By Albatross
November 21 2002

The questions being asked by most Poolies at the moment will be "Why Mike Newell?" and "Who is he anyway?" In an attempt to answer at least one of these questions, Albatross has a look at his playing career and coaching experience. Newell will be 38 in January, and started his career on home town team Liverpool's books, but failed to make the grade at Anfield and made his league debut for Crewe in the 83/4 season. He only made three appearances for Crewe before being picked up by Wigan a month later, and stayed there until Luton paid £100K for him in January 1986. About 18 months later he was again on the move, this time to Leicester for £350K.

Everton was his next port of call at the start of the 1989/90 season, the fee being a not inconsiderable £1.1million, and he moved to Blackburn for the same amount in November 1991.

He made 167 appearances and scored 48 goals at Ewood Park in his five years there, including a hat-trick inside 10 minutes against Rosenborg in the Champions League. After leaving Blackburn, he had spells at Birmingham, West Ham (Loan), Bradford (Loan), Aberdeen, Crewe again and Doncaster before finishing his playing career with an injury-hit season at Blackpool as they gained promotion - beating Pools in the Playoffs on the way.

It's fair to say Newell wasn't exactly the greatest player on the ground, and played the traditional "big target man" role at his clubs.

He was Reserve Team Coach at Tranmere before leaving at the end of last season, and also did some coaching at Doncaster following their relegation to the Conference.

Tranmere fan Captain_Harris said of Newell when asked about his capabilities: "According to our great set of fans, he's either: 1) Rubbish - he's ex-Everton, you see. Boooo, Hisssss, Booooo! Blah, blah, blah. or 2) Brilliant - he actually did well last year with the reserves. Funnily enough, that was apprently one of the main reasons our fans wanted current head honcho, Ray Mathias appointed. Only problem with Mike is that he wasn't "Tranmere through and through" - the only thing that REALLY matters in manager applications of course...."

The appointment has taken almost every fan by surprise, with Newell not even being mentioned as most Poolies mentioned the names of Colin West, Steve Parkin and Nigel Clough, with Peter Beardsley, Chris Waddle and a whole host of others also talked about as being in the frame. My personal reaction is somewhat sceptical - we were in a position of real strength for a change, so to appoint someone with about two years experience as a coach and none as a manager is disappointing. Then again, Chris Turner had very
little track record and turned out to be a good appointment, and the same board have appointed Newell.

Newell has already recorded an interview for Pools World; in it he indicated how impressive he found the setup at Pools and said that he would consider not getting promoted this season a failure. While admitting that he's not overly familiar with the Pools Players, he did say that dosn't intend to change things around too much. The full interview is available to Pools World subscribers.

There's no news yet on whether Newell will be bringing in his own backroom staff, or about the future for Martin Scott, who has been doing a sterling job with the Youth Team.

Whatever our misgivings or surprise about the appointment, Mike Newell is the man in charge, and so let's give the guy a chance and get behind the club. After all, we are still top of the league - and I'm sure every Poolie wants that to stay the case.