Christian Fuchs Takes Charge at Newport County Amid Relegation Battle
Christian Fuchs was appointed manager of Newport County in November 2025 as the club struggles to avoid relegation from the Football League to non-league football. The 39-year-old former player takes on his first frontline managerial role less than three years after retiring from professional football.
Fuchs draws on lessons learned from highly regarded managers Brendan Rodgers and Thomas Tuchel, highlighting the importance of the mental challenge and making decisions that extract more from players. He also cites an approach inspired by Leicester City legend Claudio Ranieri, who once observed a team’s training for a week and opted not to change anything after that period.
Born in Neunkirchen near Vienna, Fuchs recalls enduring early doubts about his potential and describes himself as stubborn when he believes in player ability. At Newport, he is supported by assistant Mark Smith, who has local connections—Smith was born in Newport and his father holds a Rodney Parade season ticket.
Newport have won just 3 of their 19 league matches, are eight games without a win in all competitions, and recently exited the FA Cup at Boreham Wood. The club has not recorded a home victory in 273 days and Fuchs is determined to transform Rodney Parade into a fortress.
Fuchs sees himself as part of the team and remains involved in training sessions to foster unity and collective effort among the squad. He also embraces data-driven coaching, sharing a slide that showed his team achieving 87% passing accuracy during a 2-2 draw with Barrow, and aims to improve this figure into the mid-90s by encouraging shorter, more efficient passing to break down defensive lines.
