Newcastle United F.C.

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For the Australian club, see Newcastle United Jets FC.

Newcastle United

Full name

Newcastle United Football Club

Nickname(s)

The Magpies, The Toon

Founded

1881 (as Stanley AFC, later Newcastle East End)

Ground

St. James' Park
Newcastle upon Tyne
England
(Capacity 52,387)

Owner

Chairman

Manager

League

Premier League, 12th





Home colours





Away colours

Current season

Newcastle United Football Club (also known as The Magpies or The Toon) is an English football club based in Newcastle upon Tyne, who currently play in the Premier League. The club was founded in 1892 after the merger of two local clubs, Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End. Since their founding year, the club have played at their home ground of St. James' Park.

They have won the First Division Championship four times and the FA Cup six times, though their league success was achieved before the Second World War. In European competition the most notable honour the club has won is the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, in 1969.

They have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with local team Sunderland. The Tyne-Wear derby between Newcastle United and Sunderland has been played since 1898. The club's traditional kit colours are black and white striped shirts, with black shorts and socks. Supporters of Newcastle United refer to themselves as the Toon Army.

[edit] History

For more details on this topic, see History of Newcastle United F.C..

The club was founded in December 1892 by the merger of two local teams Newcastle East End and Newcastle West End who were previously rivals in the Northern League, but after West End fell into financial difficulties they decided to merge.^[1] The deal included the lease on West End's stadium St. James' Park and several names were suggested for the new club, including Newcastle Rangers and Newcastle City, however they chose the name Newcastle United.^[2]

Newcastle competing against Woolwich Arsenal in 1906.

Newcastle United went on to win the League Championship on three occasions during the 1900s; 1905, 1907 and 1909.^[3] The club's success continued in cup competitions, as they reached five FA Cup Finals in seven years, appearing in the final of 1905, 1906, 1908, 1910 and 1911. However they went on to win just one of them, the 1910 Final against Barnsley, in a replay at Goodison Park. However, there was still one particular low point during this period, as the team suffered a 9–1 defeat by fierce rivals Sunderland in the 1908–09 season. Sunderland still count the result as their record highest win.^{[citation needed]}

After World War I, they won the League a fourth time during 1927.^{[citation needed]} The team returned to the FA Cup final in 1924, in only their second ever final at Wembley Stadium. They were successful in defeating Aston Villa and therefore winning the club's second FA Cup trophy in its history. Notable players during this period include the likes of prolific goal scorer and captain Hughie Gallacher, Neil Harris, Stan Seymour and Frank Hudspeth.

During the 1950s, United won the FA Cup trophy on three occasions within a five year period. In 1951 they defeated Blackpool 2–0, a year later Arsenal were beaten 1–0 and in 1955 United defeated Manchester City 3–1. Newcastle had gained a high profile, and so had their players; 'Wor Jackie' Milburn and Bobby 'Dazzler' Mitchell in particular.^{[citation needed]}

The old war horse Joe Harvey, who had captained the team to much of their post-war success, returned to revitalise Newcastle. He teamed up with Stan Seymour to rebuild Newcastle United and they won the Second Division Champions in 1965. Newcastle then became very much an unpredictable and inconsistent team, always capable of defeating the best, but never quite realising their potential.

Wyn Davies with Newcastle's 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup

Joe Harvey's team qualified for Europe for the first time in 1968 and surprised many the following year by winning the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, (which was the forerunner of the UEFA Cup), beating Sporting Lisbon, Feyenoord, Real Zaragoza and Rangers along the way, before triumphing over two legs against Hungary's Újpest FC in the final. United possessed a reliable team and Newcastle's tradition of fielding a popular goalscorer at number 9 continued, as Welshman Wyn Davies was prominent.

In the years that followed European success, manager Harvey brought in a string of talented entertainers who thrilled the Newcastle crowd. Players such as Jimmy Smith, Tony Green, Terry Hibbitt and in particular striker Malcolm Macdonald all became favorites among the supporters. Nicknamed 'Supermac', Malcolm Macdonald was one of United's most popular figures and is still held in high regard by supporters to this day. He was an impressive goal scorer, which led United's attack to Wembley twice, in 1974 and 1976, against Liverpool in the FA Cup and Manchester City in the League Cup. But on each occasion Newcastle failed to bring the trophy back to Tyneside. A small consolation was back to back triumphs in the Texaco Cup in 1974 and 1975.

By the start of the 1980s, United had declined dramatically and were languishing in the Second Division. Gordon Lee had replaced Harvey as boss, yet he in turn soon gave way to Richard Dinnis and then Bill McGarry. But it was Arthur Cox who steered United back again to the First Division with ex-England captain Kevin Keegan the focus of the team, having joined the club in 1982. With managers such as Jack Charlton, Willie McFaul and Jim Smith, Newcastle remained in the top-flight until the team was relegated once more in 1989.

Later, Kevin Keegan returned to Tyneside to replace Osvaldo Ardiles as manager on a short term contract in 1992, taking what he claimed to be the only job that could tempt him back into football. United were struggling at the wrong end of Division Two; Sir John Hall had all but taken control of the club and he needed a minor miracle to stop Newcastle from tumbling into the Third Division for the first time in their history. Survival was confirmed by winning both of their final two league games, at home to Portsmouth and away to Leicester City, the latter to a last minute own goal, although as it transpired, Newcastle would have survived even if they had lost at Leicester .

The 1992–93 season saw a dramatic turn around in the club's fortunes. They won their first eleven league games before a 1–0 home defeat against Grimsby Town ended the run, two games short of the English league record of 13 consecutive wins. Playing an exciting brand of attacking football Newcastle became Division One champions with a 2–0 away win, coincidentally at Grimsby, and gained promotion to the Premier League.

Under Keegan, Newcastle continued to succeed, impressing with their attacking flair and a third place finish during the 1993–94 season, this was their first season back in the top flight. The attacking philosophy of Keegan led to Newcastle becoming labelled by Sky television as "The Entertainers". The following season Newcastle sold top scorer Andy Cole to Manchester United and finished 6th that season.

With the transfer money in 1995–96, Newcastle rebuilt with the signing of David Ginola and Les Ferdinand amongst others. The club came very close to winning the Premier League that season, and were at one time 12 points ahead of nearest rivals Manchester United, but eventually lost out. One match in particular from that season stood out, the 4–3 defeat to Liverpool, which has since been described as the greatest ever Premiership match.^[4] On 30 July 1996, the disappointment of missing out on the title was lessened to an extent, as the club signed Alan Shearer for a then world record fee of £15 million. The 1996–97 season saw Newcastle once again finish in second. After short and unsuccessful spells as manager from Kenny Dalglish and Ruud Gullit, former England manager Sir Bobby Robson was appointed as manager. His first home game in charge was particularly impressive; it was an 8–0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday, which remains the club's record home win.^[5] Good performances such as these helped the club ensure survival in the Premiership in Robson's first season. A title challenge emerged during the 2001–02 season, and Newcastle achieved qualification for the Champions League after finishing in 4th place. However, Robson was fired in 2004 after failing to qualify for the Champions League. Robson is still held in high regard by Newcastle supporters.^[6]

Graeme Souness was his replacement, but he proved to be an unpopular choice being fired on 2 February 2006, despite signing Michael Owen for a record £16 million. Glenn Roeder replaced Souness; the game after his time as manager Alan Shearer overtook Jackie Milburn as the club's highest ever goal-scorer. Shearer retired at the end of the 2005–06 season, with a total of 206 goals for the club. Despite finishing the 2005-06 season well, Roeder's fortunes quickly changed in the 2006-07 season, and he left the club by mutual consent on 6 May 2007. Sam Allardyce was named as Roeder's successor on 15 May, with what proved to be Freddy Shepherd's last act as Chairman, who sold his final shares in the club on 7 June to Mike Ashley. Despite making a promising start to the season Sam Allardyce left the club on 9 January 2008 by mutual consent after less than eight months in charge. It was confirmed on 16 January 2008 that Kevin Keegan would return to Newcastle as manager, eleven years and eight days since leaving the club on 8 January 1997. A popular choice amongst many Newcastle Fans^[7] Further appointments in January 2008 have seen Dennis Wise join the club as Executive Director (Football), as well as Tony Jimenez as Vice President (Player Recruitment) and Jeff Vetere as Technical Co-ordinator.^[8]

[edit] Badge

Newcastle United crest: 1983—1988.

The first club badge which Newcastle United wore on their shirts was the armorial bearings of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne which was worn as standard from 1969—1976, though it had been worn on previous occasions far earlier especially in FA Cup finals.^[9] A scroll at the bottom featured the city's motto in Latin; fortiter defendit triumphans which translates into English as, "triumphing by brave defence".^[10]

From 1976—1983 the club wore a specific badge which was developed to wear in place of the city's coat of arms. The design was of a circular shape which featured the club's name in full, it contained a magpie standing in front of the River Tyne with the historic Norman castle of Newcastle in the background.^[11] A more simplistic design followed in 1983, featuring the initials of the club's name, NUFC with the small magpie used in the previous crest within the horizontally laid C, this logo was relatively short lived and was discontinued after 1988.^[11]

From 1988 onwards, the club has assumed a pseudo coat of arms representing a reversion to a more traditional design and takes elements from the city arms.^[12] The current design is black with two white pallets, echoing the club's home strip. The supporters have been taken from the city arms. The crest is slightly modified from the city's with a red pennon with a red St George's cross on a blue chief.

[edit] Colours

Newcastle United's original colours

Newcastle United's third-choice kit for 2007–08

For much of Newcastle United's history, their home colours have been black and white striped shirts, with black shorts and black socks, though white socks are sometimes worn under some managers who consider them "lucky".^[13] For the first two years of the club's existence United continued to wear the home kit of East End, which included red shirts, white shorts and black socks; this was changed to the more familiar black and white striped kit in 1894.^[14] The new colours were adopted because many clubs in the same division as Newcastle also wore red and frequently clashed, including Liverpool and Woolwich Arsenal.^[14]

Conversely, United's change or away colours have been very inconsistent, there is no set in stone standard and the club changes the away colours often, but most commonly it has been a shade of blue (since the 1990s) or yellow.^[15] The yellow kit was especially common throughout the 1970s and 1980s and featured a green or blue trim, depending on the season; a yellow and green striped away kit even appeared in 1988—1990. Other common change colours have been grey, all black, all white and green.^[15] The most unusual away kit was likely the maroon and navy blue horizontal hoop colours from the 1995–96 and 2006–07 seasons, it was a tribute to West End.^[15]

[edit] Shirt sponsors and manufacturers

Period	Kit manufacturer	Shirt sponsor
1976–1979	Bukta	None
1980–1986	Umbro	Scottish & Newcastle
1986–1991		Greenall's
1991–1993		Scottish & Newcastle / McEwan's
1993–1995	Asics	Scottish & Newcastle / McEwan's
1995–2000	Adidas	Newcastle Brown Ale (Scottish & Newcastle)
2000–2003		NTL
2003–		Northern Rock

[edit] Stadium

Main article: St James' Park

St. James' Park in 2007, looking at the Leazes End (officially the Sir John Hall Stand)

Newcastle's home stadium is St James' Park, which has been their home since the merger of East End and West End in 1891, though football was first played there in 1880. At the turn of the 20th century the ground could hold 30,000, but this was soon expanded to 60,000.^[16] However, the ground was altered little in the next 70 years, and by the 1980s was looking dated.

The Bradford fire in 1985 prompted renovation, but progress was slow due to financial difficulties. The takeover of the club by Sir John Hall in 1992 resolved these difficulties, and the stadium was redeveloped to comply with the Taylor Report. In the mid-1990s, the club wished to build a new ground in the nearby Leazes Park, however these plans were quashed. In response to this, the club expanded St. James' Park further. Following the completion of the construction in 2000, St James' Park became the club ground with the second highest capacity in England with 52,387 seats,^[17] behind Manchester United's Old Trafford. It later became the third highest capacity after the completion of Arsenal's Emirates Stadium.

Two stands, the Sir John Hall stand and the Milburn stand, have two tiers and are of cantilever construction, whereas the East Stand and the Gallowgate End are roughly half as high, and each have a single tier. This can make the stadium look quite lopsided. The Gallowgate End is traditionally home to Newcastle's most vociferous supporters, as it was once the stand with no roof covering. In recent years, a fan based group named Toon Ultras has began to assemble in Level 7 of the Sir John Hall Stand to attempt to "Bring Back The Noise" which supporters feel was lost when the club expanded the stadium and split fans to cater for executive boxes.

It was announced on 2 April 2007 that the club intend to submit plans for a new £300 million development that would increase the stadium's capacity to at least 60,000.^[18]

[edit] Supporters

Supporters at St. James' Park, 2007

Newcastle have a large fanbase and had the third highest average attendance (50,686) in the English Premier League for the 2006-07 season,^[19] although in terms of percentage of stadium capacity, Newcastle were tenth in the Premier League with 96.7%.^[20] In terms of all-time, Newcastle have the seventh highest average attendance of Football League clubs in England.^[21] Please note that some pre-war attendance figures used by this source were estimates and may not be entirely accurate. Newcastle's supporters have been described as a passionate set of fans^[22] and were found to be the most dedicated in the country in a 2007 survey.^[23]

They are often referred to as the Toon Army, the Magpies, or the Geordies. The name Toon originates from the Geordie pronunciation of town.^[24] Magpies refers to the black and white colours of the club, similar to the Magpie bird. Geordie is a regional nickname for people from Newcastle, of debated origin, which is often applied in the media to supporters of NUFC in general.

The club is based in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne and is the only major club in the city; within England itself, the club's most prominent fanbase is from the North East down to and including Yorkshire.^[25] In recent times, where other clubs have attracted fanbases from all around the world, Newcastle's fanbase is still mostly within Britain, with a percentage from other parts of the world, particularly Scandinavia,^[26] North America^[27] and Australia.^[28]

Like all major English football clubs, Newcastle has a number of domestic supporters' clubs. The club's supporters publish fanzines such as True Faith and The Mag. In addition to the usual English football chants, Newcastle's supporters sing the traditional Tyneside song Blaydon Races.^[29]

Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair is known to be a keen supporter of Newcastle, as well as Sir Frank Williams, founder and manager of the WilliamsF1 Formula One Team, Also Auf Wiedersehen Pet Star Jimmy Nail is a big Newcastle supporter, including Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers.

Newcastle's longest-running and deepest rivalry is with their nearest major neighbour, Sunderland, colloquially known as the Mackems. Matches between the two are referred to as the Tyne-Wear derby. Newcastle also have a smaller, lesser rivalry with Middlesbrough, with whom they contest the Tyne-Tees derby.^[30]

[edit] Statistics and records

For more details on this topic, see Newcastle United F.C. records.

Jimmy Lawrence holds the record for the most Newcastle appearances, having played 496 first-team matches between 1904 and 1921 as a goalkeeper.^[31] Former captain and left back Frank Hudspeth comes second, having appeared 472 times and scoring on 37 occasions.

Alan Shearer is the club's top goalscorer with 206 goals in all competitions between 1996 and 2006^[32] having surpassed Jackie Milburn's tally of 200 in February 2006. Milburn had held the record since 1957, his striking partner Len White is the third highest scorer at Newcastle with 153 goals. Albert Stubbins could be Newcastle's all time leading goal scorer but his goals are not counted as the majority were scored during World War II.^[33]

Newcastle's record home attendance is 68,386, against Chelsea on 3 September 1930.^[34] The capacity of St James' Park is currently 52,387,^[17] so it is unlikely that these records will be broken in the foreseeable future. The highest attendance in the Premier League is 52,327, in a match against Manchester United on 28 August, 2005.^[34]

[edit] Players

[edit] Current squad

As of 1 June 2008.^[35]

No.	Position	Player
1	GK	Shay Given
3	DF	José Enrique
6	DF	Caçapa
9	FW	Obafemi Martins
10	FW	Michael Owen (captain)
11	MF	Damien Duff
13	GK	Steve Harper
14	MF	Charles N'Zogbia
16	MF	James Milner
17	MF	Alan Smith
20	MF	Geremi

No.	Position	Player
21	DF	Habib Beye
22	MF	Nicky Butt
23	FW	Shola Ameobi
25	DF	Abdoulaye Faye
27	DF	Steven Taylor
30	DF	David Edgar
34	GK	Fraser Forster
35	DF	Ben Tozer
36	FW	Mark Viduka
38	MF	Kazenga LuaLua
40	GK	Tim Krul

[edit] In

No.		Position	Player

[edit] Out

No.	Position	Player
2	DF	Stephen Carr
4	DF	David Rozehnal
5	MF	Emre Belözoğlu
15	DF	Lamine Diatta
26	DF	Peter Ramage
37	MF	James Troisi

[edit] Reserves

See Newcastle United F.C. Reserves.

[edit] Notable players

For more details on this topic, see List of Newcastle United F.C. players.

[edit] Management

While Mike Ashley is sole owner of the club, he has not given himself an official role on the board of directors of the club. St James Holdings Ltd was the company used by Ashley in the purchase of Newcastle United plc, whose shares were de-listed from the London Stock Exchange at 8 a.m. on 18 July 2007.^[36]

[edit] Executive staff

Position	Name
Chairman:	Chris Mort
Deputy Chairman	Derek Llambias
Director:	Steve Hayward
Executive Director (Football):	Dennis Wise
Vice President (Player Recruitment):	Tony Jimenez
Technical Co-ordinator:	Jeff Vetere

[edit] Coaching staff

Position	Name
Manager	Kevin Keegan
Assistant Manager	Arthur Cox
First Team Coaches	Chris Hughton Terry McDermott Steve Round
Goalkeeping Coach	Paul Barron
Reserve Team Manager	Adam Sadler
Fitness Coaches	Adrian Lamb Craig Russell
Youth Academy Director	Joe Joyce
Academy Coaches	Kenny Wharton Simon Tweddle
Head Physio	Derek Wright
Youth Physio	Kev Bell
Chief Scout	Lil Fuccillo

[edit] Manager history

As of 5 May 2008. Only competitive matches are counted.

Name	Nat	From	To	Record
Name	Nat	From	To	P	W	D	L	Win %
Andy Cunningham		January 1, 1930	May 31, 1935	251	105	45	101	41.83
Tom Mather		June 1, 1935	September 1, 1939	179	78	32	69	43.57
Stan Seymour		September 1, 1939	June 1, 1958	338	130	74	134	38.46
George Martin		May 1, 1947	December 1, 1950	155	76	40	39	49.03
Doug Livingstone		December 1, 1954	January 1, 1956	99	43	20	36	43.43
Charlie Mitten		June 1, 1958	October 1, 1961	145	53	28	64	36.55
Norman Smith		October 1, 1961	June 1, 1962	35	12	8	15	34.28
Joe Harvey		June 1, 1962	June 1, 1975	591	224	152	215	37.90
Gordon Lee		June 12, 1975	January 30, 1977	74	28	20	26	37.83
Richard Dinnis		February 2, 1977	November 9, 1977	40	12	10	18	30.00
Bill McGarry		November 18, 1977	August 31, 1980	118	37	33	48	31.35
Arthur Cox		September 1, 1980	May 24, 1984	169	76	42	51	44.97
Jack Charlton		August 14, 1984	August 10, 1985	48	15	15	18	31.25
Willie McFaul		September 10, 1985	October 10, 1988	140	47	39	54	33.57
Colin Suggett^[37]		November 2, 1988	December 4, 1988	5	0	2	3	0.00
Jim Smith		December 14, 1988	March 26, 1991	121	44	38	39	36.36
Osvaldo Ardiles		March 26, 1991	February 5, 1992	47	10	18	19	21.27
Kevin Keegan		February 5, 1992	January 8, 1997	251	138	51	62	54.98
Terry McDermott^[37]		January 8, 1997	January 14, 1997	1	0	1	0	0.00
Kenny Dalglish		January 14, 1997	August 27, 1998	78	30	26	22	38.46
Ruud Gullit		August 28, 1998	August 28, 1999	52	18	14	20	34.61
Steve Clarke^[37]		August 28, 1999	September 2, 1999	1	0	0	1	0.00
Sir Bobby Robson		2 September 1999	30 August 2004	255	119	64	72	46.66
John Carver^[37]		11 September 2004	13 September 2004	1	1	0	0	100.00
Graeme Souness		13 September 2004	2 February 2006	87	39	19	29	44.82
Glenn Roeder		2 February 2006	6 May 2007	72	33	15	24	45.83
Nigel Pearson^[37]		6 May 2007	15 May 2007	1	0	1	0	0.00
Sam Allardyce		15 May 2007	9 January 2008	24	8	6	10	33.33
Nigel Pearson^[37]		9 January 2008	16 January 2008	2	1	0	1	50.00
Kevin Keegan		16 January 2008	Present	16	4	5	7	25.00