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It was enough to go out to the streets of Newcastle, any day of the week, to understand the obsession with football and the monumental weight of expectation in that city.
I don’t think there’s a city in the UK where you see so many people wearing the colors of the home team when that team isn’t even playing. It never ceased to amaze me.
I was like all the managers before and after me there, thinking, ‘If you do this right, what an amazing football club it could be’, when I took over in 2004. But the managers didn’t stay at that club for long.
It was a very difficult place to work, in terms of getting everyone rowing in the same direction. You’re just one game away from everything going wrong. You can go on a hot streak, but the moment you lose a game things change drastically.
There was a bad relationship between the local newspaper and the club when I arrived.
The obsession that the people of Newcastle have with their football team never ceases to amaze me.
I enjoyed my time there as a manager, but it was a very difficult place to work in terms of getting everyone rowing in the same direction and I always felt like there was a self-destruct button.
The newspaper was quick to criticize: the fastest I have experienced in my time in football. I will never forget a local journalist who was proud to tell me, on my first day working there, how he had managed to fire previous managers.
I managed the team there for two seasons and the city was full of promise as we entered the second week of April 2005. We were playing a UEFA Cup quarter-final at Sporting Lisbon on Thursday, and a UEFA Cup semi-final FA against Manchester United, on Sunday.
We were 2-0 up on aggregate against Sporting but we conceded three in the last 20 minutes and then lost the semi-final to United.
In the space of four days everything had gone from good to bad. From good to bad. That typified how things were up there, at the time. I always felt like there was a self destruct button.
It didn’t always help that Newcastle is such a social city. There’s nothing wrong with that, as long as the socialization happens at the right time.
There were some scoundrels in my group exaggerating. The place is something of an outpost and the players were placed on a dangerous pedestal when they got out.
Anniversaries are always cited at a club that has been chasing trophies, but 68 years since Newcastle last won a major one is a burden to carry until Sunday afternoon.
They are the biggest British club without a national trophy in the last 50 years and when you look at the smaller teams that have lifted one (Wigan, Birmingham City, Swansea City) you can see why there has been such a desire to end this. drought.
The absence of Nick Pope will hurt Newcastle a lot on Sunday, but I think it’s a 50/50 game.
His achievements this season are due to Eddie Howe taking a tune out of his players and managing the team very well: his team is always bold and that’s something I like.
Newcastle is the biggest British club not to have won a national trophy in the last 50 years.
I think it’s a 50/50 game. United are too dependent on Marcus Rashford for goals, but the absence of Nick Pope is very significant. Pope has had a great season and the goalkeeper-defender relationship is like a team within a team. The goalkeeper and his defenders know each other’s strengths. If you’re a central midfielder, you instinctively know when your goalkeeper is going to come looking for a cross.
But Newcastle will still go into this match with great confidence. His success this season is not about the Saudis throwing money around. The £250 million spent under this ownership has been provided.
The achievements are due to Eddie Howe pulling a tune out of the players and managing the team very well. His team is bold and I like that. Under some previous coaches, they were super cautious both at home and away. But Eddie came along and wherever the team has gone, they’ve said, ‘Okay, we’re going to play you in a football game. We are going to surpass you in points, in football and in trying to win the game’. That’s all to your credit. So far, so good.
I know the importance of what awaits Newcastle. They’ll be dancing on Quayside and Bigg Market in that great football city if they can find a way to win.
Modric proves the aging midfielder can’t be blamed for Liverpool’s woes
That was a gigantic wake-up call for Liverpool on Tuesday. Having started out so brightly, they are back to the level they had been at for the past five years, before they fell apart.
Unbridled, confident and energetic, Liverpool ended the night chasing shadows against a Real Madrid that barely uprooted trees in their league.
Many of Liverpool’s ills came from its midfield, which for three or four years was the best at harassing teams.
When they’re not good at it in a game, the whole team suffers.
You are not winning the ball so high up the field and the forwards suffer. You’re not preventing the opponent from making the pass he wants to make, so the defense suffers.
The temptation is to look at the age of the midfielders and say: ‘That’s the problem’, but it’s not so black and white. It’s not about getting to the wrong side of 30 and everything becoming a problem. Everyone hits that wall at a different age. There is no better example of that than the little magician Luka Modric running the show from midfield on Tuesday at the age of 37.
I am sure the manager is aware of what it takes to get the team back to where it has been for the last five or six years and the season is not over.
Liverpool have 16 games left this season. That’s 48 points to make sure they qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Luka Modric ran the show from midfield for Real Madrid against Liverpool at the age of 37.
Lack of bravery hurting Hammers
A great weekend for West Ham, against Nottingham Forest, and I’d like to point out some numbers that speak volumes about their problems.
Last season, they were fourth in the Premier League standings for set-piece goals, with 15. This season they are 16 together, with four so far.
There are two components to scoring those goals from set pieces. The delivery, which I would suggest has not changed. And the willingness to take a punch for the cause: put your head where it might get elbowed in the chops, which he would suggest.
I know Craig Dawson has gone to Wolves, but this feels like a reluctance to take one for the cause. If the grit isn’t there on set pieces, that will be missing from the rest of your game as well.
West Ham’s lack of guts is hampering them this year as they languish in 18th place.
Bobby Moore was a true gentleman of the game.
Friday marked the 30th anniversary of Bobby Moore’s death and I have never forgotten what an exceptional man he was.
When he was a 17-year-old trainee at Tottenham in the late 1960s, he would go to a particular nightclub that was popular with West Ham and Spurs players.
I had been a few times when I was introduced to Bobby. A few weeks later I was back in the place when he met me and remembered my name. This was in 1969-70 and a World Cup winning captain remembered the name of a young Spurs trainee.
We young players played in the mornings in the South East Counties League at 11am and got complimentary tickets to see the first team in the afternoons. That was how from time to time I could see Bobby play.
It’s often a sign of greatness when someone makes a job look easy. Bobby wasn’t the fastest physically, but he thought faster and never got stuck for lack of pace.
The words ‘great’, ‘world class’ and ‘legend’ are scandalously overused these days, but they all apply to him. It is a crime that he was never awarded a posthumous knighthood.
Bobby Moore was one of the game’s all-time greats, both on and off the court: 30 years after his death, it’s a crime that he was never awarded a posthumous knighthood.