2005-06 record
League 7th
FA Cup Quarter-finals
Carling Cup 4th round
HAVING LIFTED HIS TEAM FROM DESPAIR to jubilation last season, Glenn Roeder’s onerous task at Newcastle United is to ensure that the Barclays Premiership’s most volatile club embrace stability. Potential pitfalls litter his path, from Newcastle’s institutionalised capacity for selfdestruction, a support whose yearning for success borders on desperation and the need to replace Alan Shearer.
With Shearer retired and Michael Owen unlikely to make more than a cameo appearance next spring, goals and strikers prey heavily on the mind at St James’ Park; until replacements are secured, judgment is suspended, but, in Shearer, Newcastle have lost a forward, a captain, a figurehead and the heartbeat of the side he routinely dragged away from defeat. Newcastle will be a lesser draw without him, but provided Roeder’s acquisitions are sound — Obafemi Martins, of Inter Milan, heads Dirk Kuyt on the manager’s list of targets — a period of quiet rebuilding would be welcome. Reaching the first round proper of the Uefa Cup would ensure, contrary to recent history, that the club do not enter the campaign in a state of flux.
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“I believe you should have goals, but they have to be achievable,” Roeder said. “The first goal will be to get more points than the 58 we ended with last season. We want to improve on seventh place and our points total — and that is not an easy goal. But the longer-term target is to break into the top four. They’re not untouchables.”
He describes Newcastle’s failure to win a domestic trophy since 1955 as “ridiculous”. Their strength will lie in midfield, particularly if Thomas Gravesen is prised away from Real Madrid. Signing Damien Duff, for only £5 million was a masterstroke and, in Scott Parker, Emre Belözoglu, Nolberto Solano, Charles N’Zogbia, James Milner, Nicky Butt and the injury-blighted Kieron Dyer — possibly — Roeder should have enough options to cover most eventualities.
Elsewhere, there are concerns. Centre half will be a weakness while Titus Bramble is prone to lapses in concentration, Celestine Babayaro should be supplanted by Wayne Bridge at left back and midfield riches will be inconsequential without something to aim for in attack. It remains to be seen whether Roeder has the numbers to deal with the strains of four competitions.
The expertise of Shearer, in an ambassadorial role, will be called upon and he will visit the training ground this week. “His involvement this year is loose, but I don’t want to think that when he hasn’t got any work, he won’t come into the training ground,” Roeder said. “He is a really good man to have around. For past managers to say he is too big for the club is nonsense.”
Manager Although Roeder performed heroics by steering Newcastle to seventh last season, he did the same in his first season at West Ham United, only to be shown the door a year later. The club’s sixth manager in nine years must prove himself quickly
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Player to watch Like Duff, his former teammate at Chelsea, Scott Parker, is hungry to recapture the form that he lost at Stamford Bridge. One of the few shining lights in an otherwise gloomy season for Newcastle, the midfielder was outstanding before he was sidelined by glandular fever in March, and has been rewarded with the captain’s armband this season
In an ideal world They would win their first domestic trophy in more than half a century and qualify for the Champions League, where they say they belong. Winning silverware is realistic, but displacing Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool or Arsenal from one of the top four places will take Roeder longer than just a single season at the helm
INJURIES AND SUSPENSIONS
Kieron Dyer (hamstring, one month), Michael Owen (knee, six months)
PRE-SEASON
Very quiet until the arrival of Damien Duff gave everyone on Tyneside something to shout about. Qualification for the Uefa Cup via the Intertoto Cup was a welcome bonus
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TICKET SALES
St James’ Park remains as popular as ever. All 44,000 season tickets have gone, while the remaining tickets available on general sale go like hot cakes
If they were a historical figure they would be...Charlie Chaplin
Seemingly funny at first glance, but shown up as rather sad and insecure underneath