Steve McClaren denies Newcastle dressing room unreset
Newcastle head coach Steve McClaren has insisted there are no troublesome players in his dressing room.
The Magpies' poor start to the season has led many to question the attitude of McClaren's players with injury-plagued midfielder Cheick Tiote and misfiring striker Papiss Cisse coming in for particular criticism.
However, McClaren, who worked with Ivory Coast international Tiote during his time in Holland, was adamant there is no problem as he prepared his side for Wednesday night's Capital One Cup clash with Sheffield Wednesday.
He said: "There's been no problem with Cheick. He's not a bad egg at all. I know Cheick well - I obviously had him at Twente - and he's no trouble. He doesn't cause trouble, he just wants to play.
"Papiss is Papiss, and he goes around with a smile on his face. That's the culture that he's got. I don't agree with that view at all.
"We haven't seen enough of Cheick - he went away for the Africa Cup of Nations and I don't really think he's played a game since. That's an ongoing problem that he has, and he needs to be right to play. He hasn't been right or correct, it's as simple as that.
"He hasn't been able to build up his fitness, but I know Cheick well and I couldn't be any stronger in terms of saying that he's not any trouble.
"He's no bad egg - he just wants to play football, but he's not been able to do that, so he's frustrated. He's definitely not been feigning injury."
Newcastle invested more than £52million in their squad during the summer, but many onlookers believe it is still a central defender and a striker short, a problem exacerbated by the back injury which will keep frontman Papiss Cisse out of the cup game and a hamstring operation which will sideline centre-half Steven Taylor for two months.
However, McClaren is refusing to look to January just yet as the club's transfer policy comes under fresh scrutiny.
He said: "We can't do anything at the moment, so the pure focus is on getting this team performing and getting results. You mention January, but I'm not even thinking about that window because we've got too many games in between."