Gary Sherrard: Arthur Cox, the Newcastle United builder who left just as the dream came true

Historian Gary Sherrard explains why Cox’s achievement deserves greater recognition — and why his departure remains one of the great what-ifs in the club’s history.

Sherrard admits that Cox was not necessarily the appointment Newcastle supporters had been hoping for. The club was in the Second Division and had been associated with more celebrated managerial names, but Cox arrived from Chesterfield and set about building a team that would change the direction of Newcastle United.

Sherrard told Football Presse, “Arthur Cox came in from Chesterfield thinking, can we not find somebody from higher up? He hadn't particularly had a starstruck coaching career either, but patiently, you could see, looking back, when I did the first book on The Wilderness Years, you see the pieces starting to go into place, and a little bit of patience.

“And being involved in signing Kevin Keegan, there's not much Arthur could do wrong after that.”

Keegan’s arrival in 1982 transformed expectations. Sherrard remembers the disbelief when Newcastle were linked with the former England captain, who was then at Southampton, and the extraordinary scenes when the move was confirmed.

“Suddenly these stories came up, and I remember being with my dad and we were both thinking, it's a way of selling season tickets, isn't it? The board, who were not known for being dynamic at that stage, are they just putting the name in here, just mentioning some names? They'll sell some season tickets off the back of it.

“And then when it was announced, it was just pandemonium.”

Cox had found the figure who could lift Newcastle, but he also had to build a team around him. Sherrard’s memories of Chris Waddle illustrate the manager’s ability to recognise potential and give a young player the confidence to express himself.

“He had periods out of the team quite early on, and I think it was a case of convincing Chris Waddle that he was capable of playing that level as much as it was a case of him convincing other people that he could play there.

“Once Arthur Cox had come in as manager and had given him that confidence and given him a sort of unique role at that stage, there weren't many inverted wingers in the early '80s, and Chris Waddle became the kind who would wander. He'd be on the left wing for a while, be on the right wing, he'd crop up centrally.”

Peter Beardsley arrived in the second season of Keegan’s time at the club, in 1983-84. Together, Keegan, Waddle and Beardsley gave Newcastle an attacking threat that made the team memorable as well as successful.

Sherrard believes Cox’s reputation among supporters has endured precisely because of the players he brought together and the scale of the job he completed.

“He put together a team with Keegan, Waddle and Beardsley as your front line. He's going to be very fondly remembered.”

Newcastle won promotion to the First Division in 1984, but Cox would not lead them into the top flight. The club could not agree a new contract with the manager, and he left for Derby County. For supporters, the timing was difficult to comprehend: after years of struggle, the club had finally found its way back, only to lose the man who had made it happen.

“It was just unfortunate that in the summer that that team got promoted, the club couldn't agree a new contract and Arthur was away. And you think, the work that's gone into getting this club from the middle of the Second Division going absolutely nowhere to signing Kevin Keegan, not getting promotion in the first year probably wasn't in the script.

“You would have thought he'd make so much of a difference you'd do it straight away, but to do it in the second year and then not have that manager take you into the First Division as it was then, that was a massive shock.”

The reasons for the split were not entirely clear to Sherrard, but he believes the dispute was rooted in the security of Cox’s contract and the challenge of strengthening a newly promoted team with limited resources.

“It would have all been down to the security of contract. I can't remember the details at the time, but didn't have a great record for those kind of things.

“And it'll come down, if it was the terms of his contract and possibly the terms of how do you improve a team that's just been promoted and has now lost your best player, talisman, European Footballer of the Year? How do you replace that player? I would imagine those were pretty tense conversations when there wasn't an awful lot of money around.”

Keegan retired from playing in 1984, leaving Newcastle with the task of replacing a figure who had become central to the club’s identity. In the years that followed, Waddle, Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne also departed, and Sherrard notes that the proceeds did not consistently translate into comparable talent.

Cox was later linked with a return to Newcastle on several occasions, but by then he had settled at Derby. When he eventually returned to St James’ Park, it was in a very different role: as assistant to Keegan during the manager’s first spell in charge.

For all the disappointment surrounding his departure, Sherrard says the affection for Cox remains strong.

“Very, very warmly remembered, and the sort of honest, hardworking, straightforward football guy, but he pulled off the greatest transfer story we've probably ever had.”

It is a fitting assessment of a manager whose achievement can be lost in the shadow of the star he persuaded to come north. Keegan became the face of Newcastle’s revival, but Cox was the manager who made that revival possible — giving Waddle the confidence to flourish, bringing Beardsley into the side and assembling a team capable of taking Newcastle back where their supporters believed they belonged.

The promotion was Cox’s triumph, even if he was no longer there to enjoy the next chapter. For Newcastle fans, that is the bittersweet part of his legacy: a manager remembered warmly for what he built, and whose departure left supporters wondering what might have followed had he stayed.

Gary Sherrard is author of "Miles Away: Keeping Up with Newcastle United as an Exile" from Pitch Publishing - which is available here.