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Photo courtesy StartAgain's Flickr account

Since the end of the 2008-09 season and even before that, it seems as though Coca-Cola Championship newcomer Newcastle United has  found itself falling into one crisis after another after yet another.

The Magpies, marauding and swashbuckling their way through Europe in the UEFA Champions League a mere six years ago, have now sunk into the domestic second division, and this latest episode of the saga at St. James’ Park has brought all sorts of new embarrassments, surprises and downright bizarre events – For a starter course on all three, see: Leyton Orient 6, a near full-strength Newcastle United 1.

The latest twist in the Geordie tale, though, has been brought to light via recent reports in the mainstream British press hinting that former Leeds United and Aston Villa manager David O’Leary may be making a return to football as Newcastle boss.  If true, it’s a story that cannot and would not end well.

It is believed in some quarters that club owner and billionaire sportswear magnate Mike Ashley does not believe that club legend Alan Shearer – both of whom were in charge when Newcastle actually fell out of the Barclays Premier League last season – would be a viable choice to take the reigns back from current caretaker manager Chris Hughton if the Magpies want to bounce right back into the top flight for next season.  Many of Shearer’s detractors have cited his lack of experience as a manager, and this is why it is thought that Ashley has made an apparent move to bring former Republic of Ireland international O’Leary to the club as the Toon Army tries to climb its collective way out of the doldrums.

Ashley has often shocked the football world with his unpredictable and sometimes bizarre actions, but any decision by him to bring O’Leary to Newcastle would very much take the biscuit.   Not that such an appointment wouldn’t be par for the course for Newcastle of late; it’s just that O’Leary is entirely the wrong man for the club at any time, let alone during the current climate of crisis that the Magpies find themselves in.

Just look at the evidence: First, O’Leary only gained his biggest managerial success at Leeds under an overinflated budget, particularly as it concerned wage costs.  If viewed in comparison to his reign at Aston Villa, then, you might conclude that O’Leary is only a successful manager if he has a large amount of funds at his disposal.  The proof is there; when when O’Leary was in the manager’s role at Villa Park, club chairman Doug Ellis was rather limited in the amount of money that he would give O’Leary to spend on players, making it no surprise that Villa under O’Leary was accused of being boring, uninspiring and mediocre on the pitch, finishing 10th and 16th in the league under the Irishman.

O’Leary would be a bad choice for Newcastle United just given his Villa sides’ form, but when we then address the allegations of mismanagement that have been made against O’Leary by one of his former employers, then the idea of Ashley even entertaining thoughts of bringing O’Leary becomes that much more preposterous.

In his 2007 book United We Fall: Boardroom Truths About The Beautiful Game, Peter Ridsdale alleges that O’Leary had a major role in the financial collapse of once-proud Leeds United, and if the allegations are true, then an O’Leary era at St. James’ Park may push Newcastle’s current situation from bad to worse.  O’Leary spent lavishly in his time at Leeds, spending in upwards of £100m over four years, which, although seemingly average for a top four team – which Leeds was – in the current Premiership structure of the late 2000’s, Leeds even outspent then what Manchester United has forked over recently.

Many have blamed O’Leary’s spending habits for putting Leeds into a financial quagmire, but the Leeds board allowed the inordinate amount of spending to go ahead, so blame for the club’s subsequent collapse is to be shared.  Despite this, though, O’Leary would struggle mightily at Newcastle, as while the club still retains its large-looming name, it still has to work on a relatively shoestring budget whilst in the Championship.

Now to address Ridsdale’s allegations from United We Fall, the most spectacular of these involving the deal to bring future England mainstay Rio Ferdinand to Elland Road from West Ham United. The former Leeds chairman alleges that O’Leary had gone on his own to authorize bung agent Rune Hauge to communicate with Ferdinand as well as the star player’s agent and former club months before the Leeds board gave him permission to do so.

Hauge was already a disgraced figure in the game, having initially been banned for life by FIFA, only to have his sentence reduced to a two-year ban, all of which brings us back to O’Leary.  With O’Leary as a potential managerial target for Newcastle, you have to really ask: Why would Newcastle United, let alone any club, get involved with a manager who has been accused of dealing with such controversial characters as Hauge?

This was not the only allegation made by Ridsdale in his book. The current Cardiff City chairman claims that there is a common misconception as to why he sacked O’Leary when both men were at Leeds United . Most people believe that O’Leary was sacked for what was was written in the manager’s own book (which we’ll come to in a minute), but Ridsdale states that O’Leary was sacked because the manager had lost the dressing room, with several players apparently stating that they would move elsewhere if O’Leary remained at the club.

If that’s true, then it’s all the more reason why O’Leary is the wrong man to lead the Geordie nation right now or at any point in the future.  How would he cope in a dressing room full of apparent mercenaries? If Alan Shearer had trouble motivating the Magpies to stay up in the Premier League, how could O’Leary inspire them now to get back up to the promised land?  If Ridsdale’s allegations that O’Leary lost the dressing room at Elland Road, then how could O’Leary possibly deal at Newcastle with the likes of Joey Barton?

There is one definite fact from O’Leary’s past, however, that directly calls his character into question. Whilst manager at Leeds, two of O’Leary players (Jonathan Woodgate, Lee Bowyer) stood trial for their alleged involvement in the assault of an Asian student outside a nightclub in Leeds city centre.  During the very same season as the one in which those players were brought to court,  O’Leary released a controversial book of his own called Leeds United: A Season On Trial.

Even the very title of the book suggested to Leeds fans that O’Leary was cashing in on their club’s controversy.  Hard to blame them, given that O’Leary had likened the police investigation against Woodgate, Bowyer and Duberry to the televison programme The Sweeny while also attacking the Football Association for not allowing the players involved in the trial to play for England.   

This more than anything is why O’Leary should not be given another  managerial job at any football club, much less at a crisis club like Newcastle.  It’s no wonder Ridsdale claims that O’Leary lost the team at Leeds; If O’Leary were to join Newcastle, how long would it be before he brought out a book criticising Mike Ashley, to say nothing of potential mudslinging flying in the opposite direction?

Despite being an highly experienced manager both in domestic competition and in Europe, O’Leary’s evident lack of class and diplomacy may be why he has not been hired  since his contract with Aston Villa was terminated in 2006 by mutual consent.  Whether or not he is really as vindictive and untrustworthy as many are led to believe, then, he appears to be a liability that no club is publicly chomping at the bit to take on.

The list ought to include Newcastle, because if it does hire O’Leary, then it might as well jump down once more into League One right away.

Ross Andrew Gallacher