Glenn Roeder

Glenn Roeder

Personal information
Full name	Glenn Victor Roeder
Position(s)	Manager (former Defender)
Team information
Current team	Newcastle United

Glenn Victor Roeder, (born December 13 1955 in Woodford Essex), is an English football manager and former player. He is currently the manager of Newcastle United, having been appointed officially on May 16, 2006 after a successful three-month spell as caretaker manager. As a player, Roeder represented England B on 7 occasions. He has the personality of a wet lettuce and the team is doing crap under his reign

Playing career

Roeder began his playing career as a classy ball-playing defender at Leyton Orient F.C. before moving to Queens Park Rangers F.C. where he captained them in the 1982 FA Cup Final but sensationally missed the replay due to suspension picked up some weeks earlier. In 1984 he was transferred to Newcastle United, where he made close to 200 appearances during his 5 years at the club. It was during this period he was famed for his shuffle, a smart stepover which he used to extricate himself from numerous tight spots. Roeder finished his playing career with a two year spell at Watford followed by a 6 game stint at Gillingham, whom he had joined as player-manager.

Early management: Gillingham and Watford

Roeder spent only one season as manager of Gillingham, during which time he led the side to 13 wins in 51 games and saw them finish second from bottom of the Football League, escaping relegation after winning against bottom club Halifax on the final day of the season. After Steve Perryman's dismissal, Roeder was hired as the new manager of his former club, Watford, at the start of the 1993/94 season. In his second season with Watford he almost took the side to the play-offs, eventually finishing just one place outside them. However, he was sacked in February 1996 as the side were struggling near the bottom of the First Division. His replacement, Graham Taylor, was unable to prevent the side from being relegated.

West Ham, relegation and illness

Roeder spent the next five years as a coach with both England and West Ham before being given another opportunity at management. Following West Ham's failure to attract either Alan Curbishley or Steve McClaren as replacements for the recently departed Harry Redknapp, Roeder, who was Youth Team coach acting as caretaker-manager, was appointed as West Ham's new manager in the summer of 2001. In the second half of that season he took West Ham to 7th in the Premiership.

The following season, 2002/2003, he signed Tomas Repka for about £5 million, David James from Aston Villa for around £2 million and Don Hutchison from Sunderland for around £5 Million. David James was injured on international duty and was out for months before he could play for West Ham, Tomas Repka had serious disiplinary problems and Don Hutchison turned out to be a injury-prone flop on his second spell with the club.

Due to injuries to Paolo Di Canio and Frédéric Kanouté's personal problems, Roeder was forced to play a young Jermain Defoe up front on his own. As the season became more desperate, the team resorted to playing direct, long ball football to Defoe, who struggled in this position. Roeder also struggled with a very small squad, only just managing to field a first eleven at times.

West Ham were bottom at Christmas and at that time no team had avoided relegation from that postion. Despite the January signings of Rufus Brevett and Lee Bowyer on a short-term deal and the best efforts of Sir Trevor Brooking in the last few games, the team was relegated from the Premiership.

On April 21 2003, whilst West Ham were battling to remain in the FA Premier League, Roeder collapsed in his office due to a brain tumour. After taking the rest of the season off he returned to manage the side at the start of the next season. However, after a poor start in the First Division, Roeder was sacked by the newly relegated side on August 24 2003.

Newcastle United

After nearly two years out of the game, he returned to football in June 2005 when he was named youth-development manager of Newcastle United. When Graeme Souness was sacked as Newcastle manager in February 2006, Roeder was appointed caretaker manager, with striker Alan Shearer as his assistant. He was able to spectacularly turn the Magpies' season around, rescuing them from near the foot of the table to finish 7th in the Premiership with a place in the Intertoto Cup.

Freddy Shepherd, Newcastle United's chairman, consequently named Roeder as first in line to become full-time manager at the club, on condition that Newcastle obtain dispensation from the FA Premier League to allow Roeder to continue without the mandatory UEFA Pro Licence. Newcastle claim exceptional circumstances as Roeder was halfway to gaining the licence when he suffered his brain tumour.

The Premier League at first rejected Newcastle's request on 3 May 2006, the organisation had little choice, as they are bound by UEFA rules. However, Freddy Shepherd lobbied his fellow chairmen and they voted in favour of Roeder being allowed to gain the correct licence while in the job.

A press conference was held on 16 May 2006, in which Roeder was introduced as the new manager and signed a two year contract. On June 1 2006, Roeder appointed Kevin Bond as his assistant. Roeder had worked with Bond at West Ham where Bond was a scout. Roeder believed the two of them work well together, however Bond's contract at the club was terminated after allegations he was prepared to take bungs for players whilst at Portsmouth. Lee Clark was also appointed first team coach on the same day.

On the 22nd October 2006, Roeder announced that, ex-Middlesbrough player and recent care-taker manager of West Brom, Nigel Pearson would be his new assistant manager. It is rumoured that Pearson turned down many other clubs, including the chance to manage Sheffield Wednesday in order to work with Roeder.

Roeder is currently the target of fan anger over slipping performances by what is seen as one of the weakest Newcastle sides in years, especially the back four of Celestine Babayaro, Titus Bramble and Stephen Carr. Bramble in particular is seen as the weak link of the team due to many lapses in his recent games. Whether he will remain in the job is yet to be seen as a similar campaign drove former manager Graeme Souness out just last year.

After the 1-0 defeat to Sheffield United at home on Saturday 2/11/06, there was a huge fan protest out side St. James', that was shown live on Sky channel PremPlus, many of whom would like the chairman, Freddy Shepherd to leave the club due to his poor decisions on appointing managers. Roeder has also been widely criticised for dropping spaniard Albert Luque from the starting XI after he scored in Newcastle's shock 1-0 victory over Palermo in Italy, and choosing to play rookie loanee Giuseppe Rossi upfront on his own. It is beleived Roeder will keep his job at least until the end of the transfer window. Alan Shearer commented on BBC's Match of the Day "the problem before was Newcastle were conceding at the back, but they were still scoring upfront, but now they havn't got anybody to score goals, so they're gonna have to buy in the transfer window." Shearer also said that a new manager won't solve the problem for Newcastle, as there are too many injuries, the same excuse used by ex-Magpies manager Graeme Souness.

After a run of poor results in the 2006/2007 seasons leaving Newcastle United second from bottom in the FA Premier League table Roeder is set to have a crisis meeting with chairman Freddy Shepherd.