10 Candidates To Be Steve McClaren's Newcastle Captain

Newcastle United's new regime has now had two weeks to bed in. Steve McClaren and his backroom staff have been settled in at the Magpies' Benton training base after arriving at the beginning of July and the players have been put through their paces during the early part of pre-season. Last Friday also saw McClaren take charge of his first Magpies match at the International Stadium. Papiss Cisse's sixth-minute spot-kick - following a challenge on Massadio Haidara that earned Newcastle a stonewall penalty - gave the ex-England boss a narrow 1-0 victory over Gateshead during his opening game in the Newcastle dugout. The change in approach was evident from the beginning - with McClaren and Ian Cathro's determination to play football on the deck and to impose a high-press game already rubbing off on the players. Although the performance was far from slick, that was to be expected in the first match of pre-season - and it was not helped by the Magpies fielding two separate XIs in either half. Yet one thing does remain unclear in this brave new era - who will be McClaren's captain? Jack Colback was given the armband in the first-half at Gateshead, then Cheick Tiote donned it in the second 45 - but could Fabricio Coloccini, who sat out the match, retain the captaincy going forward? Or could another player be given the responsibility? In all there are at least 10 viable contenders for the Newcastle United captaincy - and here WhatCultureNUFC assesses the candidacies of Steve McClaren's potential skippers...