Players earn the really big money but everyone’s important... every single member of staff
EVERY couple of weeks a Newcastle United player stands in front of team-mates and staff and tells their life story.
“It’s personal stuff that players maybe didn’t know,” explains winger Ryan Fraser.
Why has this ritual, done during the fortnightly player fines meeting, become a small but important cog in Eddie Howe’s cultural reboot of Newcastle United?
“You respect each other more when you know certain things you didn’t before,” the Scotland international said. “It means you go out and fight for each other.”
Newcastle may have spent £94million on five new players in January to help avoid relegation, which has helped their recent revival.
But, five months into the job, Howe has been quietly working behind the scenes to get the players to “buy-in” to a fresh club attitude that is as valuable as their big-money transfer spend.
“Respect is a huge word,” explained Howe. “Between staff and players. Between players.
“Knowing we are all there for the same purpose. Everything we do is to create a better working environment, and respect. Players may be earning millions of pounds and be big names, but everyone is important. Every staff member, or player.”
Underperforming
He moulded an underperforming squad who did not win a game until December 4 – and only once until January 22 – into a squad who then had six wins in seven games before losing their last two.
It started on Howe’s first day when players and staff filled in forms detailing aspects of their lives.
Names of their partners, kids, birthdays, outside interests.
“Now they know everyone by name from top to bottom, and who they are. They take time to speak to you. It is in a different class,” said one employee.
It sounds very much like the “no d ******* s” policy the New Zealand All Blacks have ingrained, although Howe does not use the term.
But it is people-centred. Of the timeline talks from players, Howe said: “It is healthy and can start relationships and conversations that normally wouldn’t happen. We have had some interesting talks.
“We’ve done a mixture of things. The culture of any organisation will determine its success.
“It is about how people interact with each other. You can stimulate that. Get people talking and mixing.”
So, no d ******* s? “Absolutely right,” said Howe.
“It comes back to the respect word. Respect the player in the team, the player who isn’t in and wait for your opportunity. It’s how you behave day to day.
“We have some great professionals here and some great people, and if you have great people you have a chance of making a great team.”