Ruud Gullit had a massive ego and a bit like Gordon Lee and Malcolm Macdonald in the 1970s, Gullit didn’t see eye to eye with Newcastle United’s star man, this time Alan Shearer. Newcastle finished runners-up again to Manchester United and qualified for the Champions League.ĭalglish then went about systematically breaking up the fine side Keegan had assembled.Ī team that was almost unrecognisable from a year beforehand, somehow stumbled to the 1998 FA Cup final where we were beaten by double winners Arsenal.Īfter a dismal start to the 1998/99 campaign the unpopular Dalglish was sacked. When Kenny Dalglish arrived, he proclaimed that he had taken over a fine team from his predecessor. In early 1997 it had been decided that Newcastle United would be joining the stock market as a PLC and it was at this point that Kevin Keegan handed in his resignation to send the whole of Tyneside into mourning. Keegan and his team then produced a miracle, winning both to avoid relegation in a dramatic finale. We then went on a calamitous run heading into the last two games of the season against promotion chasing Portsmouth and Leicester City. By the end of March, Newcastle were still hovering around the Second Division relegation zone, but had been buoyed by a derby win against Sunderland. Keegan immediately got off to a winning start and form picked up. Sir John Hall gambled everything when he appointed Kevin Keegan to replace Ossie Ardiles. Now in this second part, we follow on after Ossie…. Splitting this into three articles, on Thursday it was Joe Harvey through to Ossie Ardiles (You can read that HERE). I have contemplated these conundrums and decided that it was only fair I judged Newcastle United Managers within my lifetime, concluding with giving each a mark out of ten.

Recently I have seen various comments about who actually are our worst and best ever managers The subject of Newcastle United Managers is always one to provoke a decent debate…

Winning eleven 2005