Mike Newell (footballer)

Newell played for Liverpool's youth teams as a schoolboy, but was released without being offered terms. He made three league appearances for Crewe Alexandra in 1983 as part of a trial, After scoring 25 goals at this level, Newell moved up to the First Division in January 1986 when he joined Luton Town for £85,000. On 26 October 1986, he scored a hat-trick in a 4–1 league win over Liverpool – the defending double-winners and the dominant English league side of that time. Early in the 1987–88 season, he dropped down a division to sign for Leicester City, now managed by David Pleat - the man who had signed him for Luton two seasons earlier. He scored a total of 21 Second Division goals at Filbert Street but was unable to secure promotion to the First Division and joined Everton for £1.1million in the summer of 1989. Newell's form at Goodison Park was unremarkable as he formed a three-man strike force with Graeme Sharp and Tony Cottee, and with three strikers in the first eleven there was little pressure on any of them to score 20 or 30 goals a season. However, the three-man strike force was looking like a success as they spearheaded Everton to the top of the league in late autumn of 1989 and were starting to look like serious title contenders for perhaps the first time since Howard Kendall's departure as manager in June 1987, but Everton were unable to maintain this form and dipped to sixth place in the final table. Newell had managed seven goals that season from 26 league appearances. Shortly after joining Everton he was called up to the senior England squad by Bobby Robson for a game against Poland, but he remained on the bench and was ultimately never capped at senior level. His hat-trick also made history as the first by an English player in the newly re-branded UEFA Champions League since its transformation from the five-round knockout format of the original European Cup. He left Blackburn for Birmingham City for £750,000 in the summer of 1996. However, this spell proved to be unsuccessful, Newell scoring only three times with a strike against Sheffield United in the league{{cite news In the summer of 1997, Newell left the English league for the first time when he was transferred to Aberdeen, before returning to the English leagues with Crewe, Doncaster Rovers and finally Blackpool. He retired from playing in May 2001, going out on a high as Blackpool celebrated promotion as Division Three playoff winners. ==Managerial career==

Tranmere Rovers After retiring, Newell was appointed as the reserve team manager of Tranmere Rovers in October 2001, as well as working alongside the first team manager with all the professionals through the week. Hartlepool United After a coaching job at Doncaster Rovers, Newell replaced Chris Turner as manager of Hartlepool United during the 2002–03 season, when Hartlepool were top of Division Three. After horrendous away form, the club lost a 16-point lead it held, though promotion as runners-up was still sealed. After this, and many personal differences between Newell and the board at Hartlepool, Newell's contract was not renewed in the summer of 2003, and he was replaced by Neale Cooper. Luton Town Shortly after leaving Hartlepool, he was appointed manager of Luton Town by controversial chairman John Gurney, who, having just purchased the club, sacked the popular management team of Joe Kinnear and Mick Harford. It was reported that Newell won a Pop Idol-style poll to become manager Two days after Barrow was fired, Newell also decided to leave the club by mutual consent on 7 February 2019. Waterford On 17 December 2020, Newell was appointed assistant to Kevin Sheedy as the new managerial team at League of Ireland Premier Division side Waterford. Newell received a red card on the touchline in the opening game of the season away to Drogheda United before returning from his three-match ban away to St Patrick's Athletic, where he received another red card following an argument with the referee over the colour of sock tape. This resulted in a four-match ban. Sheedy and Newell left the club "by mutual consent" on 5 May 2021 with the club bottom of the table after nine games. ==Controversies==

Following a match against Queens Park Rangers on 11 November 2006 Newell criticised female assistant referee, Amy Rayner, using sexist comments, and later apologised. He also criticised Luton chairman Bill Tomlins. For this he was reprimanded by his club, which publicly disassociated itself from Newell's comments concerning Rayner. Following a match against West Bromwich Albion on 12 January 2007, Newell criticised the influence of foreign players in the English game, stating that it was "going soft." This was after an incident in which Luton midfielder David Bell appeared to be fouled, play continued and West Brom went on to not only equalise minutes before the end, but to claim a last gasp winner to leave Luton empty handed. In February 2010, five months after Newell's sacking from Grimsby Town, he began court proceedings to sue Grimsby and John Fenty, claiming he was owed £53,845.61 in lost earnings as well as claiming a drunk Fenty had slammed a chair on the floor and pulled on Newell's tie following his final game in charge. The two parties eventually settled out of court and agreed on a sum of £5,000, with Newell's eventual reason for being sacked revealed as gross misconduct. In May 2019, Newell's former Grimsby player Paul Linwood appeared on the "I Had Trials Once" podcast on Spotify. In the interview Linwood spoke about his time at Grimsby during the 2009–10 season. Linwood said that he and other players never took to living in Grimsby and alleged that the team was "full of alcoholics". He claimed that the club's "biggest mistake" was sacking Newell who had joined in with the drinking culture at the club. Corruption allegations Newell caused a huge stir in the footballing world when he claimed that corruption was "rife" in transfer deals. In particular, he claimed that he had been offered "bungs" or bribes by football agents and agreed to name the offending parties when called upon by the FA. As a result, an enquiry was launched by the FA and was headed by Lord Stevens, a former Metropolitan Police commissioner. On 20 December 2006, Stevens presented his preliminary report, which found that, although the level of corruption within English football was not as high as had been anticipated, there were several causes for concern, and 17 transfer deals were still subject to further scrutiny. ==Personal life==

Newell's son George, also a striker, made his first-team debut for Bolton Wanderers in April 2016. ==Honours==

As a player Wigan Athletic • Football League Trophy: 1984–85 Everton • Full Members' Cup runner-up: 1990–91 Blackburn Rovers • Premier League: 1994–95 • Football League Second Division play-offs: 1991–92 Doncaster Rovers • Conference League Cup: 1999–2000 As a manager Hartlepool United • Football League Third Division runner-up: 2002–03 Luton Town • Football League One: 2004–05 Individual • LMA League One Manager of the Year: 2004–05 • League One Manager of the Month: August 2004, April 2005 • LMA League One Manager of the Month: February 2004 • LMA League Two Manager of the Month: January 2003 ==Managerial statistics==