Newcastle Manager's First Interviews - Did They Deliver On Their Promises?

3. Ruud Gullit

"Chelsea is out of my system now although I feel I'm a better manager for my experience. I prefer to play good football but I will have to see just how good the players I have inherited are. "But if I can bring entertainment into it as well I will be a happy, happy man. "I've always enjoyed going to clubs who haven't been successful for a while. I like to go somewhere and start again, although my philosophy is to work day-to-day rather than think months ahead. "I don't know whether this will be a big enough club to fulfil my ambitions but I certainly hope so. I believe that you have to build things step- by-step and that's what I will be doing here. I know I am the third manager to be at Newcastle in 20 months, but I know what it feels like to be on the way out also. "One of the most important things is that we enjoy it with the fans, and I hope I can have a good relationship with them."

An FA Cup final simply wasn't good enough from Gullit who left United less than a month into the 1999/00 season with the club bottom of the Premier League. His brand of football at Chelsea got him the Newcastle job as Freddy Shepherd saw him as a Kevin Keegan mark 2, but as good as that was in the beginning he simply didn't win enough games to make it viable. To be fair to him however, he didn't promise to bring success, he guaranteed entertainment. And Magpies' fans certainly got that, even if they had no finger nails left by the end of it. Did He Deliver? Sort Of!