SAM Allardyce has dropped the broadest possible hint that he plans to raid the Reebok backroom staff.

The former Wanderers boss took on his "greatest challenge" yesterday when he was appointed manager of Newcastle United on a three-year contract.

Football's worst kept secret was confirmed when Toon chairman, Freddy Shepherd, introduced Allardyce as the man he had chosen to get the good times rolling on Tyneside.

Allardyce spoke of his desire to bring long-awaited success to Newcastle, his aim to keep strikers Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins at the club and asked for patience from the Magpies' fans.

But, in outlining his immediate plans, he put a strong emphasis on the scientific approach, which helped make Wanderers as such a powerful force in the Premiership.

In particular, he stressed the need for injury prevention - as he did at the Reebok, where he built a backroom team of 27 and consistently boasted one of the shortest casualty lists in the Premiership.

That served only to fuel speculation that, despite being warned off in no uncertain terms, he will try to take key members of the Bolton support staff - including head of sports science and medicine, Mark Taylor, and performance director, Mike Forde, who has been tipped for the role of general manager, which Sammy Lee is anxious to fill.

Allardyce says he will work initially with the existing Newcastle backroom team but made no secret of his plans to expand the operation as quickly as possible.

"There's been too many injuries, we seem to be talking about the everlasting injury list," he said.

"I want to look at the nutritional values of the players and get them to buy into that.

"I want them to stay fitter for longer; too many players have had too many injuries over the last few years.

"We will look at structuring behind the scenes, the sort of science and football way I work.

"I will get the staff working with me, with maybe one or two additions in the future. I've got to bide my time, it doesn't happen overnight.

"It's important to build it right. I have left a football club that's very healthy, the best it's been for years, I hope when it comes to my time to leave Newcastle they are the same."

Allardyce, who quit Wanderers on April 29 after seven-and-a-half successful years, is taking on one the toughest jobs in the game.

Glenn Roeder, who quit on May 7 after just one season in charge, was the latest to fail at a club which has not won the league title since 1927.

Despite drawing crowds of more that 50,000, the Magpies have not won a domestic trophy since the last of six FA Cup triumphs in 1955 and the former Wanderers' boss, who has based much of his success on team spirit, has inherited a range of problems, with Owen reportedly unhappy, Martins going missing and Charles N'Zogbia refusing to sit on the subs' bench for the final game of the season.

"No disrespect to Bolton, a club I love, but this club is massive. I want the players to want to come to Newcastle United and to want to play for the club.

"I'll be building a backroom staff and playing staff and helping the club go forward and hopefully be as successful as I have been over last four years at Bolton."