Despite finishing
the 2005–06 season in seventh, Roeder's fortunes changed in the
2006–07 season, with a terrible injury run to the senior squad, and
he left the club by mutual consent on 6 May 2007.Sam Allardyce was
appointed Roeder's replacement as manager on 15 May 2007. On 7 June,
Freddy Shepherd's final shares in the club were sold to Mike Ashley
and Shepherd was replaced as chairman by Chris Mort on 25 July.
Allardyce departed
the club on in January 2008 by mutual consent after a bad start to
the 2007–08 season, and Kevin Keegan was reappointed as Newcastle
manager. Mort stepped down as chairman in June and was replaced by
Derek Llambias, a long-term associate of Ashley. Newcastle finished
the 2007–08 season in twelfth place, but as the season drew to a
close, Keegan publicly criticised the board, claiming they were not
providing the team enough financial support.
In September 2008
Keegan resigned as manager, stating "It's my opinion that a manager
must have the right to manage and that clubs should not impose upon
any manager any player that he does not want". Former Wimbledon
manager Joe Kinnear was appointed as his replacement, but in
February 2009, due to his heart surgery, Alan Shearer was appointed
interim manager in his absence. Under Shearer, the club were
relegated to the Football League Championship at the end of the
2008–09 season, the first time the club had left the Premier League
since joining it in 1993.
Following their relegation, the club was put up for sale in June
2009, with an asking price of £100 million. Chris Hughton was given
the manager job on a caretaker basis before taking over full-time on
27 October 2009. On the same day, Ashley announced that the
club was no longer for sale.