Anyone moving abroad is routinely advised about the assorted stages of culture shock. Depending on whom one listens to, there are three, four or five but most people would accept that Steve McClaren finds himself in the grip of phase two.
Granted Newcastle United’s manager may not have relocated overseas but his immersion into the peculiarly idiosyncratic St James’ Park culture – something one predecessor, Graeme Souness, likened to life in a far distant “banana republic” – amounts to a similar experience.
To date the former England coach has passed through an initial honeymoon period on Tyneside and is now in the middle of the “distress” segment of a cycle he hopes will conclude with “adjustment” and finally “mastery”.
“We’re in the process of creating something new and different with new players and new coaching staff and that process of trying to change things around in a football club is a little bit like a car crash,” says McClaren, whose team have still to win a Premier League game this season, are bottom of the table and have scored only two league goals. “You know it’s going to happen and you can’t do anything. You just wait for it to happen.”
Newcastle’s head coach believes most new managers experience a form of culture shock but he accepts his is likely to be acute and has warned it could be prolonged.
“There’s more pain to come, absolutely,” he cautions. “Don’t think it’s going to be rosy all the way. It has sometimes been one step forward and two steps back. It’s tough and it’s painful but we expected this. You have to go through it.”
So far the Newcastle fans who turned so vehemently against first Alan Pardew and then John Carver last season have remained staunchly behind McClaren but he knows that another stumble at home to Watford on Saturday could dent fragile belief.
Not that the 54-year-old is betraying any nerves five demanding fixtures into a campaign which has seen his players face Arsenal and Manchester United. “No, I’m not worried,” says McClaren. “When I looked at the fixtures, looked at our first eight games, I thought: ‘This is going to be tough ...’ But the rest of the season is also going to be tough.”
Considering that only Manchester City and Manchester United spent more than Newcastle this summer, sceptics might wonder why the club’s near-£50m close-season investment is not making more of a positive impact.
In mitigation the cash splashed on Gini Wijnaldum, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Chancel Mbemba and Florian Thauvin can be seen as belated compensation for alarming underinvestment in the squad during previous windows. In one sense, Newcastle were simply playing long overdue catch-up following two years of decline, culminating in last spring’s relegation dalliance.
Only time will tell whether they were the right buys, although Mbemba has impressed in central defence and Wijnaldum shown flashes of midfield quality. Mitrovic is clearly a gifted striker but his disciplinary record – he is suspended – has rightly triggered alarm and Thauvin may take time to adapt to the rigours of the Premier League.
With two previously key individuals, Papiss Cissé and Cheik Tioté, apparently unsettled and hankering after lucrative moves to the Middle East, it is no secret McClaren had hoped his board would sanction the signing of another striker – ideally Queens Park Rangers’ Charlie Austin – and an extra defender before the window’s closure.
Other concerns centre around the owner Mike Ashley’s pronounced reluctance to sign players aged over 26 or shop in the generally more expensive British market. McClaren is constantly talking about how young his squad is and the resultant lack of nous and Premier League experience will, in the short term at least, see points forfeited.
The good news is that the players are said to enjoy his varied and challenging training sessions, have responded well to appreciably tightened off-field discipline and are understood to be bonding into a much tighter unit. Such renewed esprit de corps has been reflected by generally decent performances – with the notable exception of Monday’s surrender at West Ham.
“Two-nil down at West Ham was the only time I’ve been angry with them,” says McClaren. “We have to be more consistent but we’ve got one of the youngest sides in the league and it showed. The club’s policy is not going to change, though. We’re going to keep signing young talent. What we have to do is to make it grow up.”
He also needs to identify his strongest starting XI. “We’re still learning about our best players and our best team,” he acknowledges. “The best team may not necessarily include all the best players but we haven’t found it yet.”
