Steve McClaren has spoken out on his time as manager of Newcastle United, suggesting that he wanted to be “king” of St. James’ Park.
The former England manager took the helm on Tyneside between June 2015 and March 2016, and has claimed that he wanted to manage the Magpies based on the advice of Sir Bobby Robson.
As quoted in the Chronicle, he said: “I always want to manage Newcastle United football club because I’ve been in that area, and I knew how big it was.
“I knew if anyone got it right, as Sir Bobby always told me, you’ll be the king. That’s what I wanted.
“It was a gamble, it was a big risk – but high risk, high reward. I suppose that’s been me [throughout] my career; but not just high risk, high reward, also hard fought. And that’s what happened.”
OPINION
McClaren’s comments might come as a source of some amusement for Newcastle United fans, who will look back on his time in charge as one of the most ineffectual spells of management that thy have had to endure in recent times. That really is saying something given the maelstrom of disappointment they have put up with at St. James’ Park in the last decade or so, but ultimately, it’s probably a fairly fair assessment of a fleeting spell at the helm that limped along with the intensity and intent of an ageing house cat. McClaren evidently had big plans for his time on Tyneside, but he never even came close to recognising them, and his dismissal, less than a year after he signed a three year deal, was really quite inevitable. You can’t help feeling with McClaren that the early successes of his career have helped to paper over an awful lot of cracks, and for every Middlesbrough and FC Twente, there has been an England or a Newcastle. Most worrying of all, however, is that you get the impression that he really backs his own ability. There’s nothing wrong with a little self-belief, but delusion can be dangerous, and it could have proved disastrous for Newcastle had he been allowed to stay on as head coach.
