FOR RELAXED MAURICIO
NEWCASTLE hero Malcolm Macdonald has issued a stark warning to Jonjo Shelvey – rid yourself of your demons or risk being shown the Newcastle door.
The midfielder was sent off for stamping on Tottenham’s Dele Alli in the opening game of the season and admitted later that it was a moment of madness.
It was the third red card of his career and the Romford-born star also revealed that he is making regular trips to see a psychologist in a bid to curb his temper.
Shelvey, 25, could have the world at his feet – if he used them to score goals or deliver killer passes instead of to inflict pain on opponents.
Supermac believes Shelvey can be a superstar for club and country going into a World Cup year.
But the Toon legend, 67, has warned that both could turn their back on him unless he drives the devil out of his game.
Macdonald said: “I met him at Newcastle’s indoor training facility just after pre-season started.
“What a lovely, lovely fella. He’s an intelligent lad. Great to chat with and there’s a depth to him. He’s not a superficial lad in any way.
“And I couldn’t help but look at him and think, ‘You’re coming over as a really intelligent fella, so why are you such a hothead?’
“It’s just one of those unanswered questions that a footballer will throw up.
“It wasn’t that long afterwards that Newcastle were playing Tottenham and Jonjo, right in front of the referee, stamped on Alli.
“Newcastle were up against it anyway but at the time it was 0-0 and Spurs went on to win easily.
“Nobody could sort of stop themselves from pointing the finger at Shelvey and saying, ‘The reason Newcastle lost was that you gave it away when you got sent off.’
“It was such a stupid, blatant offence and you what we are doing wrong and we have to keep going with this mentality.
“We have to improve, not just in attack but also in defence and in a lot of areas we can be better. Hopefully it will be a good possibility against Newcastle to show that we are better than the last game.”
Standing in the next dugout to Pellegrino at St Mary’s today will be think, ‘come on Jonjo, you are an intelligent man, why have you got this within you?’.
“When it’s recognised that someone has that bent in them a lot of people in football fight shy. “An international manager like Gareth Southgate will take one look at the lad and say, ‘Is he going to let me down? Is he going to let his team-mates down? Is he going to let his country down?’.
“You just cannot take that risk. “I go back to Sir Alf Ramsey’s days when there was a huge clamour for Rodney Marsh and he gave him a chance.
“We were playing at Hampden Park, I shall never forget the moment.
“I was on the bench with about 25 minutes left, England are 1-0 up against Scotland and Marshy starts messing about on the ball, looking to nutmeg people. “There’s 120,000 Scotsmen who want English blood. Alf just turned his close friend and mentor Rafael Benitez.
Pellegrino, 46, played under Benitez at Valencia and then Liverpool, before joining the Spaniard’s coaching team at Anfield and then following him to Inter Milan.
“Rafa doesn’t drink too much, so I will invite him to have a Coca Cola after the game,” the Saints boss said.
“I try to learn from everybody. When to me and said: “Get ready”. And then he turned the other way to Harold Shepherdson, the coach, and he said, ‘Get that clown off ’.
“In that moment that was Alf Ramsey admitting that he had made an error.
“Football managers can’t afford to do the same these days. There’s too many other managers around without a club. So you can’t put the security of your job in the hands of a Rodney Marsh – or the fella who is at Newcastle.”
Macdonald (left) thinks he has the answer to Shelvey’s problems – seek a heart-to-heart with Newcastle boss Rafa Benitez.
He said: “Jonjo has got to get himself mentally right on the pitch and free himself of the demons.
“Everyone will be watching him and saying, ‘Can we trust him?’
“Jonjo has broken that trust and once that happens it’s very difficult to repair it. The best thing he could do is to go into Rafa’s office and say, ‘Boss, I really want to turn over a new leaf. You’ll never see me do anything like that ever again’.
“Unless he can make that promise to himself first and keeps to it, then Newcastle United will finish up doing what Swansea did, leaving him completely out of the picture.” you consider I am really young in this profession – I am only starting – and I want to learn every single day to try to be better.
“Rafa doesn’t need too much advice from me because he is a manager with a lot of experience in the Premier League. He has worked for 20 years, more or less, at different situations.
“It will be really nice to be with him again and to play against him.”