Today marks five years since the passing of former Newcastle United player and manager Glenn Roeder, the Essex boy who became an adopted Geordie.
Born in Woodford, Essex, Roeder joined Arsenal as a schoolboy before beginning his professional career with Leyton Orient.
Roeder made over 100 appearances in the centre of Orient’s defence, and would later swap East London for West London, moving to Queen’s Park Rangers and spending five seasons at Loftus Road.
Going up, going up.
After a brief stint on loan in the black and white of Notts County, Roeder made the long move north from London to Tyneside to don another striped uniform, joining Newcastle in December 1983, rejecting the offers of several first division clubs to aid Arthur Cox’s Second Division promotion-chasing Magpies.
The Newcastle United of the 1980s was a far cry from the club we know today, long before PIF, Sir John Hall, Super Sundays, and all-seater stadiums. When Roeder joined the club, Newcastle were playing in front of crowds of 28,000 at a much smaller St James’ Park.
Brought in by Cox to help shore up the Newcastle defence, Roeder joined a team featuring the likes of Terry McDermott and spearheaded by an attacking trident of Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley, and Kevin Keegan.
The move proved successful, as United finished third at the end of the 1983/84 campaign, earning promotion to the First Division after six years out of the top flight.
Captain
After securing a return to the First Division, Keegan left St James’ Park in a helicopter and flew off into the sunset to enjoy his retirement.
After Keegan’s departure, Roeder was appointed captain by new manager Jack Charlton, one tall, commanding centre back putting his faith in another.
Roeder captained Newcastle to a series of mid-table First Division finishes in the mid-eighties, leading a squad featuring the generational home-grown talents of Waddle, Beardsley, and a young Gateshead lad named Paul Gascoigne.
Roeder and ‘Gazza’ struck up a famous friendship, with the young Gerodie describing his captain as “a natural leader… someone you could go to for advice” in his 2004 autobiography.
Gascoigne left Newcastle in 1988, and Roeder followed a year later after the club’s relegetion in the 1988/89 season.
In total, Roeder made 217 senior appearances during his six seasons at the club, the majority of which as captain, chipping in with ten goals.
After leaving St James’ Park, Roeder saw out his playing career with a return to Orient, before entering the mangerial world as player-manger at Gillingham.
Personal battle
After spells in the dugout at Gillingham, Watford and Burnley, Roeder joined Glenn Hoddle’s coaching team ahead of England’s world cup campagin at France 98, providing emotional suport to a devestated Paul Gascoigne after his old mate was left out of the final squad by Hoddle.
Following his spell with England, Roeder joined West Ham United in 1999, the club he’d loved as a boy, as part of Harry Redknapp’s backroom staff, before eventually taking over as manager in 2001, and guiding the Hammers to seventh in 2001/02, at the time their highest ever Premier League finish.
But West Ham struggled the following season, and a combination of injuries and no transfer market activity that summer would eventually see them relegated. In April 2003, Roeder collapsed, and later revealed he was battling a brain tumour.
Return to Newcastle
After nearly two years out of the game, he returned to football and to Newcastle in the summer of 2005, taking up the position of youth development manager.
But the former Magpies captain was soon promoted to interim manager following Graeme Souness’ sacking in February 2006, after an inconsistent domestic campaign.
With a soon-to-be-retired Alan Shearer as his assistant, Roeder took over a side who had taken just one point from a possible 18, and sat just six points above the relegation zone.
His first match as Newcastle manager was a historic one, as Alan Shearer scored the second goal in a 2-0 home win over Portsmouth, his 201st goal for Newcastle United, putting him one above Jackie Milburn and making him the club’s all time leading goalscorer.
The ‘Roeder effect’ was transformative, amassing 32 points from a possible 45, with three of them coming in a 4-1 demolition of Sunderland at the Stadium of Light, and he was made permanent manager at the end of the season.
As a result of their late season surge, Newcastle finished their Premier League campaign in 7th place, qualifying for the Intertoto Cup.
The Magpies would go onto win the much maligned pre-season competition, earning a place in the UEFA Cup the following season.
Newcastle embarked on an enjoyable 2006/07 European campagin, with the highlight coming in an away trip to face Serie A side Palermo.
Albert Luque secured a win for the visitors with the only goal of the game, but the real story coming from Sicily that night was Roeder putting his faith in his former accademy players.
Minor injuries to veteran keeper’s Shay Given and Steve Harper, and the ineligibilty of the even more veteran Pavel Srnicek meant that Roeder selected young Tim Krul as his shotstopper for the evening.
At just 18 years old, the young Dutch keeper produced one of the all-time great Newcastle United goalkeeping displays, bettered only perhaps by Krul himself against Tottneham many years later.
Twenty years after he mentored a young Gazza, Roeder made a lasting impact on another young Gateshead lad, handing a 17-year-old Andy Carroll his first-team debut in the final minutes of the win over Palermo.
Following the retirement of Alan Shearer, and with the perenially injured Michael Owen, er, perenially injured, Roeder found it difficult to replicate the success of the previous Premier League season, Newcastle finished 13th and he was replaced at the end of the season by Sam Allardyce, bringing to an end a near-24 year assocation with the club.
Tributes
Glenn Roeder died following his 18-year battle with a brain tumour on Sunday 28th February, 2021.
He was 65.
Remembered fondly by older fans for his defensive displays as captain, and by a younger generation for that fantastic late-season run in the spring of 2006, Roeder will forever be highly regarded on Tyneside.
Geordie striker Andy Carroll was one of many across the football world to pay tribute to Roeder following his death
“He helped me grow from a boy in the accademy, to bringing me up to the first team, which I’ll never forget.
“You’ll hear a lot of football things about him, but as a man, he was a great person to talk to.”
Alan Shearer, who’s greatest moment in a black and white shirt coincided with Roeder’s first game as Newcastle manager, said:
“I was lucky enough to spend time with him at Newcastle and with England.
“He was caring, kind, compassionate. He was a brilliant person and a great professional who will be sorely missed.”
