Steve McClaren has now confirmed his new-look backroom staff, but who are they? This article will recap the careers of our new staff.
Ian Cathro
Cathro began his footballing career at Forfar Athletic and Brechin City. He never reached a professional career at these lower league Scottish clubs, but he quickly rose to prominence as a coach. He began coaching local youth football in Dundee, and was noticed as an excellent coaching prospect, and therefore installed as the head of the Dundee United academy at the young age of 22. Once there, he helped to bring about an excellent young generation of players at Dundee, headlined by Ryan Gauld and John Souttar. Gauld has gone on to be one of the stars of Scotland’s youth setup, and is currently plying his trade for Sporting in Portugal. Souttar is still only 18, yet he has made 43 first team appearances for Dundee United.
At a coaching course, Cathro befriended Portuguese coach Nuno Espirito Santo, who offered to make him his assistant at Rio Ave FC in the Portugesse first division. The club qualified for Europe for the first time with Nuno and Cathro at the helm, as well as appearing in two cup finals. Rio Ave also defeated Newcastle 3-1 in a friendly with Cathro as assistant manager.
After two years at the club, Nuno accepted the manager’s position at Valencia, and brought Cathro as his assistant. Valencia had an excellent season, finishing 4th in La Liga, and therefore qualifying for Cahmpions League football for next season. Roughly two weeks ago, Cathro resigned his position at Valencia, citing family reasons. He reportedly was close to becoming the new head man at Glasgow Rangers, according to the Chronicle
Cathro appears to be an extremely positive addition to the backroom on the Tyneside. He is young, and has a good track record at all three clubs he has been at. At Dundee, he presided over an impressive youth haul, demonstrating he has skills in developing young footballers. At Rio Ave and Valencia, he was part of teams that improved significantly after his and Nuno’s arrival. At 28, he will only improve with experience as a manager, and his new ideas and fresh perspectives will compliment McClaren’s experience well. This appears to be a good hire by the Magpies.

Paul Simpson
Paul Simpson enjoyed a lengthy playing career which stretched 24 years. During that time, he was on the books of Manchester City, Oxford United, Derby County, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Black pool exclusively as a player. In 2002, Simpson became the player manager at Rochdale, who he moved to on a free transfer in March of that same year. The final club he played for was his hometown Carlisle United, whom he led to double promotion, with the team rising League Two as the winners of the Conference National Playoff in 2004-05, and then achieving automatic promotion as champions of League Two the following year. After mixed results at Preston North End and Shrewsbury Town, Simpson took over at Stockport County in July 2010. He lasted only until January 2011, and sued the club over wrongful dismissal. His most recent job as a manager came with Northwich Victoria in 2012. In September 2013, Simpson arrived at Derby County to become a first team coach under Steve McClaren, a position he held until last month.
Alessandro Schoenmaker
Schoenmaker has a long history with new Magpies manager Steve McClaren, as they have previously worked together at past stops such as FC Twente in Holland, VfL Wolfsburg in Germany and at both Nottingham Forest and Derby County in the Championship. According to the Chronicle, Newcastle suffered no less than 30 muscle injuries last term, and McClaren believes that bringing in Schoenmaker will resolve this issue.

Steve Black
Black is a familiar face in Newcastle, due to his work with Kevin Keegan for the Magpies in the 90s, as well as with the Newcastle Falcons of the Rugby Union. Other employers of Black include the Welsh RFU, the British & Irish Lions, Fulham, Sunderland and Huddersfield, with his most recent post being at Queens Park Rangers, where he built a relationship with striker Charlie Austin, an off season target of the Magpies. Black is famous for his ability to foster teamwork and fitness in the clubs he works for.
With Peter Beardsley and Andy Woodman remaining in their roles as Football Development Manager and Goalkeeping Coach respectively, Newcastle’s staff appears to be set for the forthcoming season. All four of these new arrivals bring strong positives to the club. Simpson and Schoenmaker both have previous experience with McClaren, which will certainly help with the settling in process at the club, and Black has previous experience at the club itself. If Schoenmaker can help remedy the clubs injury issues, the club could become substantially better just by keeping first team stars like Siem De Jong healthy. Finally, Black’s dual ability to foster fitness and teamwork could benefit a club that needs to come together after a disastrous finish to the last campaign.





