Newcastle United is a unique club. All over the country, there is a great jealousy of the club, not in terms of silverware, but what the club means to the people, and how important the club is to the community. It could be argued that there isn’t a club in British football, where the role of the club as regards to the cities economic, social, and general feel-good factors, is more prominent than on Tyneside.

As a result fans of other clubs, feel the need to pull us up for not winning trophies, 3 bad average gates in our history, embarrassing scenes off the pitch, they demand to know why we think we’re a big club. The point is as Alan Shearer mentioned last week, he wouldn’t expect anyone that’s not from this area to understand why he chose Newcastle United over Manchester United or Barcelona.

A vital key at Newcastle United is understanding what the club is all about, and if you haven’t lived in the North East or lived on Tyneside it’s difficult to fully appreciate what the club is and what the club means. It is the focal point of the area, without a shadow of a doubt. There are other great footballing cities in Britain. London, whether people like to admit it is one, Glasgow is undoubtedly another as is Manchester, but the the difference all of these cities are very much divided in their loyalties, and the focus (although you could debate this), isn’t as intense as it is in Newcastle upon Tyne.

An understanding of the club clearly a key requirement of anyone who works for the club. Kevin Keegan said in 1984 that what the clubs fans want are 1) an attractive side and 2) a successful side. While this sentence is contentious, I feel it highlights the fact Keegan recognised the essence of the club. Super Mac once said while the club never won anything in his spell it was a rollercoaster, beat Liverpool 4-1 one week, lose 5-0 to Luton, the next.

Joe Harvey (Mcdonald’s manager), had a philosophy of “put as many entertaining, bloody good players in the side as possible, and we might not win anything, but everyone will have a good time.” To a certain extent, particularly the support of the current generation, who have seen no success in a life time, a lot just want to see a trophy, but a similar, it could be argued, don’t want the clubs principles bastardised.

Kenny Dalglish came in with a track record of being the last manager to win League titles with two different clubs. While he was an honourable man, he didn’t understand the club. He replaced entertainers like Ginola, with players who aren’t fit walk on the St James’s turf, like Garry Brady and Des Hamilton.

I often ask myself would he have signed these players for Liverpool at their peak, because lets be honest he inherited one of the finest sides in Europe at the time of Keegan’s departure. Ruud Gullit was another one doomed to fail, a lot of dross was played during Gullit’s reign, but in fairness there was the occasional entertaining Keegan-esque free for all like our 4-3 win at Pride Park just before the Cup Final.

He clearly was a manager who couldn’t come to terms with the psyche of the club. Managers like Kevin Keegan, Joe Harvey, and as Glenn himself have endeared themselves to the crowd by admitting “I got it wrong”, the night of our 2-1 defeat to Sunderland in the rain, when he left Alan Shearer and Duncan Ferguson on the bench, then blamed those two for losing as we were 1-0 up when they came on, said a lot about him. Also his comments, that Newcastle v Sunderland “isn’t a proper derby” illustrated the fact he never understood the club at all.

There’s not a lot to say about Graeme Souness that hasn’t already been said. The moment he said “there are no such things as wingers in the modern game.” was the moment I for one, knew he would never do it for the club. It’s difficult to comment on the style of football employed by Newcastle with the Scotsman at the helm, because there was none!!

He was brought in as a disciplinarian to sort out a dressing room, which he described as nothing wrong with when he first came in, to a playground after 5 months, and he failed miserably. The club have had 3 major management successes of the last 40 years. All of them have one thing in common. They had a deep bond with the area, and a diligent understanding of what the city, the club and the fans demanded.

Kevin Keegan, Sir Bobby Robson, and Joe Harvey have succeeded in varying degrees due to this fact. While I’m not saying future Newcastle managers, who have no allegiance with the club are guaranteed to fail, those facts speak for themselves. People like Martin O’Neill, Paul Jewell and a whole host of foreign managers were linked with the job, but did any of them have the reputation and standing in the game as Kenny Dalglish.

Love him or loathe him, have any of them won as much as Graeme Souness? Have any of them won European Championships and been crowned World Player of the Year like Ruud Gullit, or won World Cups like Ossie Ardiles. You know the answer. Glenn Roeder is the best appointment we could’ve made. His heart is with the club. He was a magnificent defender from 1983 to 1989 at St James’, and was captain for 4 of those years.

He considers it a privilege to live in the area, he understands the attacking philosophy which an expect public demand, and more importantly, he will stand up for the side, and not pick out individuals when things go wrong. How anyone can describe his appointment as a “knee-jerk” reaction baffles me.

His record speaks for itself as far as I’m concerned, and while Shepherd is never going to win a popularity contest on Tyneside, he’s right in saying GLENN WON THE JOB. Another positive to this appointment is the fact any other manager, even though Shepherd would deny it, would have a “honeymoon” period.

He knows all the players, he knows their assets, he has already identified how best to use the assets at his disposal, he’s demonstrated tactical know how, made substitutions that have won games, whereas a new manager might not have all this knowledge for maybe ever 6 months.

The dignity and decorum Glenn Roeder has shown throughout his career, shows the sort of character he is. Nobody in the game has a bad word to say about him, the guy is a gentleman and will be a superb ambassador for Newcastle United.

Sent in by Newcastle-Online.com reader Steve Richards, Newcastle upon Tyne.