Opinion

Newcastle turned down chance to talk to Frank de Boer and Michael Laudrup – Reports

Incredibly, Newcastle United turned down the chance to talk to both Frank de Boer and Michael Laudrup.

The pair were both interested in the Newcastle job and wanted to talk to the club about the job of manager/head coach.

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According to Mark Douglas though at the Chronicle, Newcastle ignored that interest from de Boer and Laudrup, because they wanted Steve McClaren.

Mark Douglas;

‘Michael Laudrup wanted to talk, and so did Frank de Boer.

For a couple of days last week, Patrick Vieira was open to the idea…There had been others, too.

With Remi Garde it went as far as the interview process while Christophe Galtier and Jocelyn Gourvennec, two of France’s brightest young managerial talents, would have been amenable.

Yet Newcastle took a head count of these candidates – one of two of whom might have had a seriously transformative impact on the club – and went, instead, for Steve McClaren.’

Since the club and NCJ kissed and made up during last season, the Chronicle has once again been the preferred route for the club to get out to the public both their information of what’s going on as well as the propaganda, so when Mark Douglas relates the club decision making, you have to take it at face value.

If so it leaves an extraordinary picture of the workings of Newcastle United and leaves Mike Ashley and the club open to massive criticism, if Steve McClaren is indeed appointed this coming week andit ends up going pear-shaped.

Critics of the decision to seemingly go with McClaren, see the appointment as more of the same, a manager with a similar profile to Alan Pardew and according to reports, accepting of taking on the same structure the now Palace boss worked under.

The same coaching staff, the same little/no say on transfers in or out and no guarantee of realistic funds to turn the team/squad around.

It would have been very hard to see any of the candidates, including (especially?) de Boer and Laudrup being prepared to accept those conditions.

So for Steve McClaren, I don’t think it is necessarily his past track record that he has to overcome when proving to fans that he is the right man for the Newcastle job, it is more to do with his credibility of showing that he is his own man and will do things differently to the likes of Carver and Pardew.

A recent poll on this very website showed massive support for Steve McClaren bringing in his own coaching staff, and that first step would go some way to making a decent number of Newcastle fans think twice, as to whether we are just in for more of the same from the former England and Boro boss.