Graeme Souness became the latest victim of Newcastle's long, fruitless search for success when he was fired on Thursday by the ailing Magpies.
Alan Shearer, meanwhile, took his first step toward taking over one of the toughest jobs in English football.
Wednesday's 3-0 loss at Manchester City means Newcastle has collected only one point from six Premier League games and has slipped to 15th in the standings.
PHOTO: AFP
The fans had been chanting "Souness out" for weeks and Wednesday's one-sided loss was too much for owner Freddie Shepherd. He decided the much-traveled Scot, who had been in charge for 16 months, didn't deserve any more chances.
"I am obviously saddened at the way things have worked out at St. James' Park," Souness said. "I have enjoyed living and working in Newcastle, and my family and I have been made to feel particularly welcome by the Geordies.
"I wish the club, the players and the supporters good fortune and success going forward."
While the former Liverpool, Glasgow Rangers, Blackburn, Southampton, Torino, Benfica and Galatasaray manager now looks for another job, his departure means that Shearer gets his first taste of the hot seat at Newcastle.
The club announced that Glenn Roeder, a former West Ham manager now on the coaching staff at St. James' Park, will take temporary charge of the team, with Shearer becoming his playing assistant.
The former England captain has long envisioned a future as a club manager, and his home town club is his ideal move. He is still playing at age 35, however, and is trying to pass the all-time Newcastle scoring record of 200 he shares with Jackie Milburn.
Souness is the latest in a long line of big names to fall short at Newcastle, following Osvaldo Ardiles, Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, Ruud Gullit and former England manager Bobby Robson, who was fired in September 2004.
Although the Magpies twice finished runner-up under Keegan and third, fourth and fifth under Robson, no major trophies have gone into the St. James' Park cabinet for decades.
Newcastle has a noisy following of more than 50,000 fans for every home game. But the boos and chants at the end of each game have been deafening. The last of Newcastle's six FA Cup triumphs was in 1955 and the club hasn't won the league title since 1927.
Magpies fans have watched as Chelsea, powered by the huge wealth of Russian owner Roman Abramovich, has surpassed traditional powerhouses Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool and is now the dominate force in English football.
Instead of being in that company, Newcastle has fallen further behind.
Souness has had plenty of money to spend but has never gotten the best out of the players.
As well as spending a club record fee of ?17 million (25 million euros) for England striker Michael Owen, he spent more than ?20 million (29.4 million euros) on defender Jean-Alain Boumsong, midfielders Scott Parker and Emre Belozoglu and forward Albert Luque.
Souness also had a public fallout with striker Craig Bellamy, saying the Welsh international would never play for his team again. Souness sent him to Glasgow Celtic on loan and Bellamy now plays for Blackburn.
Souness also watched in dismay as two of his stars, Dyer and Lee Bowyer, began fighting each other during a 3-0 loss to Aston Villa last April.
US national team star Folarin Balogun was among the scorers as AS Monaco on Friday won 3-1 at Paris Saint-Germain, dealing a blow to the side from the French capital before they face Chelsea in a crunch UEFA Champions League round-of-16 tie. Maghnes Akliouche gave Monaco a first-half lead at the Parc des Princes, and Aleksandr Golovin doubled their advantage early in the second half of the French Ligue 1 clash. Bradley Barcola pulled one back for the reigning European champions, but Balogun struck shortly after with a fifth goal in his last five games as Monaco claimed a precious
West Ham United on Monday advanced to the FA Cup quarter-finals with a 5-3 penalty shoot-out win against Brentford, who paid the price for Dango Ouattara’s spot-kick blunder. Nuno Espirito Santo’s side twice blew the lead as Jarrod Bowen’s double was canceled out by an Igor Thiago brace to force extra-time in the 2-2 draw at the London Stadium, but in the shoot-out, Brentford winger Ouattara attempted a chipped Panenka penalty, but his woeful effort was straight at West Ham goalkeeper Alphonse Areola. It was an awful mistake by the Burkina Faso international and West Ham took full advantage. Bowen, Valentin Castellanos, Callum
Teenage star Lamine Yamal’s superbly-taken goal on Saturday earned Barcelona a 1-0 win at Athletic Bilbao in Spanish La Liga. The champions restored their four-point lead over second-placed Real Madrid, who had on Friday temporarily closed the gap by beating Celta Vigo. Atletico Madrid tightened their grip on third with an entertaining 3-2 win over Real Sociedad. Yamal, 18, curled into the top corner after 68 minutes to split the sides at Athletic’s San Mames stadium. “We’re already seeing what Lamine can do — he puts it right in the top corner, and there’s nothing the keeper can do,” Barca
Thanks to Italy beating Mexico on Wednesday, the US get another chance in the World Baseball Classic (WBC). What looked like a potentially disastrous early exit for US manager Mark DeRosa and his team turned out to be nothing more than substantial worry and significant embarrassment for about 24 hours. It remains to be seen whether the US really want to win badly enough for the reprieve to matter, as if it is just a switch they can flick, but there is little reason for their fans to be optimistic. The team’s attitude and behavior have been all over the place when
RSS