The Entertainers Book Interview With Philippe Albert Buy Now www.newcastlelegends.com
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NUFC Matters With Steve Wraith
January 2nd 2024 - The Entertainers Book Interview With Philippe Albert
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Well, after the World Cup in '94, I was back in training with underelect in Belgium, but underelect received an offer from Newcastle, because Kevin was at the World Cup as a pundit, I think, and he saw one or two of my other Belgian national team games against Hollande and Germany, I think, where I managed to score, and he made an offer to underelect around the beginning of August, and then I take a plan to discuss, because underelect agreed the fee, and in a few hours I was in Leeds to talk to Kevin and Terry Mack, because they didn't want to see us in Newcastle because of the press and the fans and everything. So we made, obviously, a contact in Leeds, we made that, I flew to Leeds and then we talked about two hours about the way you wanted to play football, the way you wanted to do Newcastle and I agreed to move on a four-year deal, so it was very special, but it was a deal quick done. What was your first impressions of Kevin and Terry? Well, first, when I received, when somebody said to me, "You have to meet Kevin King and Terry Mack, but I didn't believe," because when I was a kid, I used to watch Liverpool the great Liverpool side, on European days, and Kevin was a fantastic player, Terry Mack also, of course, and so I was very impressed not only by the human being, Kevin King and by the football player he was, but the charisma, you know, when you talk to him, it's like being in front of a superstar, really, at the time, and he was a superstar, so I was very impressed and the way you wanted Newcastle to play football was exactly the way I wanted to play football, so we had a very good relation from the start. Tell us your first impressions about the train and ground and the facilities and about St James's Park, the stadium. First, when I arrived in '94, we used to train in Durham. And when the kids were not at school, they came with the parents, the grandparents, and sometimes four, five, or six thousand people to watch the training, can you imagine? It was unbelievable at the time, and Kevin was very strict about it. He wanted us to train very hard to show some good football, you know, to the fans, and after the training, it was always the same players don't go in without signing everything, and sometimes it took us maybe 16, 90, two hours, 60 or 90 minutes, sometimes two hours before we went in for a shower. I've never experienced something like this, you know. So many fans during a training session, it was unbelievable. And St James is, well, I remember my first game there. We started away at Leicester, we won 3-1, and we had two games after that first game, and we played the Southampton and Coventry, I think, and the atmosphere was absolutely unbelievable. 36,000 at the time, it looks like there were 80 or 90,000. We won those two games, the first two home games, 4-0 and 5-1 again, I think against Coventry and Southampton, and it was absolutely grateful for everybody. For me, especially because in Belgium, you know, I played for the best clubs in Belgium, but between 15 and 20, 23,000s, came to the ground, so it was very special for me, and I've enjoyed every second of it. The training sessions, a lot of the lads have said they were enjoyable, there wasn't tactics as such, you just played football, was that good for you? Yeah, it was very hard physically as well, but respect for Kevin and Terry, because they were part of it, you know. They train with us every day, and then you can only have one thing for people like this, so it's respect, you know. I remember training sessions, sometimes two hours, two hours and 30 minutes, because Kevin didn't want to train twice, morning and afternoon, so it was a very long session in the morning, but Kevin and Terry, they were with us, you know, from the start, which was something very, very special for me as well, because I've never seen anything like this in my career before. What did you make of the local boys? The likes of Steve Howie, Steve Watson, Lee Clark, because a lot of people go on about Manchester United's class of '92, back in Giggs and Schools, but we had our own, didn't we? Of course, of course, some young players, like you've said, with great mentality and qualities as well, you know. Steve Howie was a very, very good defender, he can play football, he can use the ball very well, Lee Clark was a very, very good midfielder, Steve Watson can play in every position, really, Robi Eliot as well, can play back or central defender, and honestly, I've got great memories about the young lads who were at Newcastle at the time, because they were very important for the rest of the squad, you know. Who was your closest friend in the dressing room? Well, when I signed in '94, Mark Otiger joined the club as well, so he was a good friend of mine, but I was friend with everybody, you know, but Mark was very, very good to me because he was there two or three weeks before me, he used to drive as well, you know, which was new for me, driving on the left, in England, in Belgium you drive on the right, so it's very, very complicated, very difficult, so Mark, I was very good with Mark, Mark was very good to me, with my English as well, you know, because he knew all the lads, so it was very easy for me to get involved in football, in the life of football in New Castle, but in the real life as well, you know, Mark was here as one of my closest friend at the time, he left after two years, unfortunately, but afterwards, I used to get done very, very well with everybody, you know, in Newcastle. Do you have a favourite game from that period, Philip, is there a game for you that stands out? I've got lots of games, you know, at the time we were the best team in England, it was Manban to say United, the likes of Liverpool, Chelsea, Man City, they were in the top six or top eight, City even went down one season, so at the time they were two big teams in England, because they were in the New Castle, plenty of games of course, my first double, you know, we won that home 3-1 against Leicester, and I scored two goals, and I scored two goals in a way that made me rude as well, and of course, one of the games that most of Newcastle fans remember is it's the win that almost against Manchester United, 5-0, and I was very lucky to score, well, I was very lucky to score the fifth one, which still is in the New Castle's fine mind, and I can see those goals, not only my goals, but I mean every goal from that game, they were absolutely superb, but it's difficult to pick one, but if I have to pick one, it's of course, the five new against Manu too. What went through your mind as you surged forward, and did you just see Schmeichel off his line and think I'm going to have a goal here? I knew, because I knew by watching Manu on TV, you know, having played them a few times, I knew that Schmeichel used to come off his line to reduce the angle, so when I won on the pitch, my last control of the baller, I knew he was off his line, so I had to choose try to hit the ball very, very hard and try to score, or chip, you know, and fortunately for me, it went in, and that's a great goal, of course, especially for a defender, but that's not new for me, you know, I used to score some cracker really during my career, but this one is very special, because it was against the best team in England and probably in Europe at the time. The question I'm asking everybody is, that season we didn't win the league, Philippe, why do you think we didn't win it? Well, we didn't lose it, it's Manu who won it, I remember, I remember we had the best offensive record, we had the second best defensive record, the problem is that game at St. James is in March 96, I can still talk about it for 4 hours, if it's 3 or 4 in a half time for us, that's a normal score, we had against us the best goalkeeper in the world, he made some tremendous saves during that first half, without Marshall, it was 3 or 4 in a four hours and we would have been champion, the other problem was the suspension of every container, he came back in November from a suspension and he scored some very, very important goals for Manu who went on to win 11 or 12 on straight wins, that's the problem, Manu managed to win those games, we didn't remember, drew nothing up for us as well, we should have won, we were winning 1-0 at Blackburn, we lost 2-1, but the crucial point was March 96 at half time, without Marshall, it was greener for us and we would have won the league, but unfortunately, we didn't do it and I still have some regrets, you know, still now I'm going to win 6-7 and we went very, very close, but at the end Manu finally deserved to win the league that season. Who was the best player that you played with in your time at Newcastle? Well, Peter Bursley was absolutely amazing, fantastic player, fantastic mentality, but David Ginola was a superstar as well, was a crack, Alan Schiro was a fantastic goalscorer, you can you imagine, Tino Espri, I went on to play for Newcastle as well, less third in and we had some fantastic players, but it was all about because of Kevin, you know, all those players, myself as well, we signed for, because I didn't, I didn't knew the area, you know, I didn't knew the mentality, the fantastic mentality of the people who live in the North East, but with Kevin being the manager of Newcastle, you knew that you would go straight into a team, that would have played the first rules, you know, the first places in the league, but I've spent the past five years of my life, it was in Newcastle, and not only football wiser, not only football wise, honestly, it's a region of England where people are just fantastic. How did you feel when Kevin decided to leave the club? Well, I think everybody was very surprised, because I think the last game under Kevin was a win against Tottenham, 7-0, 7-1 I think, I don't know if my memory is right or not, but I think it was a win, I'm pretty sure, and nobody saw that coming, you know, Kevin leaving the club after four or five years, it was very surprising, but we had to accept it because it was his choice, so we had to respect his decision. And how disappointed were you to leave the club, but sounds as if, you know, you had a wonderful, wonderful time here. Well, I had a wonderful time, but you know when things go wrong with the manager, and you know you don't have any chance of playing another game for the club, you love, you have to take your decision, and I was very, very disappointed to leave one of the best club in the world, but on the other side, I was looking to play five years for Newcastle, and that's the most important for me. So, live out there, thanks very much for your time. No problem, thanks very much to you as well. Take care, mate. This podcast is part of the Sports Social Podcast Network. [BLANK_AUDIO]
The Entertainers Book Interview With Philippe Albert Buy Now www.newcastlelegends.com
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