10 Key Reasons Why Newcastle Have Chosen Steve McClaren

McClaren, as you would expect, still carries the scars from his bruising tenure as England boss, where a failure to qualify for Euro 2008 brutally exposed his managerial imperfections and seared the image of him standing forlorn on the side of the Wembley turf holding an umbrella into the eyes of a nation, following the defeat to Croatia in November 2007.

He was sacked by the Football Association within 24 hours and mocked in the national press, dubbed the "Wally with the Brolly" - a nightmare that continues to follow him wherever he goes. So, it's to McClaren's credit that he took the plunge in moving to the Netherlands after the trauma of his Three Lions ordeal,  rehabilitating his reputation by guiding FC Twente to second place in his first season and to the Eredivisie Championship for the first time in the club's history in the next.

After his success at Twente he was dismissed by Wolfsburg and lasted only 112 days at Nottingham Forest with the club hovering just four places above the Championship drop zone. He made an unsuccessful return to Twente, lasting 12 months in the job before pitching up at Derby where he failed to guide the club into the Premier League.

Yet he remains resilient, not allowing the negatives of his past failures to cloud his future, and his irrepressible, belligerent personality is perfectly suited to a job where the thickest of thick skins is required to survive. There is a confidence about McClaren that could be misconstrued as arrogance, but this is a coach confident in his own abilities, forever seeking fulfilment to go alongside the widespread admiration of his talents.