Shirt and sweet to be back in United kit

I REJOINED my old club Newcastle United recently and pulled on the famous black-and-white striped shirt again.

Ah, happy days. Joyous memories.

It all came about because United have new sponsors for next season and the club wanted to launch their deal with great aplomb back in China.

A photo-shoot was set up for their Benton training ground and club ambassador Bob Moncur was asked to get in two wellknown old players to help with the promotional drive.

So he approached me from United’s two Wembley cup final teams of the 70s and Frank Clark who, with Bob, won the European Fairs Cup. We were joined by Peter Beardsley, a club legend who is coach to the Under 23s of course.

The idea was to make a video as well as do promotional shots to back sponsors Fun88, a betting company, and launch it in China.

We all reported to Benton for eight o’clock in the morning because the shoot included current United stars who had to be ready for training with Rafa at 10am.

There we were in the new blackand-white shirt with tracksuit bottoms and flat running shoes ready to work our way through four different sets built on United’s indoor training pitch.

The idea was to mix with various other players past and present and, when we got to the video set, to talk to the camera about the city of Newcastle and the club’s position within it.

A bit of history but also to portray the fanaticism of 52,000 Geordies for their beloved football club throughout history. I got into full flow, I can tell you, stating that as an outsider, a Cockney, I landed here aged only 21 and wondered what everyone was talking about. The accent was so different.

However I emphasised that I loved the place so much I’ve returned to live here in my later years.

It was good to meet several of the current players in a nonworking situation and have a little private chat.

I particularly wanted to chew the fat with Dwight Gayle because he is the current No 9, of course.

And here’s a fact that struck me. I’ve always considered Gayle and Ayoze Perez small when watching them on the field of play, but Gayle was an inch taller than me