Fabricio Coloccini will retain the Newcastle United captaincy after Steve McClaren persuaded the club to break an unwritten rule and offer the Argentinian centre-half a contract extension.
In return Newcastle’s head coach hopes Coloccini will recapture the form and focus that seemed to desert him for much of last season. It is highly unusual for Mike Ashley, the owner, to sanction the lengthening of a deal for a player in his 30s but the defender, who will be 34 in January, has proved to be an exception.
Aware that Alan Pardew, his former manager, was prepared to offer Coloccini a three-year contract at Crystal Palace, McClaren used his position as a board member at St James’ Park to urge his fellow directors to extend the player’s agreement by one year until the summer of 2017 with an option for a further 12 months.
“There was interest in him which went beyond speculation,” said McClaren. “That hindered Colo’s preparation. It had gone on too long but hopefully he’ll finish his careeer here now.”
An achilles problem has prevented Coloccini playing in pre-season but he is back in full training and is in contention for involvement at home to Southampton on Sunday. When he returns to the starting XI a central defender described as a “Rolls-Royce” by Pardew knows he will have to win over a sceptical Tyneside public whose trust he forfeited after some underachieving performances last season.
“All the players know they’ve got to do a damn sight better than last season – and I’ve talked to every one of them about it,” said McClaren. “In terms of Colo I’ve heard that. But the speculation affected Colo in terms of somebody being out there offering him a three-year contract.
“I think it was a distraction. But we had to make a decision and I asked a lot of people and the senior players and to a man everybody wanted Colo in the team. They respect him as a player, as a man and as a captain and from then on it was quite simple just to sit down and go: ‘You know what, we want you.’ From day one, he said to me that he wanted to finish his career at Newcastle but there were three or four opportunities that he had. As always in these decisions, we had to make a statement and the club has done that. Colo is back on board.”
If the captain remains a familiar face McClaren is anxious to ensure this will be a new-look Newcastle. “It certainly can’t be like last season here,” he said. “We want it to be different and it needs to be. The club has made a clear statement of intent with three very good signings and maybe more to follow and now we’ve got to make a statement on the field. It’s going to be different, a different style, different football.” Sensibly he added the caveat that this new, more attack-minded philosophy would take time to perfect.
“It’ll take time,” cautioned the new manager. “We’re not where we want to be, Nowhere near. It won’t always be like this but we’ve got to find ways to win in the short term, while planning for the long term.”
