‘I deserve to stay in Newcastle hot seat,’ says John Carver after relegation escape
Magpies survive drop with 2-0 victory over West Ham, who say goodbye to manager Sam Allardyce
John Carver insists he deserves to continue as Newcastle manager after leading his beleaguered club to Premier League survival with a 2-0 win over West Ham on the final day of a torrid campaign.
Faced with the unpalatable prospect of relegation to the Championship if results went against them, the much-derided Carver and his under-performing players roused themselves to deliver a dominant performance that secured their first win in 11 matches.
There will be a big summer ahead and I want the chance to bring in new players and make this club better
But for all the relief-filled euphoria that engulfed St James’ Park on Sunday, Carver, who recently invited ridicule by claiming he is the best manager in the top-flight, will have noted that West Ham parted company with boss Sam Allardyce just minutes after the full-time whistle, even though the east London club finished eight points ahead of Newcastle.
And Carver, who has presided over a miserable run since replacing Alan Pardew in January, knows the upheaval at West Ham in the wake of Allardyce’s departure will be minor compared to the changes anticipated at Newcastle over the close-season.
Mike Ashley, the club’s billionaire owner, vowed before the game that he plans a significant investment in new players, but first they have to decide who will be leaving.
It is a lengthy list and Carver, who was only hired on an interim basis, waits to discover if he will be handed the opportunity to build on the momentum for Newcastle’s last-day survival.
“There will be a big summer ahead and I want the chance to bring in new players and make this club better.
“It’s fantastic that Mike is saying he wants to win something. We’ve seen what we can do when we are all together and fair play to him that he wants this club to be united.
“I’ve had assurances we are going to spend and the fans can look forward to players coming through the door in the summer.
“It’s a big, big summer. We can’t afford to get in this situation ever again. We know we’ve made mistakes and we’ve admitted them.”
If so, the midfielder who recovered from cancer last year bowed out in style with a late goal after Moussa Sissoko put Newcastle in front early in the second half.
It was the goal that Carver had predicted when he talked to Gutierrez during the build-up to the game.
“I sat with him in my office and said he could write his own fairytale,” Carver said.
“I told him ‘you could get us the winning goal to get us over the line’, but he got the second to give us a little bit of breathing space.
“So he did write his own fairytale and when he scored that goal it meant more to me than anything I’ve gone through in the last five months.”
“I knew it was coming and I have no problem with it. I’ve had the discussion with the owners,” Allardyce said.
“I wasn’t going to sign a contract so we both agreed it was probably the right time to move on.
“I’ve had a great four seasons here and really enjoyed the opportunity of managing a great club like West Ham.
“The opportunity to be in London and manage that club has been a great pleasure. I’ve really enjoyed it and I’ve done everything they’ve asked of me.
“We got in the Premier League and stayed there comfortably over the last three seasons and the squad is good enough to get better and better now.”
