Age just a number for youthful Magpie squad
UNITED SHOWING MATURITY BEYOND PLAYERS’ YEARS
IT WAS Alan Hansen, highly decorated in the blood red of Liverpool, who famously said that you win nothing with kids.
It is also generally agreed that footballers don’t reach their peak until they are at least 27 years of age.
So where does that leave Newcastle United in the most competitive division in world football?
Hopefully capable of winning something ie safety with a bunch of whippersnappers.
There is renewed belief in every Geordie heart that will happen and so there should be.
As many as 10 of United’s firstteam squad are 25 or younger, which is kindergarten class.
Even skipper Jamaal Lascelles is a mere 24 according to his birth certificate – though mentally he is way ahead of his years.
The 10 tots with their respective ages are: Kenedy (21), Mikel Merino (21), Jacob Murphy (22), Isaac Hayden (23 on March 22), Javier Manquillo (23), Jamaal Lascelles (24), Ayoze Perez (24), DeAndre Yedlin (24), Jonjo Shelvey (25) and Paul Dummett (25).
It’s hard to believe that Perez and Shelvey are so young, the Spaniard having been here so long, while Shelvey has been around top-flight football with Liverpool, Swansea, and Newcastle after debuting for Charlton Athletic aged just 16.
Even after the 10 youngsters there are others of limited age. Christian Atsu only turned 26 in January and Florian Lejeune is also 26, while Ciaran Clark, Karl Darlow, and Joselu are all 27 with Dwight Gayle and Matt Ritchie a year older.
The golden oldies? Mo Diame at 30 and Rob Elliot is 31, which is hardly pensionable qualification!
During darker days earlier this season the likes of Steven Gerrard rightly pointed out that inexperience could put United and Rafa Benitez at risk in the savage, dog-eat-dog relegation battle.
That’s true, but while United have the youngest of top-flight squads, they also have a great togetherness which West Brom under Alan Pardew certainly don’t have.
The Magpies also possess unity on the terraces where the fans love Benitez whereas West Ham supporters are displaying open mutiny which poisons the air on match days and threatens to rip the club asunder.
Young? Yes. Limited in Premier League class? Yes. In need of goals? Yes. But despite all that, there is blossoming hope as we wait to resume hostilities against Huddersfield up here in a fortnight’s time.
The way victory was achieved over Southampton following on the back of the gritty home win against Manchester United has greatly changed the mood and the belief on Tyneside.
West Brom and West Ham are going west right now at a rapid rate of knots whereas Newcastle are literally united in their fight. JOSE Mourinho went on a remarkable 12-minute rant as he launched an impassioned defence of his Manchester United record in the wake of the shock Champions League exit to Sevilla.
After the struggles of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal following Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013, the Old Trafford giants turned to the Portuguese in a bid to bring success back to the club.
The Red Devils won the Europa League, EFL Cup and Community Shield in his first season.
However, the FA Cup is now the only silverware they can achieve this time out.
Mourinho has been criticised by pundits and fans for his approach over both legs against Sevilla but initially appeared in jovial mood at a press conference to preview tonight’s FA Cup quarter-final against Brighton.
“Hello, hello, I’m alive, I’m here,” he told journalists in an exaggerated fashion, going on to answer four questions in a standard manner before one on the fans’ reaction to the Sevilla loss brought an extraordinary reaction.
Mourinho said: “Fans are the fans and the fans have the right to have their opinions and to have their reactions.
“There is something I used to call football heritage – I try to translate from my Portuguese, which is almost perfect to my English that is far from perfect.
“Translation, word by word is something like football heritage and what a manager inherits is something like the last time Manchester United won the Champions League, which did not happen a lot of times, was in 2008. The (last) final was 2011.”
Then Mourinho, using pre-prepared notes, went through each of the club’s European seasons since that final against Barcelona in detail before attention turned to the Premier League and wider matters.
He added: “I am here and I am going to be here and no way – no way – am I going to change my mentality.
“For me, I don’t know if you know the expression, I don’t know if the translation to English makes you understand, but there is a quote I like which is something like ‘in every wall is a door’.
“I am not going to run away, I am not going to disappear.
“I am not going to cry because I heard a few boos.
“I am not going to disappear from the tunnel, running immediately.
“The next match I will be the first to go out.
“I respect the fans, I am not afraid anything. I am not afraid of my responsibilities.”