Steve McClaren faces a massive task to turn around Newcastle United's fortunes and he is running out of time to earn the right to do so, according to former manager Sam Allardyce.
Allardyce sympathises with the scale of the challenge McClaren faces at St James' Park due to the new players brought in during the close-season.
The ex-West Ham boss, who endured an ill-fated seven-month spell in charge of Newcastle in 2007-08, is of the believes McClaren needs an immediate upturn in results.
After picking up just two points from their opening six Premier League games and crashing out of the League Cup to a much-changed Sheffield Wednesday side, things do not get much easier for McClaren as he prepares to face Chelsea at home on Saturday.
Allardyce told Sky Sports: "Getting a win for Steve is the most important thing now. He is finding out how good his players are, and those players at the moment are certainly letting Steve down, big-style, letting themselves down and Newcastle down.
"The only way Steve will get the time to do the job he wants to do is by making sure Newcastle start picking up some results.
"Steve has got a massive job to turn it around as quickly as possible, to really get into the players and tell them their responsibilities wearing that shirt in such a passionate city.
"The Newcastle fans were crying out over a lack of signings last year. Now they have gone and made those signings. We all know one of the most important things is who you recruit when you are spending £30million, £40m, £50m.
"When players come from abroad you cannot really say whether they are going to be successful or not. You just hope they can take the form they have shown in the country they have been playing in into the Premier League.
"When you have got so many in such a short space of time that don't know each other's strengths and weaknesses it is a massive job for any manager."
