Mike Newell (footballer)

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Mike Newell
Personal information
Full name Michael Colin Newell
Date of birth January 27, 1965 (1965-01-27) (age 43)
Place of birth    Liverpool, England
Playing position Striker
Youth clubs
1982 Liverpool
Senior clubs1
Years Club App (Gls)*
1982–1983
1983–1986
1986–1987
1987–1989
1989–1991
1991–1996
1996–1997
1997
1997
1997–1999
1999
1999–2000
2000–2001		 Crewe Alexandra
Wigan Athletic
Luton Town
Leicester City
Everton
Blackburn Rovers
Birmingham City
→ West Ham United (loan)
→ Bradford City (loan)
Aberdeen
Crewe Alexandra
Doncaster Rovers
Blackpool		 003 0(0)
072 (25)
063 (18)
081 (21)
068 (15)
130 (28)
015 0(1)
007 0(0)
007 0(0)
044 0(6)
004 0(0)
016 0(3)
018 0(2)   
National team
1986
1989		 England U21
England B		 004 0(0)
002 0(1)
Teams managed
2002–2003
2003–2007		 Hartlepool United
Luton Town

1 Senior club appearances and goals
counted for the domestic league only.
* Appearances (Goals)

Michael Colin "Mike" Newell (born January 27, 1965) is an English football manager and former player. He was part of the Blackburn Rovers team which won the Premier League in 1995, and totalled £3,585,000 in transfer fees over the duration of his career.[1] He is a self-confessed Liverpool fan.

Contents

[edit] Playing career

Newell represented 13 different clubs in his career, playing a total of 530 league games and scoring 120 goals. While playing for Blackburn against Rosenborg in the 1995–96 season, Newell scored the fastest-ever hat-trick in the UEFA Champions League, netting his three goals in a spell of only nine minutes. This was a "Perfect Hat-Trick", meaning he scored the goals with his right foot, left foot and head.

Newell was released by both Liverpool and Crewe Alexandra as a youngtster, finally finding found form at Wigan Athletic. After a brief period at Wigan, Newell went to Luton Town. After another successful time he moved on to Leicester City in 1987. His form here attracted interest from Everton, and he moved back home to Liverpool in 1989 for £1,100,000. In just over two years at Everton, he made 68 appearances, scoring 15 goals. He was on the move again in 1991 to Blackburn Rovers, where he was amongst the winning Premier League side of 1994–95, however only making two appearances all season. Newell also scored the 1,000th goal of the Premier League era during Blackburn's 3–1 win at Nottingham Forest in April 1993. He had five years at Blackburn before his move to Birmingham City in 1996. However, this spell proved to be unsuccessful, and was the beginning of a five year spell at seven different clubs. Newell left Birmingham to join West Ham United on loan in December 1996, before a similar spell at Bradford City in March 1997. In the summer of 1997, Newell moved to Aberdeen before drifting back into the English leagues with Crewe, Doncaster Rovers and Blackpool. He retiring from playing in May 2001.

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Hartlepool United

Newell replaced Chris Turner as manager of Hartlepool United during the 2002–03 season, when Hartlepool were top of the league. After horrendous away form, the club lost a 16 point lead it held though the club still managed to gain promotion as runners-up. After this, and many personnel differences between Newell and the board at Hartlepool, Newell's contract was not renewed in the summer of 2003, and he was replaced by Neale Cooper.

[edit] Luton Town

Shortly after leaving Hartlepool, he was appointed manager of Luton Town by controversial chairman John Gurney, who, having just purchased the club, sacked the popular management team of Joe Kinnear and Mick Harford. It was reported that Newell won a Pop Idol-style poll to become manager[2] but he was offered and signed a contract before the "results" were announced. Shortly after taking over, the club went into administrative receivership which saw a several players leave the club. Despite this, Newell succeeded in taking the club near the play-offs of the Second Division.

The following season, Luton became the first ever champions of League One, winning 98 points and gaining promotion to the Championship. Newell guided Luton to further success in the 2005–06 season, which saw Luton finish tenth in the Championship. Luton also became one of only two clubs to defeat runaway champions Reading. Newell was linked with jobs at several larger clubs, such as Leicester City,[3] but remained at Luton and later signed a four-year contract.[4]

Newell's relationship with Luton turned sour after a poor start to the 2006–07 season, in which he criticised chairman Bill Tomlins' running of the club.[5] After a number of players departed in the summer of 2006, and then more in January 2007, the club was in a relegation battle. Newell was sacked by Luton in March 2007 after criticising the club's board for not investing enough money into the club.[6]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Corruption allegations

Main article: 2006 allegations of corruption in English football

Newell caused a huge stir in the footballing world, when he claimed that corruption was rife in transfer deals. In particular, he claimed that he had been offered "bungs" or bribes by football agents and agreed to name the offending parties when called upon by the FA. [7] As a result, an enquiry was launched by the FA and was headed by Lord Stevens, a former Metropolitan Police commissioner[8]. On 20 December 2006, Stevens presented his preliminary report, which found that, although the level of corruption within English football was not a high as had been anticipated, there were several causes for concern.[9] 17 transfer deals were still subject to further scrutiny.

[edit] Female match officials

Following a match against Queens Park Rangers on 11 November 2006 Newell criticised female assistant referee, Amy Rayner, using sexist comments, and later apologised. He also criticised the chairman of Luton Town FC, Bill Tomlins. For this he was reprimanded by his club, which publicly disassociated itself from the comments concerning Rayner.[10]

[edit] Foreign players

Following a match against West Bromwich Albion on 12 January 2007 Newell criticised the influence of foreign players in English game, stating that it was "going soft."[11] This was after an incident in which Luton midfielder David Bell appeared to be fouled, play continued and West Brom went on to not only equalize minutes before the end, but to claim a last gasp winner to leave Luton empty handed.

[edit] Honours

As a player

Blackburn Rovers

Wigan Athletic

As a manager

Luton Town

Hartlepool United

[edit] Managerial stats

Team Nat From To Record
G W L D Win %
Hartlepool United Flag of England November 21, 2002 May 30, 2003 29 13 7 9 44.82
Luton Town Flag of England June 23, 2003 March 15, 2007 200 83 68 49 41.50

[edit] Trivia

[edit] References

  1. ^ Soccerbase
  2. ^ "Newell wins Luton election", BBC Sport, 2003-06-23. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. 
  3. ^ "Newell turns down Leicester job", BBC Sport, 2006-02-09. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. 
  4. ^ "Newell agrees new deal with Luton", BBC Sport, 2006-03-17. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. 
  5. ^ "Newell hopes Rayner row is over", BBC Sport, 2006-11-16. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. 
  6. ^ "Struggling Luton sack boss Newell", BBC Sport, 2007-03-15. Retrieved on 2008-01-27. 
  7. ^ FA to meet Newell over bung claim (HTML). BBC Sport (2006-01-12). Retrieved on 2006-09-18.
  8. ^ Ex-police chief leads bungs probe (HTML). BBC Sport (2006-03-03). Retrieved on 2006-09-18.
  9. ^ Bung inquiry targets 17 transfers (HTML). BBC Sport (2006-12-20). Retrieved on 2007-01-28.
  10. ^ Newell rapped but keeps Luton job (HTML). BBC Sport (2006-11-15). Retrieved on 2006-11-15.
  11. ^ Newell angered by foreign players (HTML). BBC Sport (2006-01-13). Retrieved on 2006-11-13.

[edit] External links

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