Who In Their Right Mind Would Want To Manage Newcastle United?

It has often been said that the job of managing the English national side is the toughest in football. It has become evident over the last decade that it is closely followed by managing Newcastle United.

With the almost inevitable departure of Kevin Keegan comes the realisation that Newcastle are an almost unmanageable club. If Keegan, the Geordie Messiah, cannot succeed—who can?

The obstacles that will hinder any manager are seemingly endless; lack of money for transfers, a squad lacking on quality in depth, a board that appear to be unwilling to back the manager, and for the next man that comes in—the supporters.

When Kevin Keegan was appointed by Mike Ashley at the start of the year, it was evident from the off that an uphill battle faced him. The team was in a poor run of form and expectations were unrealistically—but understandably—high.

Within two weeks, Ashley brought in Dennis Wise as Executive Director of Football. It was made clear that Wise would have the final say on transfers, leaving Keegan to manage the team.

All of a sudden, King Kev realised that the job description didn't match the role he had undertaken.

The writing was on the wall for Keegan a few months later, when he admitted that his side simply could not break into the "Big Four". Not the words the club's owner wanted to hear.

He had ensured a blaze of glory and publicity accompanied Keegan's return to St James' Park, the returning man's name and the number one emblazoned on the shirt he wore when sitting amongst the fans.

The manager's candid comments could have been perceived as self defeating. All they served to illustrate was what the rest of the Premier League knew, and Keegan was all too aware of that.

Fast forward, and Keegan was gone, leaving of his own accord (if we are to believe what is coming out of St James' Park), but with a bitter taste in the mouth. Keegan claims he was hindered by interference from on high, which the club refutes.

Keegan was never going to succeed, and maybe bringing him back was a mistake. The appointment of Sam Allardyce at the start of last season seemed to be promising, but he ended up turning Newcastle into a shadow of his old Bolton side. The fans wanted entertaining football, Allardyce couldn't provide that.

Keegan's return was nothing more than a crowd-pleaser, an old hero come back to save the club and entertain the Toon Army. He was on a hiding to nothing from the start.

Mike Ashley now finds himself in a position of needing to persuade a new manager to sip from the poisoned chalice. The fan's choice (again) is Alan Shearer, but he has far too much nous to be draw into the shamble that is Newcastle United, and has ruled himself out of the running quickly.

Smart man.

The only option, to make the club successful in its current set up, is to appoint someone from abroad. Continental managers are more familiar and comfortable with having someone bring players in for them. True, they may not always want them, as evidenced by Carlo Ancelotti's apparent disquiet over the return of Andriy Shevchenko to Milan, but it is a system they know and accept as the norm.

There are no shortage of options and it is likely that Newcastle with compete with West Ham, also manager-less in an alarmingly similar fashion, for the appointment they want. Any manager considering moving to Newcastle would do well to carry out some extensive research before accepting the job.

They need to be aware of the burden of expectation placed on them, the club set up and the fact that they are most likely to fail.

The support at Newcastle United is so infuriated at the club's mis-management that any manager who comes in is likely to be treated with suspicion, and scepticism. They want Keegan back, and the next manager will have that to contend with that.

Newcastle United's next manager needs to be aware of that, and he also needs to be aware that he's taking on a job as difficult as any in English football.

Good luck to him. He'll need it.