Choose another club Arsenal Aston Villa Blackburn Rovers Bolton Wanderers Chelsea Everton Fulham Hull Liverpool Manchester City Manchester United Middlesbrough Newcastle United Portsmouth Stoke Sunderland Tottenham Hotspur West Brom West Ham United Wigan Athletic Founded: 1881 | Nickname: Toon| Ground: St. James' Park | Capacity: 52,387 Newcastle United Football Club St. James' Park, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne NE1 4ST Tel: 0191 2018400 Visit Official Site > Buy Tickets > Club Shop > Stadium Directions >

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. Training facilities are located at Darsley Park.

They have won the First Division Championship four times and the FA Cup six times, though their last league success was in 1927. 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.

History

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 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.[4]

Newcastle competing against Woolwich Arsenal in 1906.

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.

Newcastle won the League a fourth time in 1927, the last time they have to date. Notable players during this period include the likes captain Hughie Gallacher (the most prolific goals per game scorer in the club's history), Neil Harris, Stan Seymour and Frank Hudspeth.[1]

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. Other players of this time were Frank Brennan (like Mitchell a Scot), Ivor Broadis, Len White and Welshman Ivor Allchurch.

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.[5]

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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9]

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 and was replaced by Chris Mort.

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[10] Further appointments in January 2008 saw 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.[11] The idea was to complete a continental-style management structure working in support of Keegan. Wise and Vetere should make the initial assessment before calling in Jimenez to do the deal.[12] In addition to this David Williamson was appointed Executive Director (Operations) in April 2008.[13] Mort decided to step down as managing director and chairman in June and he was replaced by Derek Llambias, a long-term associate of Mike Ashley.[14]

Colours and badge

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".[15] 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.[16] 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.[16]

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.[17] 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.[17] 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.[17]

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.[18] A scroll at the bottom featured the city's motto in Latin; fortiter defendit triumphans which translates into English as, "triumphing by brave defence".[19]

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.[20] 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.[20]

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.[21] 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.

Third Shirt http://img503.imageshack.us/img503/4479/newcastlethirdkitkn9.jpg

Stadium

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.[22] 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,[23] 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.[24]

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,[25] although in terms of percentage of stadium capacity, Newcastle were tenth in the Premier League with 96.7%.[26] In terms of all-time, Newcastle have the seventh highest average attendance of Football League clubs in England.[27] 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[28] and were found to be the most dedicated in the country in a 2007 survey.[29]

They are often referred to as the Toon Army, the Magpies, or the Geordies. The name Toon originates from the Geordie pronunciation of town.[30] 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.[31] 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,[32] North America[33] and Australia.[34]

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.[35]

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, Iron Maiden guitarist Janick Gers and AC/DC frontman Brian Johnson.

Rivalries

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. The two cities of Newcastle and Sunderland are just ten miles apart give and it gives the intense feeling of a cross-town rivalry, heightened by a feeling that it is city against city with local pride at stake. Moreover, the close proximity means that as in derby matches, workmates and friends are often divided.

Another rivalry is the Tyne-Tees derby between Newcastle and Middlesbrough. Although often billed as a derby by the media, many people in Newcastle dispute that this is the case. Many Newcastle fans feel that a match against a team 34 miles away does not qualify as a local derby, and believe that Newcastle's only derby is the Tyne-Wear derby with Sunderland. Sunderland fans largely feel the same with regards to the Tees-Wear derby. A poll in 2004 seems to confirm this, showing that Middlesbrough fans regard Newcastle as their biggest rivals, whilst Newcastle fans only regard Middlesbrough as their 3rd largest rivals (behind Sunderland and Manchester United).[36]

Honours

Newcastle United's honours include the following:[37]

Records

Jimmy Lawrence holds the record for the most Newcastle appearances, having played 496 first-team matches between 1904 and 1921 as a goalkeeper.[38] 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[39] 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.[40]

The most prolific goals per game striker in the history of the club is Hughie Gallacher - a strike-rate of over 82% with 143 goals in his 174 outings.[41]

Newcastle's record home attendance is 68,386, against Chelsea on 3 September 1930.[42] To the fury of the fans Gallacher had been sold to Chelsea and the Geordie public turned up by the thousand to welcome home their hero. As well as the record crowd in the ground thousands more were locked outside.[41] The capacity of St James' Park is currently 52,387,[23] 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.[42]

Players

Current squad

As of 7 August 2008.[43]

No. Position Player 1 GK Shay Given 3 DF José Enrique 5 DF Fabricio Coloccini 6 DF Caçapa 7 MF Joey Barton 8 MF Danny Guthrie 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 FW Alan Smith 18 MF Jonás Gutiérrez 20 MF Geremi 21 DF Habib Beye

No. Position Player 22 MF Nicky Butt 23 FW Shola Ameobi 25 DF Abdoulaye Faye 27 DF Steven Taylor 30 DF David Edgar 31 FW Frank Wiafe Danquah 34 GK Fraser Forster 35 DF Ben Tozer 36 FW Mark Viduka 38 MF Kazenga LuaLua 39 FW Andy Carroll 40 GK Tim Krul 41 MF Mark Doninger 42 FW Ryan Donaldson 43 MF Jonny Godsmark 46 DF Sébastien Bassong

Management

Key people

As of 5 August 2008.

Coaching staff

As of 7 August 2008.

Manager history

As of 5 May 2008.

Name	Nat	From	To
Selection committee	(n/a)	1892	1929
Andy Cunningham		1930	1935
Tom Mather		1935	1939
Stan Seymour		1939	1958
George Martin		1947	1950
Doug Livingstone		1954	1956
Charlie Mitten		1958	1961
Norman Smith		1961	1962
Joe Harvey		1962	1975
Gordon Lee		1975	1977
Richard Dinnis		1977	1977
Bill McGarry		1977	1980
Arthur Cox		1980	1984
Jack Charlton		1984	1985
Willie McFaul		1985	1988
Jim Smith		1988	1991
Osvaldo Ardiles		1991	1992
Kevin Keegan		1992	1997
Kenny Dalglish		1997	1998
Ruud Gullit		1998	1999
Sir Bobby Robson		1999	2004
Graeme Souness		2004	2006
Glenn Roeder		2006	2007
Sam Allardyce		2007	2008
Kevin Keegan		2008	Present

Ownership

Until 1997, Newcastle United had been owned and operated as a private company limited by shares (limited company) since its establishment on 6 September 1895.

In April 1997, following the emerging trend among other Premier League clubs, under the chairmanship of Sir John Hall the club was floated on the stock exchange as a public limited company (plc), with the stated aim of fincancing an enlarged Sporting Club Newcastle. The offer was less than suucessfull, with most shares going to the Hall family, or his business partner Freddie Shepherd.

In 1997, Sir John Hall stepped down as chairman, remaining as a non-executive director, to be replaced as chairman by Freddy Shepherd, with the Hall family represented on the board by John's son, Douglass Hall and daughter Allison Antonopoulos. After a public scandal, Shepherd and Douglas Hall briefly resigned, returning after ten months in 1998.

At the end of 1998, after buying a 6.3% stake in the club for £10m, the media group NTL had considered a full takevoer of the club[44]. This was later dropped after the April 1999 Competition Commission block of a proposed takeover of Manchester United by Rupert Murdoch, owner of BSkyB[45].

In 2007, in a surprise move, businessman Mike Ashley purchased a 41% share in the club through a holding company St James Holdings Ltd, in a deal for the combined stakes of both Douglass and Sir John Hall, apparently without knowledge of Shepherd who was ill in hospital. Under stock market rules, the purchase required the issuing of a formal takeover offer by Ashley to all other remaining shareholders, which comprised Shepherd, fans and institutional investors, at the same price or above. In the following weeks, as Ashley gained more shares, Shepherd, although publicly having stated the club was "impossible to buy" in response to previous approaches for the club from other parties, and indicating that he may launch a counter offer, Shepherd eventually agreed to sell his 28% stake before expiry of the offer, leading to a de-listing. The shares of Newcastle United plc were de-listed from the London Stock Exchange at 8 a.m. on 18 July 2007.[46] with Shepherd and other directors leaving the club in the following months.

While Mike Ashley is sole owner of the holding company and hence the club, he has not given himself an official role on the board of directors of the club, first handing the chairmanship to Chris Mort on a sabbatical status, and then to Derek Llambias in time for the start of the 2008 season.

Chairman history

As of 5 August 2008.

Name	Nat	From	To
Lord Westwood		1963	1981
Stan Seymour Junior		1981	1988
Gordon McKeag		1988	1990
George Forbes		1990	1992
Sir John Hall		1992	1997
Freddy Shepherd		1997	2007
Chris Mort		2007	2008
Derek Llambias		2008	Present

Sponsorship

The current main club sponsors are the Northern Rock bank and sportswear manufacturer Adidas[47]. Through owner Mike Ashley, the club also has a relationship with the Sports Direct retail chain which he founded.

The Northern Rock deal was announced in April 2003 to run until the end of the 2004/05 season. In April 2004 this was extended to run until the end of the 2009/10 season[48]. The Northern Rock deal provoked criticism upon the effective nationalisation of the bank in February 2008 during a credit crisis, although to put it in perspective, the current sponsorship deal was worth £25m[49] to the club, compared to resulting Bank of England loans to Northern Rock in the order of billions of pounds, and a 6 month loss of £585m in the first half of 2008[50]

The club did not introduce shirt sponsorship until 1980. The club previously had a long standing relationship with the brewer Scottish & Newcastle[49], who owned the Tyne Brewery directly opposite the Milburn stand of St James' Park. During the 1980s and 90s the club strip featured the logo's of their beer brands McEwan's (in words on the away strip only) and Newcastle Brown Ale (the home strip, both as the full bottle logo, and as simply the blue star element of the brown ale logo). After the shirt sponsorhip deal ended with the transistion to NTL in 2000, and the Tyne brewery closed in 2004, the relationship effectively ended on 1 July 2007 near the end of the Ashley takeover process, when the club signed a £3m supply agreement with Carling[49], although Newcastle Brown Ale would still available in some parts of the ground, and as of May 2008 the Gallowgate Stand was still labeled as the Newcastle Brown Stand on the club website 'Club Factfile' page (although with changed ticketing arrangements for the 2008/9 season, a new seating plan was expected to be issued by July 2008).

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