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Newcastle United
Full name	Newcastle United Football Club
Nickname(s)	The Magpies, The Toon, Geordies
Founded	1892
Ground	St James' Park Newcastle upon Tyne England (Capacity 52,387[1])
Chairman	Chris Mort[2] (for Mike Ashley)
Manager	Sam Allardyce
League	Premier League
2006–07	Premier League, 13th
Home colours 　 Away colours

Newcastle United Football Club (also known as The Magpies or The Toon) is an English professional 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, 1892, the club have played at their home ground, St James' Park.

They are historically the eighth most successful club in the history of English football,^[3] having won the First Division Championship four times and the FA Cup six times, though their league success was achieved before the Second World War. On the European stage the most notable honour the club has won is the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, won in 1969.

They have a long-standing and fierce rivalry with local rivals 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.

Contents 1 History 2 Events in 2007 3 Colours 4 Stadium 5 Supporters 6 Statistics and records 7 Players 7.1 Current squad 7.2 Future Transfers 7.3 Out on loan 7.4 Current Staff 7.5 Reserves 7.6 Notable players 8 Managers 9 Honours 10 References 11 External links

For more details on this topic, see History of Newcastle United F.C..

In November 1881, the Stanley Cricket Club of south Byker decided to form an association football club, to play during the winter after the cricket season had ended. Just under a year later, in October 1882, they changed their name to Newcastle East End FC to avoid confusion with the cricket club in the town of Stanley, County Durham. Meanwhile, across the city, another cricket club began to take an interest in football and in August 1882, they formed Newcastle West End FC. West End played their early football on their cricket pitch, but later moved to St James' Park. East End turned professional in 1889. West End, however, did not fare so well; in Spring 1892 they approached East End with a view to a takeover, the directors having decided that the club could no longer continue due to financial problems.^[4] Ultimately, it was agreed that West End's players and most of its backroom staff would join East End. East End also took over the lease on St. James' Park, which effectively merged the two rival clubs together. By December 1892, they decided to give the club a new name and a new image. At a public meeting, several new names, including Newcastle Rangers^{[citation needed]} and Newcastle City,^[5] were suggested, before all agreed on Newcastle United.

Newcastle United went on to lift the League Championship on three occasions during the 1900s; 1905, 1907 and 1909.^{[citation needed]} 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.^{[citation needed]}

After World War I, they won the League a fourth time during 1927.^{[citation needed]} 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. Notable players during this period include the likes of Hughie Gallacher, Neil Harris, Stan Seymour and Frank Hudspeth.

During the 1950s, United lifted 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. The Magpies had gained a high profile, and so had their players; 'Wor Jackie' Milburn and Bobby 'Dazzler' Mitchell in particular.^{[citation needed]}

An old war horse returned to revitalise the Magpies in the shape of Joe Harvey, who had skippered the club to much of their post-war success. He teamed up with Stan Seymour to rebuild Newcastle United and they returned to the elite as Second Division Champions in 1965. Newcastle then became very much an unpredictable and inconsistent side, always capable of defeating the best, but never quite realising their potential.

Joe Harvey's side qualified for Europe for the first time in 1968 and surprised many the following year by lifting 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.

In the years that followed European success, manager Harvey brought in a string of talented entertainers who thrilled the Gallowgate crowd. Players such as Jimmy Smith, Tony Green, Terry Hibbitt and in particular centre-forward Malcolm Macdonald all became favourites amongst 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 had an impressive goalscoring tally, 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 the Magpies 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 skipper Kevin Keegan the focus of the side, 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 the Magpies 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 .

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.^[6] 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.^[7] 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 sacked in 2004 after failing to qualify for the Champions League. Robson is still held in high regard by Newcastle supporters.^[8]

Graeme Souness was his replacement, but he proved to be an unpopular and unsuccessful choice being sacked on 2 February 2006, despite signing Michael Owen for a record £17 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.

For more details on this topic, see Newcastle United F.C. season 2007-08.

On 23 May 2007 English businessman Mike Ashley bought the Hall's stake in the club of 41.6% for £55m and then launched a formal takeover bid. On 7 June, Freddy Shepherd and Shepherd Offshore Services Ltd. agreed to sell their stake in Newcastle United and released a statement urging other shareholders to do the same. On the 29th October, England made a bid for the 2018 world cup. St.James park has been listed to be used as one of the stadiums, in the worldwide watched cup. ^[9] It was announced that Shepherd would remain in the role of chairman. Confirmation came on the 15 June that Mike Ashley and St. James' Holdings had acquired slightly over 77% of the club. This meant that Mike Ashley could delist the company from the stock exchange.^[10] On 26 June, Ashley gained the 90% of shares needed to complete the takeover, thus making Newcastle one of the richest football clubs in the world.

On 16 July 2007, Northumbria Police confirmed that Newcastle were one of three football clubs to be involved in an investigation into alleged corruption. A search warrant was served and a Northumbria Police spokesman confirmed that an operation had been carried out at St James' Park. However, in a statement issued by the club, Newcastle pointed out that the club itself wasn't the subject of the investigation, but rather it could be one of their past or present employees. It was strongly rumoured that Graeme Souness was under investigation about the transfer of Jean-Alain Boumsong,acquired from the Scottish team Rangers. ^[11]

On 24 July 2007, it was announced that Chris Mort had replaced Freddy Shepherd as Chairman of the Football Club.^[2]

On 20 August 2007, reports started to circle about an Icelandic led takeover of Newcastle United, which also reportadly included Alan Shearer as a possible investor. Jon Asgeir Johannesson, chief of Baugur - who in recent years have bought iconic British companies such as House of Fraser, Hamleys and Goldsmiths, is reported to be behind the bid. Chris Mort later denied these rumors claiming he and Mike Ashley were in the project for the "long haul"

Newcastle originally wore red and white stripes when the East End and West End clubs unified, continuing the tradition of the defunct Newcastle East End.^[4] To avoid confusion with their neighbours Sunderland, Newcastle changed to their now familiar black and white stripes in 1904. Ever since then, this basic colour design of the home kit has remained steadfastly unchanged, although the sock colour has occasionally changed from black to white over the years - notably during the management tenure of Ruud Gullit, who believed white to be a lucky colour. The team has also sometimes worn white shorts when playing other stripe-wearing teams who also wear black shorts.

In contrast, Newcastle's change strip, or away colours, have varied considerably, with no one consistent scheme. In the late 1960s to mid 1970s the change strips were all blue; in the 1980s, mostly yellow and green, similar to Norwich City's home kit. Since the 1990s, the away strip has often returned to a shade of blue. For the 2007-08 season, the away kit is all sky blue. Other regular away colours have been all black, all white, yellow or grey. One distinctive and unusual away strip was the maroon and blue horizontal hooped shirt worn during the 1995-96 season. Newcastle's shirts of that season were 'retro styled' with buttoned 'grandad collars'. With the Maroon and blue hoops being a reference to the original colours of Newcastle West End. These colours were reinstated for the 2006-07 season.

Newcastle's European shirt colours have been inconsistent. Some recent examples of colours used by the club in European competition are; all yellow with black shorts, all grey with a black trim and most recently, sky blue and black.

Newcastle's shirt sponsors were Scottish & Newcastle Breweries from 1982 - 1986. In 1986, Greenalls took over and ran until 1990 when S & N returned for a ten year stint. In 2000, NTL took over for three years, and now the club is sponsored, until 2010, by Northern Rock.

Newcastle's home and away kit has been manufactured by Adidas since 1995. Previous kits have been manufactured by Bukta (1976-79), Umbro (1980-93)and Asics (1993-95).

Main article: St James' Park

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.^[12] 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,^[1] 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.^[13]

Newcastle have a large fanbase and the third highest average attendance in England.^[14] Newcastle's supporters are considered to be a passionate set of fans^[15] and were found to be the most dedicated in the country in a 2007 survey.^[16] They are often referred to as the "Toon Army" or the "Geordies". The name Toon originates from the geordie pronunciation of town.^[17] It is not known for sure where exactly the term Geordie comes from. However it has also been claimed that in 1745, George II recruited many troops from around the Newcastle area. They were known as "George's men", which became "Geordies men" in the local dialect, hence Geordies.^[18] However it seems to originate from the North East coal mining industry with miners being called Geordies(As referenced in Camden Hotten, John (1869). The Slang Dictionary, Or Vulgar Words, Street Phrases And Fast Expressions of High and Low Society. John Camden Hotten, 142. ““Geordie, general term in Northumberland and Durham for a pitman, or coal-miner. Origin not known; the term has been in use more than a century."”  ^[19]. Which compliments: the fact that North Eastern miners used Geordie lamps, which were miner's lamps developed by George Stephenson in 1815; that George was the most popular eldest boys name in the North East of England^[20].

The club is based in the centre of Newcastle upon Tyne and is the only major club in the city. 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,^[21] North America^[22] and Australia.^[23]

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".^[24] Mark Knopfler's guitar classic "Going Home" from the soundtrack to Local Hero is also used before kick-off at Newcastle's home matches. However this has not been the case so far for the 07/08 season, which has caused upset amongst Newcastle fans who feel Local Hero is a cornerstone of their history.^[25]

Newcastle's longest-running and deepest rivalry is with their nearest major neighbour, Sunderland, colloquially known as "The Mackems", a term used by Newcastle and Sunderland residents alike. Matches between the two are referred to as the Tyne-Wear derby. Newcastle also have a smaller rivalry with Middlesbrough, with whom they contest the Tyne-Tees derby. It is believed that Middlesbrough's supporters consider the rivalry to be more intense than Newcastle supporters.^[26]

For more details on this topic, see Newcastle United F.C. records.

Jimmy Lawrence holds the record for the most Newcastle appearances, having played 496 first-team matches between 1904 and 1921 as a goalkeeper.^[27] 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^[28] 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.^[29]

Newcastle's record home attendance is 68,386, against Chelsea on 3 September 1930.^[30] The capacity of St James' Park is currently 52,387,^[1] 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.^[30]

As of 10 December 2007.^[31][32]

No. Position Player 1 GK Shay Given (vice-captain) 2 DF Stephen Carr 3 DF José Enrique 4 DF David Rozehnal 5 MF Emre 6 DF Caçapa 7 MF Joey Barton 9 FW Obafemi Martins 10 FW Michael Owen 11 MF Damien Duff 13 GK Steve Harper 14 DF Charles N'Zogbia 16 MF James Milner

No. Position Player 17 MF Alan Smith 20 MF Geremi (captain) 21 DF Habib Beye 22 MF Nicky Butt 23 FW Shola Ameobi 25 DF Abdoulaye Faye 26 DF Peter Ramage 27 DF Steven Taylor 30 DF David Edgar 34 GK Fraser Forster 36 FW Mark Viduka 37 MF James Troisi

No. Position Player -- DF Ben Tozer (arriving January from Swindon) -- FW Cho Jae-Jin (arriving January from Shimizu S-Pulse )

No. Position Player 35 MF Matty Pattison (Norwich City - to January 2008) 39 FW Andy Carroll (Preston N.E. - to January 2008) 40 GK Tim Krul (Falkirk - to 1st January 2008)

Position	Name
Manager	Sam Allardyce
First Team Coach	Nigel Pearson
First Team Coach	Steve Round
First Team Coach	Terry McDermott
Reserve Team Manager	Adam Sadler
Youth Academy Director	Joe Joyce
Goalkeeping Coach	Paul Barron

For more details on this topic, see List of Newcastle United F.C. players.

As of December 15, 2007. Only competitive matches are counted.

Name	Nat	From	To	Record
				P	W	D	L	Win %
Andy Cunningham		January 1, 1930	May 31, 1935	251	105	45	101	41.83
Tom Mather		June 1, 1935	September 1, 1939	179	78	32	69	43.57
Stan Seymour		September 1, 1939	June 1, 1958	338	130	74	134	38.46
George Martin		May 1, 1947	December 1, 1950	155	76	40	39	49.03
Doug Livingstone		December 1, 1954	January 1, 1956	99	43	20	36	43.43
Charlie Mitten		June 1, 1958	October 1, 1961	145	53	28	64	36.55
Norman Smith		October 1, 1961	June 1, 1962	35	12	8	15	34.28
Joe Harvey		June 1, 1962	June 1, 1975	591	224	52	215	37.90
Gordon Lee		June 12, 1975	January 30, 1977	74	28	20	26	37.83
Richard Dinnis		February 2, 1977	November 9, 1977	40	12	10	18	30.00
Bill McGarry		November 18, 1977	August 31, 1980	118	37	33	48	31.35
Arthur Cox		September 1, 1980	May 24, 1984	169	76	42	51	44.97
Jack Charlton		August 14, 1984	August 10, 1985	48	15	15	18	31.25
Willie McFaul		September 10, 1985	October 10, 1988	140	47	39	54	33.57
Colin Suggett[33]		November 2, 1988	December 4, 1988	5	0	2	3	0
Jim Smith		December 14, 1988	March 26, 1991	121	44	38	39	36.36
Osvaldo Ardiles		March 26, 1991	February 5, 1992	47	10	18	19	21.27
Kevin Keegan		February 5, 1992	January 8, 1997	251	138	52	62	54.98
Terry McDermott[33]		January 8, 1997	January 14, 1997	1	0	1	0	0
Kenny Dalglish		January 14, 1997	August 27, 1998	78	30	26	22	38.46
Ruud Gullit		August 28, 1998	August 28, 1999	52	18	14	20	34.61
Steve Clarke[33]		August 28, 1999	September 2, 1999	1	0	0	1	0
Sir Bobby Robson		2 September 1999	30 August 2004	255	119	64	72	46.66
John Carver[33]		11 September 2004	13 September 2004	1	1	0	0	100
Graeme Souness		13 September 2004	2 February 2006	87	39	19	29	44.82
Glenn Roeder		2 February 2006	6 May 2007	73	33	16	24	45.20
Nigel Pearson[33]		6 May 2007	15 May 2007	1	0	1	0	0
Sam Allardyce		15 May 2007	Present	19	7	5	7	36.84

• First Division and Premier League^[34] titles: 4
  • Champions: 1904-05, 1906-07, 1908-09, 1926-27
  • Runners-up: 1995–96, 1996–97

• Old Second Division: 2
  • Champions: 1964-65, 1992-93
  • Runners-up: 1897-98, 1947-48

• FA Cups: 6
  • 1910, 1924, 1932, 1951, 1952, 1955

• Charity Shields and Community Shields^[35]: 1
  • 1909

• Inter-Cities Fairs Cup: 1
  • 1969

• Texaco Cups: 2
  • 1974, 1975

• Anglo-Italian Cup: 1
  • 1973

• Kirin Cup: 1
  • 1983

• Milk Cup: 2
  • 1985 (Premier), 1989 (Premier)

Official websites

• nufc.co.uk Official club website
• Newcastle United at the FA Premier League official website
• Newcastle United at the UEFA official website

General fan sites

• NUFC.com
• Toon-Army
• Newcastle-online
• AussieMags.net - Australian NUFC Fans
• Newcastle United Online
• NUFCview

News sites

• Newcastle on BBC Sport: Club News - Recent results - Upcoming fixtures - Club stats
• Newcastle United news from The Independent
• Newcastle United news from Sky Sports
• Newcastle United news from Evening Chronicle

Fanzines

• True-faith
• NUFC Singapore
• Toon Army USA

Supporter Groups

• Toon Ultras (Non-Hooligan Group

Newcastle United Football Club v • d • e
Newcastle United FC | Players | Club records History | Newcastle East End | Newcastle West End | St. James' Park Tyne-Wear derby | Newcastle Reserves | Newcastle United WFC
Newcastle United F.C. seasons v • d • e
2005–06 • 2006–07 • 2007–08 •
Premier League 2007–08 v • d • e
Arsenal | Aston Villa | Birmingham City | Blackburn Rovers | Bolton Wanderers | Chelsea | Derby County | Everton Fulham | Liverpool | Manchester City | Manchester United | Middlesbrough | Newcastle United | Portsmouth Reading | Sunderland | Tottenham Hotspur | West Ham United | Wigan Athletic
Premier League seasons v • d • e
1992–93 • 1993–94 • 1994–95 • 1995–96 • 1996–97 • 1997–98 • 1998–99 • 1999–2000 • 2000–01 2001–02 • 2002–03 • 2003–04 • 2004–05 • 2005–06 • 2006–07 • 2007–08