Peter Beardsley, one of the most skillful players ever to wear the famous black and white shirt is backing Big Sam to take Newcastle right back into Europe next season.

It’s ironic that Bolton are in the UEFA cup this year and will now play Bayern Munich in the next round – but everyone knows it was Allardyce to who took the unfashionable club there.

Let’s see what Peter has been saying to the Shields Gazette.

Peter Beardsley – in his playing days, one of the greats

Peter Beardsley talked about Big Sam and Newcastle’s good start to the season:

“It’s been an outstanding start, really.” “If you’d offered me 14 points going into the international break, I’d have taken it.”

“I’d have settled for that with no complaints whatsoever.” “We got that great win at Bolton to start with, and then we had the stalemate with Aston Villa, but apart from that the home form’s been fantastic.”

“I know we got beat at Derby and Manchester City, but when you look at City they scored some great goals on the day and they won’t be far away come the end of the season.”

“And when you have a look at the quality they’ve got, it doesn’t look that bad a result.”

“It’s hard for Sam to come out and say that we will definitely get into Europe because of the pressure it puts on, but for me the top four are the top four in any order you want.”

“The remaining three UEFA places, I think, will be contested by Everton, Man City, Blackburn, Portsmouth and, of course, Newcastle.” “They, for me, will be the teams in the shake up.”

Beardsley actually had a spell at Bolton after he left Newcastle in 1997 and appeared 17 times for the Trotters scoring 2 goals. Peter thinks Big Sam deserves a lot of credit for taking the unfashionable club into Europe – but Sam really hasn’t had the respect he deserves for his accomplishments at Bolton.

“It’s a great draw for Bolton to be playing Bayern Munich,” “You always want the big clubs as soon as you can in Europe, so you can test yourself against the top teams.”

“And, to be fair to Bolton, it’s Sam who has put them there.”

Peter Beardsley played for Newcastle United 276 times with two stints at the club and scored a total of 107 goals. He played for England 59 times and scored 9 times for his country.

For those of you who haven’t seen Peter perform – take a look at this video – he was just one fantastic player.

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