Christian Fuchs insists he’s not insane but does admit his phone has buzzed with former Leicester City teammates asking the same thing.
What have you done?
As in, why have you - a Premier League winner - left the sunshine comfort of American football, decorated with the likes of Lionel Messi, for the stone cold brutality of a League Two relegation scrap in charge of Newport County?
It’s a question the 39-year-old Austrian understands and has an almost convincing argument for.
Fuchs, who famously won the Premier League with Leicester in 2016 and has spent the last two years coaching in Major League Soccer (MLS) smiles at the suggestion that he must be mad to take charge of the EFL’s bottom club.
“No, I’m not insane,” he says. “I like the challenge.”
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It is a bold gamble—one of the most eye-catching managerial appointments of the season so far.
Fuchs has never managed a senior team before, he has arrived mid-season, and he has inherited a side marooned at the foot of the league, visibly low on confidence and running out of time.
Yet to him, Newport represents opportunity rather than reputational danger.
What convinced him? Not the league position, nor the resources, but the people.
“I would probably not have done it if I would have not got to know the people that are involved,” he explains, an assessment that includes chairman Huw Jenkins, who is about as popular with some County fans as Rachel Reeves is with an on-line casino gambling addict, earning £12,500 but living in a £2m mansion.
“From all the way from the front office, to the president, to staff, to the kit man, the players. They are all good characters. And this is the part that at the end convinced me.”
READ MORE: Grim Start for Christian Fuchs but he Insists Newport County can Rise Again
If his old Foxes teammates worry he has stepped into something impossible, they are also showing their admiration.
The group chat that formed during Leicester’s fairytale title run is still alive, and Fuchs says his phone “exploded” when the news broke that he had crossed the Atlantic to take over a club fighting for survival.
He laughs and says they asked him: “What have you done?’ No. It’s very positive. Really positive. There’s a lot of support from everywhere.”
Fuchs’ last job was assistant to Dean Smith at Charlotte FC, in a league renowned for glamour and opulent surroundings.
His day-to-day involved high-spec facilities, perfect training pitches, enormous travel distances and occasional encounters with Messi.
READ MORE: New Newport County Boss Christian Fuchs Has Eyes on Premier League
In contrast, his new team are trying to convince 4,000 diehards at Rodney Parade it’s not going to be a bleak mid-winter as they try to close the five-point gap between themselves and safety, which opened up during the era of David Hughes.
It was hardly a decline that can be laid solely at Hughes’ door, but the previous manager carried the can.
Can Fuchs adjust to his new surroundings and turn things around?
“The MLS is really tough,” he insists. “You have a lot of athletes over there, physical players, strong, fast… In my eyes it is the toughest league in the world, just because of the external factors.
“You have different time zones… altitude… temperatures.”
He paints a vivid picture of flights across the United States, games in searing heat, then midweek fixtures at altitude in Colorado or snow in Vancouver.
Compared to that, Newport’s rain may feel almost familiar again but it is undeniably a cultural gear shift.
A five-day crash-course has introduced him to League Two realities: cramped offices, muddy pitches, small budgets—and players who desperately want to claw their way out of trouble.
He is relishing it.
In fact, Fuchs believes Newport’s situation is far from hopeless, despite losing 3-0 at Oldham last weekend in his first match in charge.
He insists he has been “positively surprised” by the spirit inside a squad battered by results but buoyed by a chance to reset under new leadership.
“The group is very positive,” he says.
“Given the situation, I’m positively surprised how the group is engaged every day… how they put all the effort in.”
He has spent the week drilling fundamentals: defensive structure, organisation, confidence, and clarity—core principles he absorbed under managers he played under such as Claudio Ranieri, Thomas Tuchel, Brendan Rodgers and, most recently, Smith.
“It’s about getting the basics right,” he says.
“Defending well, being well organised, because that will then give the team the freedom… to express themselves going forward.”
Fuchs is not interested in wild tactical gambles or introducing new systems for the sake of it.
“I know that right now it’s not the moment of experimenting and trying new things,” he says. “The basics, we have started to put in place.”
The players, he insists, have responded with energy, even enthusiasm.
“Obviously, there’s a new manager in, right? And they want to all show that they want to play and want to be in the starting 11… so there’s been nothing but good so far.”
Fuchs makes no secret of his long-term ambition.
“I wanted to be a head coach and eventually I want to be a head coach in the Premier League.”
Newport, he believes, is where that journey begins.
“Being here and learning that role now helps me a lot,” he adds. “I want to come here to make the club better on every possible level.”
But the immediate goal is clear and urgent.
“Staying in the league. That’s the number one thing.”
The fight is one he understands more deeply than many imagine. For all the glory of Leicester, he has lived the other side of football too.
“I got relegated at Bochum,” he says. “You go through the season and you always think ‘we’ll turn it around’. Then you have to turn it around right now… I’m very much aware what a relegation battle looks like.”
He does not want his Newport players feeling the weight of it, though.
“I’m well aware of the impact that relegation has on a club, but I keep that away from the players,” he says.
Reflecting on Leicester’s miracle title, Fuchs sees parallels.
“It definitely made me a believer that you can achieve anything you want,” he says.
“As long as you put your head to it, as long as you have that belief.”
He believes Newport’s squad has that conviction. It just needs nurturing, organising and channelling.
“The team, the players, they have that belief,” he says. “They want to work towards that. And that obviously, as a manager, is crucial.
“I think it’s just a matter of time. But the time is ticking, I’m aware of that.”
January is approaching quickly and though Fuchs will not publicly reveal transfer targets, he admits his old connections and network will be fully utilised for the task ahead.
“We have some conversations, nothing in big detail yet,” he says. “Those conversations will probably happen within the next one or two weeks.
“Some of those people are already in positions where they can be helpful, yes,” he says, with a subtle smile.
Fuchs’ first home game is fast approaching- against Barrow on Saturday.
Rodney Parade, ramshackle but heavy with intimacy and raw emotion, has already made an impression.
“This is where you want to be, this is where everything happens. We need the support of our home fans. The players want to leave it out there and show who they really are.”
Fuchs was once part of one of football’s most unlikely triumphs.
He has trained in 40-degree heat and played in snowstorms. He has lifted the Premier League trophy and been relegated from the Bundesliga as a 22-year-old.
And now, by choice, he is here: cold, wet, bottom of League Two, but with no regrets.
“I’m very excited about it. I’m very motivated,” he says.
If Newport County were looking for a manager who believes survival is possible, they have found him.
He may not be insane—but he is certainly fearless.
