The Transfer Record: Mike Newell
After spending his teenage years at Liverpool’s School of Excellence, Mike signed for third tier Wigan Athletic. Playing alongside future Leicester City players Steve Walsh and David Lowe, he was in Bryan Hamilton’s Latics team which won the Freight Rover Football League Trophy in 1985.
In January 1986, he moved to David Pleat’s Luton Town where he scored a hat-trick against Liverpool and was selected for the England Under-21s side.
In September 1987, despite being an ever present in the Luton side which finished seventh in the top flight, Mike dropped down a division to sign for Bryan Hamilton’s Leicester City for a club record fee of £350,000.
Three months later Bryan Hamilton was replaced by David Pleat.
Despite being favourites for promotion the following season, Leicester City were never in the running, and in June 1989, Mike who had been Leicester City’s captain and top scorer that season, signed for Colin Harvey’s Everton for a fee of £1.1M. Everton’s Wayne Clarke arrived at Filbert Street as part of the deal.
In his first season at Goodison, Mike was selected for Bobby Robson’s England squad and played twice for the England ‘B’ team.
Mike moved to Kenny Dalglish’s Blackburn Rovers in November 1991. He recovered from a broken leg to face Leicester City in the Wembley Play-Off Final for a place in the new Premier League. Blackburn defeated Leicester City 1-0, with Mike’s penalty proving decisive.
Mike stayed at Blackburn Rovers for five seasons, finishing fourth and second in the Premier League before winning the title in 1995. His strike partner was often Alan Shearer.
He later played for Birmingham City, West Ham United, Bradford City, Aberdeen, Crewe Alexandra, Doncaster Rovers and Blackpool before hanging up his boots in May 2001.
His achievements as a manager in achieving promotions to the third tier with Hartlepool United in 2003 and to the Championship with Luton Town in 2005 alerted Leicester City who were very interested in appointing him as Craig Levein’s successor as manager in 2006, but he decided to stay at Kenilworth Road.