Manager Sam Allardyce signed several players, including
David Rozehnal,
Caçapa,
Habib Beye,
Alan Smith,
Joey Barton and
Mark Viduka. The season started brightly for Newcastle, with two wins and two draws from their first five games, but they then became the first (and only) side to lose to
Derby County that season. Newcastle won only five out of their next 25 Premier League games and could only draw with Derby in the reverse fixture. They also made a third round exit to
Arsenal in the
League Cup, but made a
FA Cup third round draw with Championship club
Stoke City. The game against Stoke, however, proved to be Allardyce's last in charge of Newcastle; three days later he was sacked by owner
Mike Ashley after pressure from the fans, who were unimpressed with his exclusion of fan favourites from the starting line-up and poor results, despite Allardyce only having been there eight months. Critics consistently questioned Allardyce's exit from the club, claiming he may not have been given the time needed to impact upon the club in the build-up to the next appointment. There were a number of candidates lined up for the job, including
Harry Redknapp,
Didier Deschamps,
Gérard Houllier and even former England and
Middlesbrough manager
Steve McClaren. Redknapp turned down the opportunity to manage the club, claiming he felt his job at
Portsmouth was yet to be completed. On 16 January, it was sensationally announced that
Kevin Keegan would be returning to the club for a third time, after previous spells both as a player and manager. The announcement had an immediate impact. On that day the club had a scheduled FA Cup third round replay against Stoke City at home, which was not expected to reach even half capacity; but, upon distribution of the news, 20,000 extra tickets were sold within a couple of hours and the kick-off was delayed to allow the extra fans time to get into the game. The Keegan effect seemed to work on the pitch too as Newcastle convincingly beat Stoke 4–1, even though he was not in the dugout for the match, having arrived during the first half to sit with owner Mike Ashley and the directors. Shortly after his appointment,
Dennis Wise left his position as manager at
Leeds United to become director of football at Newcastle. The creation of the new role at the club proved questionable amongst critics and fans, but both Wise and Keegan insisted that the manager would have the final say in all matters regarding the squad. Further appointments saw
Tony Jimenez join the club as the vice-president of player recruitment and
Jeff Vetere as technical co-ordinator. The idea was to complete a continental-style management structure working in support of Keegan, with Wise and Vetere making the initial assessment before calling in Jimenez to do the deal.
David Williamson was also appointed, as director of operations in April. match against
Tottenham Hotspur, 30 March 2008 Keegan's comeback initially did not live up to expectations, with a run of eight games without a win, an FA Cup exit and talk even of a relegation battle. March proved to be a turning point, and, following a change to an attacking line-up with Owen supporting Martins and Viduka up front, the team started to produce results in time for Keegan to maintain his perfect record in the
Tyne-Wear derby with a 2–0 home win on 20 April, which put Newcastle's survival beyond all doubt and allowed Keegan to plan for his stated contract length of the next three seasons at the club. With a 2–2 away draw for the following game at
West Ham United, the eight-game run of no wins had been turned into a seven-game unbeaten run with two games left to the end of the season. In the final table, Newcastle occupied 12th place on 43 points. On 22 May,
Habib Beye, signed by Allardyce at the start of the season, was named Newcastle's player of the season based on fan votes to a poll organised by the
Evening Chronicle. ==Final league table==