Newcastle appoint Steve McClaren

NEWCASTLE  have named Steve McClaren as their new Head Coach.

Steve McClaren Newcastle Head Coach

McClaren who was sacked by Championship side Derby last month returns to the Premier League after a 9 year absence. 

McClaren has singed a 3 year deal with the option of a further 5 years. McClaren is the formal successor of Alan Pardew as John Carver was put caretaker charge from January. 

McClaren joins a side that survived relegation to the Championship on the final day after beating West Ham 2-0. 

McClaren started his career as an assistant at Derby before moving to Manchester United where he was number 2 to Sir Alex Fegurson in his first season United won the the treble. In 2001 he took over as manager of Middlesbrough. 

During his first two seasons at Boro they finished 12th and 7th in the Premier League. They won the League Cup and reached the last 16 of the Uefa Cup.

In January 2006 Sven Goran Eriksson announced that he would leave his post as England manager after the 2006 World Cup. McClaren was appointed as his successor and stood up from assistant manager to Head Coach. McClaren's first decision as Head Coach of England was to appoint a new captain  he chose John Terry. 

England made a good start to Euro 2008 qualification starting with two wins but then hit a poor run of form and scored just 1 goal in 5 matches. England then went away to Andorra and won 3-0. During this game McClaren and the players were subject to abuse from the fans after a poor performance. McClaren then walked out of the press conference after just two minutes saying "Gentlemen, if you want to write whatever you want to write you can write it because thats all I am going to say. Thank You." 

McClaren in last game as England Boss

In May 2007 after Beckham's recall to the England side they went on to win 4 of their next 6 matches which boosted hopes to qualifying for Euro 2008. England then lost to Russia in October 2007 which put the fate qualification out of their hands. McClaren was backed by players and the FA as well as Eriksson despite the defeat. 

The results of other matches meant England could only finish 2nd at best if they avoided defeat in the final group game against Croatia who had already qualified as group winners. The match was played at Wembley in November of 2007 England lost the game 3-2 and Russia beat Andorra which meant that England would finish 3rd in the group and miss out on Euro 2008. 

The next day (November 22nd) saw McClaren sacked as England Head Coach his reign is the shortest of any England manager to date. 

McClaren as Twente won the Dutch title

In May 2008 McClaren took over as manager of Dutch side FC Twente In first season he led them to a 2nd place finish in 2nd season Twente won their first ever Dutch title. Despite winning the title McClaren left to take over at German side Wolfsburg where he was sacked half way through his first season.

After a spell out of football he was named as the new manager of Championship side Nottingham Forest however after 10 games he resigned. He then returned to FC Twente but didn't last long and resigned saying the club was too close to its heart to halt its progress. 

McClaren comforts Derby's Keogh after Play-Off Final defeat to QPR

After a 2 year break McClaren was appointed as the new Head Coach of championship side Derby where he was a player. Under McClaren Derby became the in form side and narrowly missed out on automatic promotion. They lost the play-off final after Bobby Zamora's 89th minute winner. This season Derby missed out on the play-offs all together after winning 2 of their last 13 games. 

Since January McClaren had been heavily linked with the Newcastle job following Alan Pardew's departure to Crystal Palace. According to the Derby board this hampered Derby's end to the season and he was sacked on the 25th May.