Newcastle have done Steve McLaren no favours in media blackout move

Steve McLaren’s job as the new Newcastle United boss is hard enough.

He inherits a threadbare squad that’s been steadily divested of its few quality players over the last couple of seasons.

His players have won three matches this year and escaped relegation on the final day of the season.

He is stepping into the middle of a long-running toxic relationship between Mike Ashley and the fans.

His own reputation has been damaged by Derby’s implosion during their promotion run-in, and their decision that he wasn’t good enough to manage them any more.

He doesn’t need more problems. So why deliberately saddle him with a seriously angry media?

Last Thursday, Newcastle decided that their new Head Coach would only give interviews to Sky Sports as Premier League rights holders, plus one national newspaper, said to be the club’s “preferred media partner”.

The rest, including The Sunday Post, were excluded.

It was an unprecedented move. Every club invites all forms of media TV, radio, national Press, local papers to a major event like a managerial unveiling.

As a result, the Magpies took a real pummelling from those who missed out. The gist was that the club didn’t want awkward questions. That McClaren was being gagged from communicating with the supporters he’ll need. That he was showing himself to be Ashley’s puppet from day one.

Yet despite the “Wally With The Brolly” headlines and a bit of micky-taking over his attempted Dutch accent, McClaren has a good relationship with the Press.

You would think that his elevation to the club’s Board a position that comes with his three-year deal and five-year option would allow him to argue that a bit more openness would lead to broader support.

If he felt that way, he clearly doesn’t have the independence to do anything about it.

So he faces unnecessary hostility because the club are at war with those who act as the conduit between the people who run it and those who finance it through season tickets, TV subscriptions and megastore purchases.

The club’s reasons are two-fold. They dislike criticism the city’s local newspapers were banned from matches and Press conferences for long periods and they believe that access to the club should only go to those prepared to pay.

So instead of the positivity normally associated with any new manager, critics are already on McClaren’s case. And we’re two months away from a ball being kicked!