Newcastle United
On 14 January 1997, Dalglish was appointed manager of Newcastle United, on a three and a half year contract, inheriting a squad of players reputed, by previous manager Kevin Keegan, to be the best the club had ever had. From a starting point of fourth place in the Premier League on the exit of Keegan, Dalglish guided the club to a runner-up finish come May and a place in the new format of the following season's UEFA Champions League. However, the 1997–98 campaign only saw the team end up in 13th place. Many have claimed that the players Dalglish signed in the pre-season did not live up to those that he inherited from Keegan, whilst others reflect upon the long term injury of Alan Shearer to be the biggest woe he faced. But for all the domestic woes, 1997–98 brought Dalglish some of his finest moments as manager of Newcastle United, including the famous 3–2 Matchday 1 UEFA Champions League win over Barcelona, and the defeat of Sheffield United by one goal to nil at the semi-final stage of the FA Cup. However, Newcastle could only manage a 2-0 loss to Arsenal in the Final. Dalglish was sacked by Freddie Shepherd, who had only hired him twenty months previously, after two draws in the opening two games of the subsequent 1998-1999 season (namely, against Charlton and with one goal apiece in an away fixture to Chelsea, respectively), in favour of former Chelsea manager Ruud Gullit.[24]
Dalglish expressed his enforced departure as his only regret of his time on Tyneside, having hitherto rebuilt the reserve side scrapped by predecessor Keegan and signed a number of players, including Nolberto Solano, Gary Speed and Shay Given, who would remain fixtures of the team into the 2000s.
