Appointment of John Carver Reveals Lee Charnley's Growing Power at Newcastle

The story of John Carver's Newcastle appointment is one of dual narratives.

In the first, we have a locally born and raised 50-year-old coach whose mandate to take pitch-level charge of his favourite club is nothing short of a lifelong dream come true.

"This is a proud day for me," he told Newcastle's official website upon the announcement that his interim position, which opened up when Alan Pardew bolted for Crystal Palace, would be extended until the end of the season. "I have worked with, and learned from, the best manager that this football club has had in Sir Bobby Robson. I know what this club means to this city and its people."

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Heartwarming stuff—and incredibly naive when the second narrative is introduced.

In that one we have the quick, perhaps surprising rise of a Newcastle functionary who, last spring, was promoted from football secretary into owner Mike Ashley's inner circle.

Lee Charnley, the current managing director, holds the real power at St James' Park, and if he has his way he'll keep clutch of it no matter the managers who come and go during his time in charge.

That is to say, head coaches. Because the idea of an old-fashioned manager who has top-to-bottom oversight of the playing staff is one he's on record as saying he's intent on doing away with.

"When we put the statement out when Alan left we chose our words very carefully in terms of what we would be looking for as a replacement," he told Mark Douglas of the Chronicle last week. "We are looking for a head coach...we're moving away from the traditional manager, in terms of title and perception."

He added: "We're looking for someone who will work within our parameters and will buy into and work with us in terms of what we do and how we operate."

In other words, what Newcastle want is a company man—a pushover who won't make a fuss when players are sold and transfer strategies determined, a coach who will take the training of the team because Chanley, perhaps the ideal manager in his own mind, just can't be two places at once.

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Not surprisingly, the direction to which the 37-year-old has turned the club hasn't gone down all that well.

On the last Sunday Supplement panel, Shaun Custis of The Sun remarked, as per Sky Sports, that the "soul" was "being sucked out of Newcastle United." And in a scathing column for the Mirror, Andy Dunn opined that Newcastle were becoming a club that "doesn't want a manger," that "will sell its best players" and that "cares for nothing but commerce."

Granted, the head coaching arrangement is something that long ago became common on the continent, where clubs hired managing directors and directors of football long before the practice crossed the Channel.

But where Newcastle fall foul even of that structure is in both the scarcity of input Ashley accommodates (Charnley's obviously is one) as well as their seeming complacency with being little more than a footballers' clearing house.

These are troubling times at St James' Park, where one of the few smiles to be found is on the beaming face of Carver.

His part of the narrative is a good one. The other could prove to be ruinous.