United make their 4th backroom appointment of the season today - appointing Joe Joyce as academy director - which follows Lee Clark’s move to reserve team coach, Kevin Bond’s arrival as assistant manager and Terry Gennoe’s return as goalkeeping coach, completing Roeder’s team.

Joyce arrives from the PFA where he was head of coaching and responsible for a variety of PFA programmes, most notably their contentious coaching qualifications scheme which United exposed when appointing Roeder.

Born in Consett the 45 year-old has previously worked alongside James Milner, Shola Ameobi, Steven Taylor and worked closely with United on ‘in house coaching classes’ a few times so he’ll know the scene.

The North East man enjoyed spells at Barnsley and Scunthorpe before hanging up his boots at Carlisle and comes to United with a wealth of knowledge having looked at academies up and down the country and across Europe while with the PFA. Joyce you imagine will also bring administration skills to the job.

A pleased Roeder had this to say:

I’ve only known Joe for a year or so, after he came into our Academy while I was in charge last year to do some work with the young players.

“I was very impressed by him, and out of all of the people I spoke to before deciding to appoint him, nobody had a bad word to say about him.

“I looked at two or three candidates, I have to be honest and say there weren’t a lot of candidates on my list because I was very selective.

“A lot of people wanted the job, and that is understandable because it is a high-profile job at a club the size of Newcastle United.

“It is a fantastic job, I know that from my seven or eight months down there, but there needs to be some continuity in that position.

“I think we have had six people in charge in seven years, and that is no good for the academy. You can’t expect an academy to be successful with a constant change of manager.

“I needed to find a candidate who was able to do the job - and in Joe Joyce I believe we have found that person.

“He is from this area as well, which helps, and I am confident he will stay a long time and continue the hard work that has already been done.

“He has been with the PFA, he is great with the youngsters and he also coaches coaches.

“He will be an Academy manager, and that is not just coaching the under-18s like I did if you like, it will be as the job title suggests.

“He will spend some time on the training pitch, some time in the office during the day, and will help to pick up the evening Academy as well.

“We have some good young players in there already, but we need to reorganise it a bit. We need to make it a more efficient running academy, and Joe will be behind that.

“He fits the bill, and I’m confident with Joe in charge of the team that I can leave the Academy in safe hands and let him get on with it.

“I will be in touch with him once every couple of weeks to find out what I need to know, but in essence I will just be letting Joe get on with things and I’m confident the Academy will grow under his leadership.”

Adam Sandler will work alongside Joyce as his assistant, the pair teaming up on September 4th to start their Toon careers.

Good luck to the lads.