No, that’s not meant to be a fake headline to get you to read this story.
It’s actually true, based on the win percentage of Newcastle managers, since 1930, and we can hardly believe it.
Graeme Souness – 6th best Newcastle manager ever – we don’t think so
We’ve did a little research on Arthur Cox’s management record yesterday and today, and we have come up with some very interesting results on which Newcastle United managers have the best win percentage.
You will not believe the results.
Going back to 1930 here are the top 6 managers in terms of win percentages at Newcastle United:
Year Manager Games Won Draw Lost Win% 1992-1997 Kevin Keegan 251 138 52 62 55.0 1947-1950 George Martin 155 76 40 39 49.0 1999-2004 Bobby Robson 255 119 64 72 46.7 2006-2007 Glenn Roeder 73 33 16 24 45.2 1980-1984 Arthur Cox 169 76 42 51 45.0 2004-2006 Graeme Souness 87 39 19 29 44.8
The big surprise there of course is Graeme Souness, where did all those wins come from?
It’s not too surprising with Roeder since he had a fantastic start when he took over form Souness and raised the club from a struggling 14th position to 7th with 35 points from the 15 games he managed. A great performance by Glenn – helped of course by Alan Shearer, although Alan says he didn’t do much.
Maybe we should put some minimum games as a requirement, like 100, which would eliminate Glenn and Graeme, because they are the only managers on the list to manage less than 100 games.
And of course Kevin Keegan will have two spells at the club. His record in his second management stint is currently 5 games without a win, so his win percentage right now is zero.
Here are some other more famous managers and their records managing Newcastle United:
Year Manager Games Won Draw Lost Win% 1962-1975 Joe Harvey 591 224 52 215 37.9 1939-1954 Stan Seymour 338 130 74 134 38.5 1954-1956 Doug Livingstone 99 43 20 36 43.4 1997-1998 Kenny Dalglish 78 30 26 22 38.5
Joe Harvey and Stan Seymour are important (and famous) managers for us, because they lasted as Newcastle managers for the longest time. Between them they managed Newcastle United for 28 years.
Stan Seymour and Dougie Livingstone are important, because they were managers during that golden period, when we won the FA Cup in 1951, 1952 and 1955 – the memories.
Kenny Dalglish in interesting because apart from Bobby Robson, no other manager under Freddy Shepherd lasted 100 games.
Kenny lasted just 78 games before he was fired, rather surpisingly in August, 1998 to herald the arrival of a certain Ruud Gullit, who lasted 12 months and just 52 games. But Kenny still thinks back and says it was just great to manage the club, because of the fantastic fans, and the football fanaticism that is the City of Newcastle.
Comments very welcome.
24 comments so far
m. stockley (nicky butt is crap)
Feb 17, 2008 at 1:42 PM
Comment #1i hate souness….. boumsoung, amdy faye, moore, babayaro……. what a prick!
Shanghaitoon
Feb 17, 2008 at 1:57 PM
Comment #2These are very interesting stats, but all are surprisingly low. I’d be interested to see how they compare to the likes of Fergusson, Wenger or some of the other great managers around.
Gareth
Feb 17, 2008 at 1:58 PM
Comment #3Souness at no 6 beggars belief, but I reckon I could have a stab at explaining it;
My my reckoning roughly 10 of Souness’ wins were against substandard opposition, be they lower league or European minnows. We’re talking the likes of Bnei Sakhnin, Cheltenham Town and ZTS Dubnica here. That accounts for a quarter of his victories, without those his win percentage would take a pretty mighty hit…
Hadrian
Feb 17, 2008 at 3:06 PM
Comment #4souness and dagliesh would have had a far higher win % , if they hadnt been so arrogant and thought they had to change a winning team to stroke their own ego’s .
most important thing for a manager in his first seasons is adapt to the club , dont make it adapt to you untill your settled .
its like sam walking in and expecting our tiny lightweight footballers to play a physical game , rather than just getting points on the board and then seeing what you can do.
Nick C
Feb 17, 2008 at 3:07 PM
Comment #5There was a time under souness when it looked like he might make it. If u go back to our uefa cup and fa cup run we were doing ok. i remember beating chelsea and spurs on the way and we looked a half decent side.
overall though his tenure was pretty pathetic.
arctoa
Feb 17, 2008 at 3:11 PM
Comment #6You got it spot on there, it’s ’cause Roeder and Souness took us pretty far in cup competitions. Take those out and I think the percentages would plummet.
jamin1564
Feb 17, 2008 at 3:50 PM
Comment #7a top top win percentage is about 60 – 65 ish still I believe. Obviously draws aren’t taken into account in this for points totalls under a manager, which would be an interesting stat. No cup games just how many points in how many games in the league did the we gather under each manager.
nightfall
Feb 17, 2008 at 4:40 PM
Comment #8all this statistic shows is that in all NUFC’s history, “we” appointed only 2 or 3 good managers…
Leo*
Feb 17, 2008 at 5:44 PM
Comment #9only 2 managers in 28 years! that would be strange i think,
scott9
Feb 17, 2008 at 5:53 PM
Comment #10roeder dint do that bad at all considering his injuries i think he deserved this season to get his players in and have everyone fit then i think we would have been in the top 6
chris_toon
Feb 17, 2008 at 6:17 PM
Comment #11i liked roeder as a manager i dnt think he was that bad reli – had a lot of injuries 2 deal with tho but i thought sky sport news said that graeme souness win %bn waz onli summat like 33%b :S
daiv
Feb 17, 2008 at 7:11 PM
Comment #12We appoint mangers who are not as bad we make out. We think we should win the league and when we don’t, we call for their heads. Souness is not as bad as we think. He just could not win everything.
CRAIGG
Feb 17, 2008 at 8:09 PM
Comment #13I posted this on another page earlier and didnt get much response :
Newcastle remaining fixtures:
Man utd H
Blackburn H
Liverpool A
Birmingham A
Fulham H
Spurs A
Reading H
Pompey A
Sunderland H
West Ham A
Chelsea H
Everton A
I’d say 15 points: 3 off Blackburn, Fulham, Reading and Mackams at home , 1 off Brummies and West ham away and believe it or not 1 off chelsea as they usually play us at the end of the season with nothing left to play for so push out the reserves and we usually take something out of this fixture at home.
Sunderland remaining fixtures:
Pompey A
Derby A
Everton H
Chelsea H
Villa A
West ham H
Fulham A
Man city H
Newcastle A
Boro H
Bolton A
Arsenal H
I’d say six points: 3 off derby , 1 off West ham, 1 off Fulham and 1 off boro and if they dont win at derby… theyre in worse shit than us but have spent the last month looking at ours and taking the piss out of our league position
what do you lot think?
Warwick Hunt
Feb 17, 2008 at 8:34 PM
Comment #14@Craigg
36 points I’d say!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
big pea ov the weab
Feb 17, 2008 at 9:48 PM
Comment #15i agree roder wasnt such a bad manager considering all the injuries he had i bet he would ov done a lot better than wot keegan will this man has past his sell buy date i no my post will get atacked buy these strange human beings who think king kev is our answer FOR GOD SAKE GET REAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
this man has spent the last 3-4 years running into cardboard cut outs hardly the actions ov a sane man now is it!
CJ
Feb 17, 2008 at 10:06 PM
Comment #16Pea head why do you hate Keegan so much you are only ever on here to say how much of a joke Keegan is you sad little maccum bastard.
Nicky Butt is crap!
Feb 17, 2008 at 10:17 PM
Comment #17we all love keegan and we all know what he he has done for us and we are praying for a repeat but i gotta say i do see pea’s point, it was a random appointment! so one of the papers saying kk wants beckham and ronaldiniho, haha… the papers are full of shit eh?!
Tommyy
Feb 17, 2008 at 11:27 PM
Comment #18Gareth – I come from Cheltenham, i went to that game. It was quality, and Cheltenham caused a lot of problems. Ameobi was shite, Odejayi was good. I think i still have it on video.
big pea ov the weab
Feb 18, 2008 at 9:09 AM
Comment #19@CJ
I LOVE THIS CLUB MORE THAN LIFE ITS SELF I KEEP THINGS REAL I DONT LIVE IN LALA LAND LIKE THE REST OF THE FANS WHO GET ON THIS SITE I BET UR ONLY A BAIRN U SAD LITTLE SHITE KEEGAN WILL LOSE HIS HERO STATUS U JUST WATCH THE TOON ARMY WILL END UP LINCHING HIM AS THEY DO WITH EVERYOTHER MANAGER ROME WASENT BUILT IN A DAY AS THEY SAY
Mr T
Feb 18, 2008 at 9:27 AM
Comment #20Leave off Roeder lads for my money, I honestly don’t think he did alot wrong.
big pea ov the weab
Feb 18, 2008 at 9:29 AM
Comment #21I AGREE MR T
Premiership Vids
Feb 18, 2008 at 10:30 AM
Comment #22Well lets hope our fortunes change quickly or its going to be a dog fight.
Lawman
Feb 20, 2008 at 6:22 AM
Comment #23I thought Glen did quite a decent job for us…… not outstanding but stable – and that’s exactly what we needed at the time (could do with a bit of stability now too).
Considering the £50m plus spent by Souness and what we got for that £50m, Glen’s comparatively economical spend on Duff, Emre and Martins was good business (and for decent players too).
Also, lets not forget – Glen won us our first cup since 1969…… albeit the Intertoto Cup hahahaha…..
The unfortunate coincidence of far too many 1st team players injured all at the same time ultimately caused his downfall – but even so, fans were generally more concerned about voicing opinions at fat Shepherd than Glen.
Callum
Feb 20, 2008 at 7:45 AM
Comment #24Lawman – Souness bought Emre 😉