Roeder - Shepherd's Puppet

"I wish the new manager the best but, most importantly, I want to convey my sincere thanks and affection to all Newcastle fans.

"They have always been an inspiration to me both during my playing and managerial career. It was a great honour.

"Results have not been what I would have wished. We were dogged by horrendous injuries but I was very proud of the players."

Inexperienced in working with star players, lacking the motivation skills needed to manage in the Premiership, and found wanting at the highest level. It maybe a harsh assessment of a manager who wanted success on Tyneside just as much as the Toon Army ... but it will forever stay with him ... he wasn't up to the job.

If you believe his first interview as Newcastle manager, he didn't even WANT the job in the first place!

Roeder: "Normally, the first question a caretaker manager gets asked is, 'Do you want the job?'. The answer is always no, but most caretaker managers actually do. I don't -and that's the truth.

"This is not a job for me. I'm capable of doing the job in the short-term - whether that's one week, one month or to the end of the season.

"But, in the longer-term, I'm not interested. After everything that happened at West Ham, I sat down with my wife and we came to a joint decision. It's not something I'm going to go back on."

Roeder steadied the ship after Souness, and he proved more than capable of doing a decent job in the short term. But we should have moved on there and then. Instead Shepherd saw a Toon fan in the hot seat, and of course, he didn't have o pay another club compensation to get him. He was a quick fix, and, as it turns out, nothing more.

But just as was at West Ham, Watford and Gillingham ... he was out of his depth.

Football has changed from the days when Roeder was a Newcastle player. The Premiership demands charisma and personality, and I often wondered how he tried to motivate his players when his interviews were guaranteed to send you to sleep if they lasted more than 30 seconds.

Kevin Keegan had inspirational leadership and astute man-management skills, Roeder failed in just about every department. A nice guy ... but lacking as a manager ... and in truth the players knew it very quickly.

You look down the road at Roy Keane and the way he works. Would you see half-hearted (at times pathetic) displays by Damien Duff, Kieron Dyer, Stephen Carr, Scott Parker and Celestine Babayaro if Keane was the gaffa?

The infamous interview with Jonathan Woodgate when the defender said he was far from impressed with the Toon manager put a nail in his coffin. Freddy Shepherd wanted Woodgate to return, set the deal in motion, and Roeder blew it. That was the turning point of the manager/chairman relationship.

Shepherd sacked Roeder's assistant Kevin Bond and Roeder wasn't even told about it! Shepherd organised for James Milner to go for a medical at Aston Villa, only to hastily order to change direction when a move for Mark Viduka fell through at the final minute.

Roeder was Shepherd's puppet ... and now we wait to see who takes his place.