NUFC Season Summaries
NUFC Season 1998/99
| Manager | Kenny Dalglish/Ruud Gullit |
| Lge Pos | PR - 13th |
| FA Cup | Fin |
| Lge Cup | 4th |
| Euro | CW 1st |
| Attendance | 36,690 |
| Top Scorer | Shearer 21 |
The Regular Cast
- Given/Harper
- Watson/Charvet/Griffin
- Pearce/Barton/Domi
- Speed/Brady
- Dabizas/Hughes
- Howey
- Lee/Solano/Maric
- Hamann
- Shearer/Ferguson
- Andersson/Ketsbaia/Dalglish
- Glass/Saha/Georgiades
Douglas and Freddie bounced back and Dalglish was allowed to spend £13 million to spend in the summer on George Georgiadis, Lionel Perez, Stephane Guivarc'h, Carl Serrant, Garry Brady, Laurent Charvet, Dietmar Hamann and Nolberto Solano.
Half the money went on the last two which is just as well as there wasn't a decent player amongst the rest.
They then sacked/resigned him after only 2 games (both draws) of the new season. The first game against newly promoted Charlton saw the team jeered off and Dalglish had lost a lot the support of many fans after the Cup Final. Some may say that the Boards actions were a thinly veiled attempt to regain their popularity amongst the Toon Army
In his stead they presented the fans with Ruud Gullit and his promise of "sexy football".
Unfortunately bar a couple of "flirty" spells where three victories in a row were recorded the Toon Army was left somewhat unfulfilled in the Premiership department and the campaign fizzled out into a second successive thirteen position.
Gullit looked to muscle up the sides penetration with the signing of Ferguson and later brought a bit more continental into the side with the purchases of Maric and Domi and the loaning of Saha.
At the same time he sold or loaned out a whole team of players including Guivarc'h, Watson, Batty, Gillespie, Barnes and Albert.
As a result there was a massive turnover in the team and a record equalling 36 players were used in all.
The FA Cup one again provide the main highs and lows of the season as United reached the Final again only to once again fail miserably.
The League Cup brought another penalty defeat and in their first and only venture into the Cup Winners Cup United lost to Partizan Belgrade in the First Round.
Whilst all this was going on there was criticism of Gullit's frequent returns to Amsterdam and stories abounded about the Dutchman's deteriorating relationships with a number of his star players including Hamann, Lee, Batty and Shearer.