McClaren not seeking assurances over future at Newcastle

REUTERS – Steve McClaren has been given no assurances about his future at Newcastle United and the manager does not know if he will have time to reverse the club’s fortunes.

The Magpies head into the Sunday’s Premier League clash against in-form Liverpool following heavy defeats by Crystal Palace and Leicester City that left them lying second from bottom in the table.

“It’s football, so you never know. You go into every job knowing the impatience of football and you need results,” McClaren told reporters. “We know what the situation is and it’s game to game and we’re fighting for the next result.

“I wouldn’t ask for (guarantees) and I wouldn’t expect to receive that. I think that’s demonstrated by what we do during the week and what we do on a Saturday or Sunday and that’s why it’s important.

“I’ve got confidence in these players because three weeks ago I was happy, we’d had a good two weeks going into the international break thinking that we’d turned the corner a little bit and looking forward to the challenges ahead.

“Two games later, we are where we are. That’s the frustration about the job.”

December is going to be a big month for Newcastle with a visit to Tottenham Hotspur to follow the match against Liverpool and then a potentially significant clash with fellow strugglers Aston Villa on Dec. 19.

(Reporting by Shravanth Vijayakumar in Bengaluru; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)