5. Appoint A Permanent Captain
When asked after the Borussia defeat whether he had decided on his Newcastle captain going forward, Steve McClaren told the
Shields Gazette:
"No. I've been asked before every game, but you know what - it's not that I don't care, but they should all be captains. "We have a senior group of players and what Ive done is passed it around the senior group. (Fabricio) Coloccini is the club captain. Will he play next week? We don't know. "Will he be captain next week? We don't know. Let's first get him on the training field, let's get him playing and see if he can start."
So not only has McClaren been unable to clarify the situation surrounding Coloccini's future at the club, he has also been unable to state whether or not the Argentine will be his long-term captain. In pre-season the skipper's armband has been passed around willy nilly between Jack Colback (he has worn it most frequently), Daryl Janmaat, Siem de Jong, Tim Krul and, briefly, even Cheick Tiote. The situation has become absurd - regardless of whether or not McClaren believes the importance of captaincy in football is over-exaggerated, for which he is probably correct in all honesty, there still needs to be a definitive first-team skipper. Having failed to name one before now has left McClaren with one further question mark hanging over his squad that needn't have been there. The likelihood is that Colback, or possibly Janmaat, will be given the armband on Sunday against Southampton, and McClaren should just have revealed that weeks ago.