Roeder named as Newcastle manager

[Mac 10 †]

Roeder named as Newcastle manager

Newcastle have confirmed caretaker boss Glenn Roeder as full-time manager on a two-year contract.
 
Roeder, 50, took the Magpies from the bottom half of the Premiership to seventh after the sacking of Graeme Souness in February.

Former captain Alan Shearer has also been handed the role of sporting ambassador in the new regime.

Roeder said: "I am very proud and elated. I'm happy with a two-year deal because it keeps us all on our toes."

He added: "When I came up here as a player, I suppose that having an ambition of managing the team would not have been an option.

"As I went on, and if you had asked me a couple of years down the line, I would have said I would like to be a manager here one day.

"Now it has happened it shows that dreams do come true.

"If you work hard and fight for the dream it proves that anything in life is possible - and when the opportunity comes along you have to be ready for it.

"I am looking forward to the next few seasons now and I think it is going to be an exciting time for everyone connected with this football club."

Newcastle's move to appoint Roeder had caused controversy, with the League Managers' Association against it because he does not have the required Uefa Pro Licence.

But the Premier League clubs agreed he could qualify for the licence while in the job.

Newcastle chairman Freddy Shepherd hit back at comments from LMA chief executive John Barnwell, who said the Uefa licence stopped "the butcher, the baker and the candlestick maker" from landing top jobs.

Shepherd said: "I think it's a disgrace he said that - and shame on him.

"For a union leader to try to stop someone getting a job I think is incredible - I can't believe he said this remark."

But Barnwell has moved to defuse the situation, saying there is not meant to be anything personal in his comments.

"It's not an LMA directive, it's a Fifa directive we are following," he said.

"If Mr Shepherd wants to make comments he can, but we're all for coach education and that's all we're trying to say.

"If Glenn Roeder wishes to become a member of the LMA again we will give him all the encouragement and help required to carry out the difficult job of football manager."

Roeder had previously enrolled on the course when he was struck down by a brain tumour in April 2003.

He will begin his studies this June and will be qualified by the end of next season.

The former QPR captain, who also played for Newcastle during the 1980s, had been in charge of the Magpies youth academy before his sudden promotion following Souness' dismissal, with the club hovering just above the relegation zone.

In that time he has turned around the Magpies' fortunes, taking 32 points from 15 league games and guiding the club into the Intertoto Cup after a 1-0 victory over Chelsea on the last day of the Premiership 2005-2006 campaign.

Various names, including former Celtic boss Martin O'Neill, Bolton's Sam Allardyce and Inter Milan coach Roberto Mancini, had been linked with the Newcastle post, with Roeder initially insisting he did not want the job on a permanent basis.

But the former West Ham manager became less vehement once Newcastle began to climb the table.

[Boo-Yaa †]

seemed like the safe bet to me!