The BBC Match of the Day pundit Gary Lineker, who also has a weekly spot on NBC Sports Network to review the results of Premier League matches every Sunday, has come out and picked the best side of players he played with in his excellent career.
Gary Linekar – picked four Geordies in side
Here is the Fantasy team of players he picked of players he played with in his illustrious career.
Peter Shilton
Viv Anderson
Des Walker
Terry Butcher
Stuart Pearce
Chris Waddle
Bryan Robson
Paul Gascoigne
John Barnes
Peter Beardsley
Alan Shearer
Of that team Stuart Pearce, John Barnes, Chris Waddle, Paul Gascoigne, Peter Beardsley and Alan Shearer all played for Newcastle United at some stage in their careers, and the last four are all Geordies – so nearly 40% of Gary’s team are Geordies – that’s not too bad.
Gary played 80 times for England with 48 goals, which is just one short of the record that Ashington-born Sir Bobby Charlton holds, and Linekar played his first six years for the England team under Sir Bobby Robson as the England manager.
But with a penalty goal against San Marino yesterday, in our rather easy 5-0 win against San Marino in the Euro 2016 qualifier, Wayne Rooney now has 42 goals for England in 98 appearances.
In his club career for Leicester, Everton, Barcelona, Tottenham and Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan, Gary Linekar played a total of 568 games with 281 goals – that’s an average of one goal every 2.02 games.
It’s interesting that Alan Shearer’s record is similar in club football, with 733 total games and 379 goals – an average of one goal every 1.93 games – those are two unbelievable records for both England strikers.
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57 comments so far
Jail for Ashley
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:21 PM
Comment #1Can you imagine Thatcher’s and Mashers love child, something resembling TDSarf.
Tsunki
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:23 PM
Comment #2So did psycho.
Tsunki
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:25 PM
Comment #3Oops ha ha first on the list. Glasses on now.
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:26 PM
Comment #4IF I WANTED TO READ THE CRAP ON THE MAG SITE I WOULD GO THERE THANK YOU
Big Pappa Cissé
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:26 PM
Comment #5Say what you want about Gerodie’s , but we have produced some of the most talented footballers this country has ever seen.
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:28 PM
Comment #6Im thinking the Ebola outbreak could effect the African Cup of Nations
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:29 PM
Comment #7PSG insiders saying Yohan Cabaye returning on loan to Newcastle in January
croftus5678
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:32 PM
Comment #8@7 jeff
i hope so and from the good words cabaye has said about us it does tend to play on the mind but we wont pay his wages now 🙁
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:39 PM
Comment #9John Barnes did not play for Newcastle United He wore the strip and ran around a bit
mecannylad
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:43 PM
Comment #10Expect these pictorial press releases from PR guru Bishop next week :
i) A relaxed Alan Pardew, manager of Newcastle United Football Club out shopping with his beautiful wife. in Northumberland Street.
ii) A caring Alan Pardew, manager of Newcastle United Football Club, taking time out to visit sick children in the RVI.
iii) Family man Alan Pardew, manager of Newcastle United Football Club, helping an old lady across a busy city centre street.
You may laugh …. and then it’ll be Thursday and Bishop will be at it again this time pulling Pardew’s strings at his weekly team press briefing.
What a circus.
mecannylad
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:50 PM
Comment #11The rumour mill is beginning to spin nicely now …
Charnley out ?
Pardew to bring back Cabaye on loan ?
I’m getting dizzy.
Kc-Toon
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:50 PM
Comment #12ED- The last 5 are all geordies, Bryan robson grew up in chester-le-street
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:52 PM
Comment #13mecannylad a good site for you and others here http://www.beliefnet.com/Health/15-Ways-to-Stop-Obsessing.aspx
Thump
Oct 10, 2014 at 10:57 PM
Comment #14@Jeff from Benwell (9): What a load of utter tosh; how dare you accuse of John Barnes of running around at any capacity!
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 10, 2014 at 11:00 PM
Comment #15I did say a bit
mecannylad
Oct 10, 2014 at 11:02 PM
Comment #16Jeff: “The doubting disease.” …thats me to a tee.
NUFC’s troubles certainly gives sensitive types like myself plenty of material to obsess about.
gazzaforever
Oct 11, 2014 at 12:00 AM
Comment #17This is almost the WC 90 ‘s team, I love it
Laurent Robert 32
Oct 11, 2014 at 12:26 AM
Comment #1822/05/13
“I genuinely think that without the Europa League our performances will be a lot stronger.” -sackpardew.com
Yeah, this yeah has been tough with the European fi… Oh, wait…
Another blag.
Laurent Robert 32
Oct 11, 2014 at 12:27 AM
Comment #19Quality line-up that, Gary.
wolfshead@toon
Oct 11, 2014 at 12:29 AM
Comment #20@13
lol
lesh
Oct 11, 2014 at 12:59 AM
Comment #21Kc-Toon
Chester-le-Street? Geordie?
😉
lesh
Oct 11, 2014 at 1:03 AM
Comment #22Big Papiss….. Geordies have produced some of the most talented footballers this country has ever seen.
You realise that Ed’s gonna be really chuffed when he reads your comment?
Toon-Prodigy
Oct 11, 2014 at 1:06 AM
Comment #23I pretty much can agree with Waddles comments, the only thing that he dosn’t grasp is that Mike Ashley is not putting all our funds back into the club when they should be in the Summer.
He is gambling from one window to the next trying to save money. He will only release funds in January if our mid-table finish is in jeopardy.
That’s no way to run a football club. The football should come first not profit. We should be set-up to compete the best we can be and fill any holes we may have with quality in the Summer and we simply arn’t under Ashley. The squad as a whole is weak. 20 good quality experienced Pro’s are required in the 25 man squad.
Our squad is seriously lacking.
Toon-Prodigy
Oct 11, 2014 at 3:49 AM
Comment #24Gazza is the best midfielder to come out of this country.
My all time favourite player.
Beardsley and Shearer joint second.
I look at the likes of Cabella and Ben Arfa and these lads dont have anywhere near the talent of what those lads had.
They were unbelievable. Truly top world class players.
Reyantoon
Oct 11, 2014 at 4:55 AM
Comment #25we spent around £40m this summer, the biggest after long time,if I’m not mistaken.It doesn’t matter whether that is from cabaye sale,or debuchy or Carroll or … we just spend when necessary.
we expanded our scouting network globally from limited countries since 2010.We are trying to redevelop our training complex to make it the Best in England or perhaps the best in the world, so that not only we can produce talented youngsters,but also can attract good players and top managers.The only thing that makes our progress look poor or downfall is our start to the season.otherwise, everything is going well and normal..
What else can we do beyond this to make our club successful??
Toon-Prodigy
Oct 11, 2014 at 5:30 AM
Comment #26Reyan,
We spent around 32 million.
We only spent because we had so many players leaving. There was no significant building to the squad achieved though through this, we have not progressed or are looking forward.
It’s really questionable that the squad maybe actually worse off for this season because of the lack of consideration showed in previous windows and the lack of building. So many players leaving and arriving takes time and has affected us because they have not hit the ground running.
So whilst we may of spent money, we are no further forward in adding quality to the squad because of all the outgoings.
The revenue is coming in and profits but we are not moving forward with it and giving ourselves the best platform to compete on.
In a nutshell we have no ambition and have stagnated for far too long because of the inept transfer structure. There isn’t enuf quality behind our 1st eleven to surpass mid-table even if we wanted too.
cyprus
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:21 AM
Comment #27Nice one about Barnes Jeff.
Ed, You say that after the Leicester game bad MA might show his ruthless streak and fire poor AP. That’s your (subconscious?) drift and I disagree. MA should have shown that streak you refer to ages ago. In fact, there should have been a new manager in place now, during the two week break.
You may like AP for whatever reason, ok. But he just can’t manage a football team, man.
Reyantoon
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:24 AM
Comment #28T prodigy
I’m sorry I disagree with you in so many ways.!
First,the outgoing players gone because they are not good enough for us.There is no reason to keep out of form players here.OK we let go cabaye,probably our best player, bcoz we offered good value and he wanted to leave.Not replacing him is the only set back we made from most.otherwise, we replaced others with equal talent,w/h is a sign of progression.
I don’t think our transfer structure is inept.I don’t know how come u encouraged to say that but our recruiting quality is the best among many clubs.
How come u say we have no ambition after lining out plans to build our complex and expanding our scouting system to global?
Are u one of those guys who want us to spend £30m on one player and see what he can do for us??
Thump
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:34 AM
Comment #29@Reyan: Prodigy has already explained the transfer situation, I’ll have a pop at a few other points.
Expanded scouting network.
Kind of. Our scouting network consists of two that I can think of off the top of my head – Graham Carr and Norman Wooster (I thought that there was a third but I can’t think of any names). Of this network we have scouted France to death, a little bit of Spain and a little bit of the Netherlands. You can argue that we unearthed gems like Tiote and Cabaye with this network, but I’d argue that they were already well known and accessible players, all we had to do was monitor them.
I’d love to see us really increase our scouting network, maybe open up an academy overseas, or even an overseas feeder club. I know I’m getting ahead of myself but when I hear Pardew bemoaning the local talent, I can’t help but think the club is doing a disservice by not doing enough to catch talent in the local areas (hint: they aren’t) and, until recently, not doing enough to increase that catchment area by gaining category 1 status. We’ve done that now and… we’re now focusing on the local area. Sigh.
Not really related, but have a read of this. It mentions our business model regarding young players and is a pretty interesting read overall.
New training complex
This will be fantastic when it’s completed in a year or two, I’m sure. I doubt it’ll be the best in England, and it definitely won’t be the best in Europe but it will be up there. Even then I can’t help but think about the old adage about a workmen and his tools. Slash isn’t a brilliant guitarist because he has a fantastically expensive guitar, in fact, he started out with a Spanish guitar with one string (which he played with only one string because he didn’t know how to put the other 5 on) and later he would get a cheap Les Paul replica but now he has a line of his own guitars. What I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t matter how good your tools are if you have only poor workmen. You can have the best facilities going but if you have average coaches, you will never produce fantastic talent – until somebody with pure, raw talent comes along.
When Kevin Keegan took over, we were training at a public gym in Benwell, the first thing he had done was paint it, and eventually convinced the board to move to the Uni in Durham. You could argue that the success was down to Keegan’s enthusiasm and love of attacking football, but I’m sure the facilities and his staff had a huge part of the upkick.
Poor start of the season
Poor start to the year. We have been atrocious since we sold Cabaye and given that we have been playing better this season, but facing the same old problems, I’m inclined to believe it’s less to do with the squad and more to do with the man in charge of setting the squad up.
Thump
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:36 AM
Comment #30How come u say we have no ambition after lining out plans to build our complex and expanding our scouting system to global?
Man U has a global scouting network. Barcelona has a global scouting network. We have a couple of countries that we have an acceptable knowledge of.
Jail for Ashley
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:38 AM
Comment #31Ethitoon,
You have suggested that Remy, Debuchy and Cabaye were not good enough for us. Case closed, back to your khat you foolish man and stop your drivel.
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:42 AM
Comment #32Reyantoon spot on Just look at Spurs last season and the Bale money POUFF 124 million up in smoke
Toon-Prodigy
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:45 AM
Comment #33Remy, Cabaye, Debuchy, Ba, Enrique, Milner, Barton, Nolan, Carroll, Ben Arfa, Routledge. Tiote and Krul and Colo will be leaving soon, sometime in the next year or so.
If we had replaced the quality equally as with what had left we would be alot better off right now. We chose the cheaper wage and foreign policy of players being untested in this league. Which for me has shone greatly. Far too many foreigners.
We have no English Core, not enough leaders or Premier League experience in the squad. On top of that we have multiple players adapting taking time to adjust. Add injuries to multiple starters and we are asking for trouble.
We are chopping and changing every 2 years and losing our top players not building and strengthening here. This duly hampers progression. We are not showing enough ambition to keep players we are a shop window.
Then there is the problem of losing quality players in the month of January and not replacing them.
I find it hard to understand how you might think this structure benefits the club in anyway apart from profit.
For me, we are the worst we have been under Ashley’s ownership as a squad.
We are going nowhere fast.
I like the idea of a new training centre and worldwide scouting but I find it astounding that they are not sorting out the playing squad as a priority.
We can have the best training facilities and scouts the world has ever seen, but if the players are not of the same quality and ilk as the players leaving we will travel backwards, which for me is what we are doing under these structures now.
Just my two cents and opinion.
Good chatting Reyantoon.
Go toon gooooo
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:47 AM
Comment #34Yohan Kebab is already rerlaced with better player.That is Remy Cabella but stupid Parde don’t know where and how to play him.Now I know that he will force Sammy”basketball”Ameobi and ruin the whole season.
Reyantoon
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:47 AM
Comment #35Thump
interesting assessment above, but are we equal in all aspects with man utd and Barcelona ?
Jeff from Benwell
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:55 AM
Comment #36Jail for Ashley Do you live in a different time continuum to the rest of us ? You post responses to points made 2 days ago Some people say you are an attention seeking prat Heaven forfend that is the case I cannot personally believe it to be so
Reyantoon
Oct 11, 2014 at 6:58 AM
Comment #37Jeff..@32 exactly,that is what I was saying,u got it!
jail..@31 sir..u have to read carefully what I was saying…and ow…it’s Reyantoon now buddy!
Go toon gooooo
Oct 11, 2014 at 7:02 AM
Comment #38Toon-Prodigy
Our team is so strong and now.Formation and tactics are OK(during the game formation and tactics are naturally changed 100 times).We don’t need another players.The main problem is disposition of players.You can’t play Sissoko right winger one year and lose 50 games.Also Anita was POOR DM(something like a ghost on the pitch).You can’t play Cabella on position where he is not playable.These are mistakes that kill this football club.And so on.And finally forget Ameobi as a winger.That would mean THE BOTTOM.
Toon-Prodigy
Oct 11, 2014 at 7:14 AM
Comment #39Reyan,
And no, im not expexting 30 million on one player. Just to spend what we have in the summer to give us the best possible chance at success.
And heaven forbid, keep our top players and show some ambition and build around them.
Hmm, you and toon gooo arn’t the same person are you? My spider sence is going off. Apologies if im wrong.
Go toon gooooo
Oct 11, 2014 at 7:20 AM
Comment #40Toon-Prodigy
🙂