Newsletter

Get your daily update and weekly newsletter by signing up today!

News

Mike Ashley denies offering Jaap Stam the Newcastle United job

4 years ago
Share

In an interview in Holland, Jaap Stam has said that he was offered the Newcastle United job.

Speaking to Voetbal International (see below), the former Manchester United defender says he was approached to take the job before Mike Ashley gave it to Steve Bruce.

Jaap Stam saying that he had just agreed to take the Feyrenoord job, an agreement that he couldn’t/wouldn’t break in order to accept Ashley’s offer.

Now though, Mike Ashley and Newcastle United have issued a denial, claiming that they didn’t offer Stam the job.

The Chronicle saying that an unnamed person at the football club also told them that Mike Ashley and NUFC didn’t instruct anybody else to speak to Jaap Stam on their behalf either.

Whilst Stam would have been a surprise candidate for the job, in reality it wouldn’t have been a surprise.

With the exception of Rafa Benitez, these past nine years have seen a succession of underwhelming appointments.

Mike Ashley’s preference to have a patsy manager/head coach recruited from the lower divisions, so desperate to take the job that they will accept having no responsibility on transfers or anything else of importance.

The previous four appointments (ignoring Rafa Benitez) having had their last jobs in League One (Pardew) and the Championship (McClaren and Bruce), whilst John Carver was promoted by Mike Ashley.

The Mag – Earlier today (Tuesday 22 October 2019);

An interesting new interview with Jaap Stam over in Holland.

The former Manchester United player is currently manager of Feyenoord, who aren’t doing that great.

They finished third in the Dutch league last season and after taking over this summer, they are currently on tenth.

However, Jaap Stam says that he might not have ended up there at all.

The one-time Reading boss took over at Dutch minnow PEC Zwolle in December (2018) but only a few months later was approached by Feyenoord, Jaap Stam agreeing a two year contract with Feyenoord which would start on 1 June 2019, after he had seen out the season witjh PEC Zwolle.

Jaap Stam though has revealed that only a few days after agreeing that deal with Feyenoord, he was approached to take the job at Newcastle.

Mike Ashley and his people said to have offered the former Dutch international the NUFC job when Rafa Benitez still had almost four mnths of his contract remaining.

At a time when supposedly Mike Ashley was doing everything he could to persuade Rafa Benitez to stay…

This very much fits in with the belief of most fans that Ashley had no intention at all of trying to retain the top class manager.

Instead looking around for somebody who was desperate enough to take the NUFC job on the understanding they would have no real power, apart from training and pickingĀ  the team.

It has been widely reported that Steve Bruce got the job only after a whole host of other people turned Mike Ashley down, so now it appears we can add Jaap Stam to that list.

Certainly having been sacked at Reading after a run of only one win in 18 league matches (20th in the Championship in March 2018) and ending up at PEC Zwolle, you could well imagine that Jaap Stam would have fit that ‘desperate’ description and willing to accept Ashley’s terms.

Jaap Stam speaking to Voetbal International:

“You have been (well) informed because it is correct.

“Newcastle United contacted me a few days after I agreed (in March) to manage Feyenoord.

“So it was not an option right away.

“I am a man of my word.

“It was beautiful and honorable because the people in England apparently know what I stand for as a coach.”

Share

If you would like to feature on The Mag, submit your article to contribute@themag.co.uk

Have your say

© 2024 The Mag. All Rights Reserved. Design & Build by Mediaworks