Former Newcastle United striker Duncan Ferguson has urged the club to give head coach Matthias Jaissle time to implement his ideas, following a mixed start to his reign at St James' Park. Ferguson believes the examples of Mikel Arteta at Arsenal and Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United show that patience can lead to success.
Mixed Start for Jaissle
Jaissle has picked up eight points from his opening seven Premier League matches and has guided United to the fourth round of the Carabao Cup. However, criticism of how open Newcastle's midfield is and how easy they are to play through has emerged after back-to-back defeats to Coventry City and Aston Villa last week.
Newcastle face a struggling Crystal Palace side on Sunday, and pressure could grow on Jaissle if the team fails to respond.
Ferguson's Call for Patience
Jaissle took the job with less than three weeks before the start of the season, succeeding Eddie Howe, and inherited a team that had lost four senior players in the transfer window, replaced by eight players aged 24 or under. Ferguson, who has just been appointed head coach of Northern Irish side Glentoran, told GiveMeSport: "I like Eddie Howe. He was a great, great manager. Done a lot of things, got a lot of experience."
He added: "Look, you just got to give managers a bit of time, haven't you? End of the day, I know nobody gets time now, a few bad results, and before you know it... Look what happened to Mikel at Arsenal. They gave him a bit of time. Look what happened to Sir Alex Ferguson at Man United. They gave him a bit of time. Give the managers a bit of time. That's all we need."
