I'm the best coach in Premier League, but my Newcastle players can't follow instructions, says John Carver

Magpies boss makes astonishing claim despite overseeing the worst run in the club's history

John Carver has had talks with Mike Williamson after claiming the defender got himself sent off (PA)

Newcastle United’s interim manager John Carver has made the astonishing claim that he is the best coach in the Premier League, despite overseeing the worst run in the club’s history – eight straight defeats.

Carver instead blamed the lack of quality in the squad he took over from Alan Pardew in January for plunging Newcastle into their third Premier League relegation battle under owner Mike Ashley.

Carver spoke of the “blunt” tools he has been left to work with after Newcastle inexplicably failed to buy a centre-forward of note or a centre-half last summer, a problem exacerbated by the seven-game ban given to their only recognised goalscorer, Papiss Cissé, for spitting in Jonny Evans’ face.

“I still think I’m the best coach in the Premier league,” said Carver. “I have a spring in my step. I never offered to resign or was asked to resign. I have the backing of Mike Ashley and [chief executive] Lee Charnley.

“It’s not just something that’s happened from last week. It’s been coming. I’m not a magician, I’ve said it all along. I’ve been amongst it, and I can see what’s going on. It’s been a tough situation but it’s in our hands.

“The criticism the players have had and we have all had, a lot of it is deserved, some of it is not. We collectively take responsibility. What I will say is that they realise they have to react to it.”

As for the lack of adequate cover and Cissé’s absence, he added: “If I took a notepad away from a journalist or a pen away, it is difficult to write notes because you have to do it from memory. Take your best centre-forward out of the team, who scores all your goals – you ain’t got another to replace him.”

Carver then admitted the players were incapable of following instructions. “I said [after last Saturday’s defeat by Leicester] maybe they’re not listening to me,” he added. “How do you change that? The fact that they did what they did on Monday was good [when the players held a meeting].

“Maybe I used the wrong words. There’s one thing of not listening to people, and another of not being able to do what you ask them to do,” he added.

“So if I ask somebody to mark someone, and they get beaten in the air, that’s not because they’re not listening, it’s because they’re not capable of dealing with that situation at the time. I’ve given them a solution to deal with it.”

Carver also revealed he had held clear-the-air talks with Mike Williamson, after claiming the central defender had got himself sent off in the capitulation at Leicester so he would be suspended for two of Newcastle’s final three games. Last week he did the same after a training-ground row with Jonas Gutierrez.

On another bizarre day, Carver was forced to wave a hand-written version of a statement his captain Fabricio Coloccini had produced earlier in the week. Coloccini’s apology on the club website for a dismal season and his call for the fans to get behind the team against West Bromwich Albion tomorrow were dismissed as a PR stunt.