Les Ferdinand, one of the nicest guys ever to play for Newcastle United, is now an analyst with Setanta Sports, who have the game live and exclusive on Saturday.
Les Ferdinand in in his playing days at Newcastle
Ferdinand of course played under Keegan, during Kevin’s first time around at Newcastle. He has a good idea what Kevin will be telling the players before they take the field with Manchester United.
Manchester United drew 1-1 with Lyon last night in the Champions league, with an 87th minute goal from Carlos Tevez getting them the vital away goal.
Les talked about Saturday’s game against the Red Devils today.
“I think I’ve got a pretty good idea what Kevin’s team talk will be before the game because I can remember the words he used before we beat them 5-0 all those years ago,â€â€œYou have to remember that when we went into that game, we had been humiliated in the Charity Shield against them and, before that, they had beaten us 1-0 at St James’ Park on the way to pipping us to the title.â€
“We owed them one and we knew it. Kevin reminded us of that and he also reminded us that, when we had lost at home, our fans had applauded us off the pitch. When we had been awful against them in the Charity Shield, the fans stayed behind to applaud us off the pitch.â€
“That was all we needed to hear from him, we knew the rest, we knew we owed them one and we couldn’t wait to settle some old scores. When you are a professional footballer you hate being humiliated by another team and Newcastle were well and truly humiliated by Manchester United at Old Trafford.â€
“The memories of that 6-0 defeat will still haunt anyone who was playing for Newcastle that day and they will be desperate to get it out of their system, to try and put things right. Whether they can do that, I don’t know. I don’t think anyone will give them much of a chance outside of the dressing room, but they will certainly not need any extra motivation. That 6-0 defeat will be enough.â€
“Manchester United are in form and playing well. Newcastle United aren’t playing well and they haven’t won a league game this year, nobody thinks they have a hope of winning. But you only have to look at the FA Cup this season. Football isn’t always that simple.”
“You can be struggling in the league and then, on the day of the cup game, everyone raises their game and everything comes together suddenly. That is what Newcastle have got to hope for on Saturday.â€
“It is the sort of game which can transform a season, which is what they need at the moment. They are the underdogs, but if they win, it is a massive lift and could just be the spark Kevin needs to ignite things again.â€
“I think Kevin will be wishing he’d watched a bit more football before he took the job again. He admitted he hadn’t watched much and, if he had, he would have realized where he needed to strengthen the team in the January window. He has quickly discovered what a tough job he has taken on.â€
“Newcastle are still two or three wins away from safety and it’s going to be a struggle between now and the end of the season. I still think he is the right man for the job, but he’s got a big job on his hands.
“The good thing is, he can have a good, long look at the players he has got there and he can see what sort of characters they are when its tough and who falls away. He’ll know exactly who he wants to keep and who he wants to get rid of by the time transfer window opens in the summer.â€
Good words from Les, but we will have to see which team turns up on Saturday. Not sure we can stand another inept performance from the lads and we hope to see some significant improvement because of the 2 weeks Keegan has had with the squad.
But even if we don’t get any points on Saturday, it’s not the end of the world. Our next game is at home to Blackburn Rovers the following Saturday. Maybe we can get something out of that game, although Blackburn are 4 places above us in the league in 9th place, but still a massive 11 points ahead of us. If we don’t get any points from Manchester United or Blackburn it will look like the end of the world – at least to Newcastle fans.  🙁
Comments welcome.
10 comments so far
cooldj
Feb 21, 2008 at 11:00 AM
Comment #1bosh. wall virginity. 1st in but last out.
cooldj
Feb 21, 2008 at 11:06 AM
Comment #2i don’t think losses against man u and blackburn will be the end of the world. losses to one of birmingham, reading or fulham as would be pretty bad though!
btw… i don’t care how good kk’s talk is. you can only work with what you’ve got.
a workman is only as good as his tools. kk has blunt ones!
hows that for cliche!!!!
Rich
Feb 21, 2008 at 11:18 AM
Comment #3I think we should be aiming to beat Blackburn at home and hope to play well against utd and see what happens, it will probably be a defeat but letds get some confiidence and use it to beat Blackburn, we would then be on 31 points with some easier fixtures coming up and things wouldnt hopefully be quite as bad!
Davies
Feb 21, 2008 at 11:35 AM
Comment #4I’m afraid all anyone can do is hope. I watched Man Utd hammering Arsenal at the weekend and they were awesome. Conversely, their match at Lyon last night was not quite so confidently played out.
I’m glad they managed to get a draw. If they’d lost, I can’t help but think we’d be on the end of their frustrations on Saturday. If they’d won, they would be buoyed with even more confidence than they already have, which is a lot.
If we can get them back properly for that 6-0 effort, I would absolutely love it. LOVE IT!!!
Eric
Feb 21, 2008 at 12:17 PM
Comment #5Les, get your shirt on. We need you.
Simen
Feb 21, 2008 at 12:23 PM
Comment #6Looking at that picture of Les Ferdinand makes the hair in the back of my neck stand up! Those were times… I would be over the moon if we could get anywhere near that in the future! It brings a smile too my face just thinking about it 😀
staffsmag
Feb 21, 2008 at 12:42 PM
Comment #7Simen – same here ! the man was a legend playing in a team of legends. fingers crossed for the summer and new faces !!! Haway the lads
Eric
Feb 21, 2008 at 1:32 PM
Comment #8Just noticed the blog site banner. It is our best team. With Martins a doubt for Saturday we could give either Carroll or Ameoabi a run out.
The banner design looks as though it is part prophesy for next season. With the youngsters doing well in the reserves is it worth constituting an A team to park Smith, Viduka, Butt, Barton and Carr in until May? Not enough room for their over-priced arses on the benches.
Leo*
Feb 21, 2008 at 2:03 PM
Comment #9les ‘as a good point we need to applaud the team if they try on saterday, we really need to give them a confidence boost, its our duty as supporters.
they must be shit scared coming to play on saterday, not only because its newcastle but because its at home, fearing the fans getting on their backs.
ScottyT
Feb 21, 2008 at 2:59 PM
Comment #10agree leo thats what i said a while ago, when i was at villa last saturday our away support stayed and applauded the players even though tbh they were dreadful second half.
if we at least give them some decent vocal support to work with and not boo at every mistake thats made then confidence will rise and we’ll have given them distinctly average players the best chance of getting a decent result.
having said that even if we did give that support i still expect us to get beat quite badly 🙁