SOCCER NEWS:PUNCTUALITY, ice baths, communal meals, night-time curfews and high-tempo training are now the order of the day at Newcastle under manager Alan Shearer.
In an inadvertent indictment of the previous regime, Steve Harper, the goalkeeper, revealed the players are responding well to their much more authoritarian new leader.
“The gaffer is a man who demands respect and high standards,” he said. “He has stamped his authority on the place, and rightly so. Iain Dowie has also done very well as his assistant. The training has been really good, the tempo has improved. The sessions are longer and more competitive. The competitive edge to training that had maybe started to disappear is coming back.”
Life off the pitch is proving similarly demanding, as the side gear up for this evening’s match at Stoke.
“In the first week Alan Shearer has instilled discipline and professionalism, and players have responded to him and appreciated it,” added Harper.
“He has come in and told people what he expects of them. He wants them to be very professional, and that can only be a good thing. He is very big on punctuality and showing respect to each other. Everyone must eat together to forge team spirit. Ice baths are now compulsory.”
Shearer the striker certainly knew how to play hard but, ever professional, he never neglected to work flat out when it mattered and, with Newcastle in the relegation zone, has told his squad to put any partying on hold.
“Do tell me if you see any of them out on the town,” he told reporters, only half joking.
Not that anyone has stepped out of line. “They’ve taken to my ideas, the little things, really well. I think they wanted me to do that,” Shearer reflected. “I think the players wanted to be told where to be, at what time to be there and to be together. They have wanted to be pointed in that direction.”
He believes they also craved tougher weekday work-outs. “The response I had from the players was that the tempo of training needed to be a bit quicker, a bit more intense. We’ve put heart-rate monitors on them, so we can see how hard to push them. We have to be fit and strong enough to last 90 minutes, not just 45 or 60.”
Newcastle have struggled with injuries but Shearer is now demanding that those requiring treatment remain at the club until late afternoon. “We hope it will have an effect on clearing the medical room,” he said.
Perhaps Newcastle can again boast a manager of stature.
Guardian Service
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