Steve McClaren admits taking the Newcastle United job was "a big mistake".

McClaren's short reign only lasted nine months and, remarkably, the 60-year-old only ever had a couple of brief conversations with former owner Mike Ashley, who, of course, finally sold the club last month.

"Going into Newcastle, I never met the owner so I didn't really know what the vision was," the 60-year-old told the McClaren performance podcast. "I didn't really know what success looked like on and off the field. I just wanted the job. I made a big mistake.

"I just wanted the job and didn't find out the real vision, direction, what success looked like, what I needed to do on and off the field and how I was to communicate with the owner, who's the most important person at a football club.

"Usually, you communicate not in pairs but in threes so it's always, say, myself, the CEO and the owner or myself, the technical director/sporting director and the owner. I never had that and that was a massive thing that I didn't really know the vision.

"So meeting the press and trying to influence the press was difficult because for my first press conference, one member of the press was allowed to interview me and one person from Sky so there were 26 other people from the media outside the stadium not allowed in. This is my first day.

"I knew a few of them and a few of them phoned me up and said, 'Steve, you've just made the biggest mistake ever on your first day of the job by excluding the press.' I apologised.

"Every time we had a press conference, there was no tea or biscuits or anything in the room. I brought that in for them, but there was no way I could get round them after that first day so, therefore, I was on a downer already and I couldn't be honest with my messages to the press."