"?Former Newcastle manager Steve McClaren has come out and admitted to major regrets during his reign at St. James' Park, suggesting that compromising too much and the mentality of the players aided their relegation to the Championship this season.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5Live and quoted in Chronicle Live, the ex-England boss has admitted that his preference to be a 'head-coach' rather than a 'manager' at the Geordie club led to a lack of influence over signings and the direction of the club:
"I'm frustrated with my time at Newcastle and especially with the way it ended.
"I went in with my eyes open and I knew the situation I was getting myself into, but the mistake I made was that I compromised too much.
"I compromised too much especially early on, instead of saying: "?We need this, we need this, we need this. You have to go in and lead and manage.
"They've gone down because we conceded too many goals and didn't recruit centre-backs, and we didn't recruit enough strikers."
On joining the club, McClaren had initially set his sights on signing former QPR goal scorer Charlie Austin for some much needed fire-power, as well as experience at the back through either Hull City's Michael Dawson or Derby's Richard Keogh.
Instead, Michael Ashley provided the 55-year-old with inexperienced hot-head striker Aleksander Mitrovic, while extending the contract of ageing club captain Fabio Coloccini.
McClaren also insisted that his players only turned up for the big games, losing valuable points against those in and around them in the table:
"The mentality of the team was that they would play well against top teams, but they couldn't win the games they should have won against the lower teams."
Rafa Benitez took over from McClaren after his sacking in March, and since then has signed on to lead the club back to the top flight, crucially under the title as 'manager', as well as making sure his contract stipulated that he had control over 'all football-related matters'.
McClaren praised this move, suggesting it is crucial if the team is to progress under the Spaniard: "I hope they've allowed him control of everything.
"He can control recruitment and maybe change the policy of the time which was only recruiting players under 25 and I think that restricted the recruitment process.
"You need to bring experience and Rafa will do that."