I don’t even want to think about it.

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  3. Jail for Ash…I don’t think TDS has been on here for quite some time.

    The signs of change were there when Ashley went in front of the cameras last season, he followed that by splashing the cash, his mistake was leaving Penfold and Carr in charge of things and they fecked up. Hopefully their positions will be reviewed in the Summer. Whether the spending more cash and appointing Rafa is a well thought out plan or purely thru desperation maters not, I couldn’t give a **** how we got here only that at long last we have…let’s just hope it’s not too late. If we stay up then hopefully there will be good times ahead, there’ no way Rafa has signed without promises of big funds to rebuild, avoid the drop then happy days.

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  5. @Richie exactly

    It has signalled a total shift on how we are run. Rafa doesnt suffer fools so mike better keep to his word.

    Under previous managers they were promised players etc, given nowt and told to tell the camera they were very happy…

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  6. Richie, they will likely of promised the earth to get him to sign. Question is, if we survive will they stay true to their promises? If they have learned lessons they will but I do worry that if/once safe they will revert to type. If that happens and Rafa walked away we can expect someone like Moyes or Pearson to arrive.

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  8. lol kim I was thinking that.

    we survive, Mike pisses off Rafa, Rafa walks 😈

    We are too used to his ****. Hopefully this time! 😉 its different

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  9. We have to pray he keeps us up, cause there is no way he’ll stick around if we drop and this could end up being 10 weeks of joy cut very short. 🙁

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  10. Troy Clarky

    come on, admit it it, you werent joking about Clarky taking over the mighty toon? surely you were? 😯 😳 😛

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  11. Brilliant news for the toon. Raffa in !

    Should Charnley be commended or criticised ?
    Who has/had the final say at the end of the day ?

    Either way someone moved heaven and earth to get a massively successful manager to the toon and they should be commended for it.

    Only time will show if it’s too little too late.

    Fasten your seatbelts, it’s going to be a bumpy few months, but thank goodness we seem to be behaving like a serious sporting institution after years of bumbling mediocracy…

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  13. Gashley, That’s the thing though mate. I am believe it or not naturally a very optimistic person, but the clubs antics have really worn me down over the years; to the point where if I was smacked in the face with good news I can’t enjoy it. Always waiting for the milk to sour with Jabba at the helm, he shafted KK, and won’t think twice about doing it to Rafa.

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  14. @MM

    he should be praised for getting Rafa in but questions should be asked why so late. Before or straight after the chelsea game would of increased our chances of survival.

    We could end up with Pearson after the 10games are played

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  15. MM, Apparently the club used an intermediary to broker the deal for Rafa, not Lee. Rafa only met Lee to sign the contract, says it all.

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  16. haha Kim. I think every toon fan has been bitten too many times by Fatty.

    I won’t hold by breath but I believe in giving everyone a 2nd, 3rd 4th chance 😀

    it certainly feels a lot sunnier up here in Ncle today, looking forward to the Mackem game

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  17. At the end of the day whereas I’m absolutely chuffed that Raffa has come in, it’s obvious that he has done the rounds, seen it and done it in England, Spain and Italy…so is looking for the next move. Where could he have gone next ? He’s done all the big clubs, and the are a series of younger dynamic managers arriving on the scene who will stitch up the big jobs in the future…Pep, Klopp, Potchetino, Pardew, Lee Clark…

    Ditto Mourinho…. if Man U give him the rubber ear where is he likely to end up ?

    we’ve done well to get Raffa … the best of the available managers…

    Next great white hope on the horizon is the Dortmund manager Thomas Tuchel. He’s gonna be excellent, coming to the toon would have derailed his career… smart move by the bloke..

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  18. Gashley, where there are gazillions of pounds involved, and a myriad of contractual issues to take care of, things probably took a while to tie up at the toon end. Maybe things have been going on in the background after all ?

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  19. Kimtoon, it tends to make you wonder who actually has the finger on the pulse at the toon ?

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  20. Rafa will be gone in 10 games… our lads don’t have it in em for us to stay up… gutless ******!

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  21. If we stay up, and we now have decent shout, then it will be interesting to see how much influence ‘Rafa the Gaffa’ has. He is certainly the first manager since SBR that I would trust the club with. In defence of Lee Charnley, unlike his predecessor he has managed to buy players and now a manager. So whilst he may not be the best he is at least a step up. I don’t think he is the problem, he needs to be told what to do, but he looks like he can do what he is told.

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  22. All we need now is the new numbering system to be added to the blog, plus a reintroduction of the “reply” button and it will have been a great few days.

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  23. MM, The pulse was fading fast mate, hopefully we’ve acquired a heart surgeon to fix it 😉 🙂

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  24. @MM

    Ive been kinda patient since the rumours started last sat. a little frustrated but understood we were changing mikes philosophy.

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  26. Prem, I hate to say it and be a damp squib, but I can see a few run in’s between Rafa and the club should we stay up.
    On the players, I guess we will now see how much was down to Steve and how much was the players. Steve was out of his depth of that there is no doubt but I still maintain that some of those players were not putting any effort in on the pitch. A situation somewhat like we saw with Chelsea, lets hope our recovery is similar to theirs as well.

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  28. Eminem and Gash, Doesn’t matter how many ways you try and polish a turd, it is still a turd.. even if I am proven to be wrong with this, I will simply do what a few others on here do and gloat about being right about the total opposite of what I have been saying all along! 😎

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  29. Will all those who said we will do no better than Pardew under this regime, please stand up and say aye!

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  30. @Aussie.

    I always believed we could do better. even when we signed SM it reinforced my belief that Mike would get even more **** thrown at him resulting in drastic changes.

    I never buckled under Troys constant harassment and gloating that he’s been telling us all forever that we were totally clueless ..but long live the memory of Troy calling for Clarky .. comedy gold
    AHDMIU (and he didnt make it up)

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  31. @Aussie. this is where Troy goes quiet for a week. 😛

    Seriously. imagine the feeling we’d have now going into the game v Leicester with Clarky at the helm 😛 😛 😛

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  33. The NUFCtv interview with Rafa is a good watch, comes across as genuinely confident in staying up, not just saying what e knows needs to be said.
    If he can get that rubbed off onto the players then we can at least believe rather than just hope.
    2.5 days with the players is not a lot of time to instill a new state of mind or tactical approach though, what we really need to see at Leicester is a marked improvement in both, regardless of the eventual score, to give us some belief going into the derby.
    Would be great to nick a point, but heads need to not drop if we lose, the following 2 games are far more important really.
    Ironically, appointing Rafa has just made the repercussions of relegation that much more severe.
    All we had to look forward to before was yet another dreary relegation battle, the potential for something more Leicester-esque is now looming.

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  34. Training again today and tomorrow and all next week. Reckon we should be able to see some improvement for the derby.

    As for Leicester, it will need to be new manager bounce I think as I doubt he will get us tactically drilled for then.

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  35. @Aussie

    the polished turd point

    Rafa will get more out of the players than SM. If they don’t perform then he will drop them.
    He won’t make mistakes in his selection like McClaren did.

    Our squad isnt ****, its just not playing to its true ability

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  38. Gash, hope you are right mate… not right like Troy and co, really right.. :mrgreen:

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  39. Staying up is now huge. Before this appointment I did not care if we stayed or dropped – because we would have still had the same **** structure with a **** manager. Now we have a top manager with the prospect of a proper management system. No amateurs controlling the footy side of things..

    If we drop, it could well be back to square one. Stay and we could really push on. This is a massive 10 games now and the Derby is the biggest game we have had in years.

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  40. Just going through the remaining fixtures is giving me a lot more confidence.
    I can see Palace and Swans getting dragged back into it, I can see Norwich really struggling.
    We could potentially be out of the bottom 3 after the derby.
    Maybe getting carried away, but I can see where Rafa’s belief is justified.

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  42. AMF you’re not far wrong with your polishing issues mate..
    I think some of the signings we made came with a pair of matching fluffy donkeys ears… Raffa will spar wide of these players cos he needs points and pdq..
    He’s gonna need a job lot of Michael Owen “bench warmer” blankets for next season cos there will be a few of the toon wasters not getting a sniff… burning a hole in Mike Ashleys wallet…

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  43. Sham, welcome back mate.
    Wuz wondering where you were with all the excitement of the last hours and days…

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  44. Spot on Eminem… Sissoko would be the first head up **** waster that I would bench… he needs it and it would send a message to the other premidonna’s!

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  45. @Stuart79 a pity we signed three Dutchmen when Holland have one of the poorest squads in decades, and one of ours cannot even make the squad…
    can see more Spanish and/or Italians coming in when we stay up. Raffa must know these markets like the back of his hand..

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  46. Shamrock, I have written an article, do I send it to you or the new guys to check /decide if ok. ?

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  47. mm, Stevie G said in his book that Rafa likes South American players best, he also said he was best tactician he worked under but a frosty bloke.

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  48. South Americans, Italians, Spaniards – don’t mind the sound of that, even with our fine record of Frenchies, and Dutch No10s 😮

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  50. I just hope Rafa realises that you can sign defenders – coz the nuggets before him didn’t seem to!!.

    CB, LB and another winger is what I want to see come in.
    If we get rid of Cisse & Riviere, then I’d like to see another forward come in too, but I want to see us introducing Armstrong to the first team next season too.

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  51. Aussie, Stevie g said he liked him very much but he was the only ex POOL manager he couldn’t pick up the phone for a chat too. He said he was always wanting to get a compliment from him and it drove him to try ever harder in his game. He said Rafa had nicknames or shortened names for a lot of players but that he was always referred to as Gerrard by him.

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  52. Did anyone happen to see Oliver Bernard getting interviewed on SSN yesterday? – he’s the most Geordie French man in the world!!!! 😆 😆

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  54. Kim, I’m actually happy to hear that Rafa won’t be blowing wind up out wasters.. they deserve **** all as things stand…

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  55. Cheers MM . I have been around but working funny shifts .

    Kim, send it to me and I’ll publish it by 2ish 🙂

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  57. Aussie agree mate, They need some tough love I reckon, none of this arm around the shoulders malarkey, we gone way past that stage.

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  60. amf – dead right the mate… but at the end of the day, rather **** english players than **** aussie players ???

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  63. Eminem 😯
    We realise our lot in the football world.. that’s the difference. You English still believe that you may actually be half decent.. 😆

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  64. Kim – our lass wouldn’t believe he was French 😆
    It was like some kind of voice over thing.

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