If it’s good enough for Trippier, it will be for others too

ONE Newcastle United fan asked me a question this week that got me really thinking.

At the height of the Kieran Trippier excitement, he said: “Would you have signed for Newcastle back in the day if they had been in exactly the same trouble they are in now?”

It was a brilliant question and as I thought about it more and more over the following 24 hours my admiration for Trippier grew and grew.

The lad has a huge pedigree – in the last seven months, he has won La Liga and played for England in the European Championship final. He is at the height of his game yet he has bought into the Newcastle United project and committed himself to the club.

That says something about Trippier’s character and it ought to inspire not just other players to sign for United but those already in the dressing room.

They should think ‘if this place in good enough for a player with 35 England caps then it is good enough for me.’ If they don’t, then they ought not to be here.

If it took courage for Trippier to sign for a club second bottom of the league then we knew he had that sort of bottle.

He showed it when leaving Tottenham for the challenge of a foreign country. He was rewarded in Madrid and I sincerely hope he is eventually rewarded here.

Everything about this deal is good. It has come early in the transfer window, it is a statement of intent, it lifts disillusioned fans, and it increased United’s chances of staying up.

The next three Premier League matches are against Watford, Leeds and Everton. United can get seven points out of nine and that would change the picture completely.

So in answer to that question from a fan: yes, I would have still signed for Newcastle after much deliberation.

Why? Because of the size of the club of course but also because I always put my faith in human beings – it was Sir Bobby Robson at Fulham, Alec Stock at Luton, and Joe Harvey at Newcastle.

For Trippier I feel Eddie Howe, his old boss when he was at Burnley, will have played a significant part.

Kieran is not just a quality defender who is great on set pieces, he is a terrific character in the dressing room. That is apparent by the glowing tribute Atletico Madrid manager Diego Simeone paid him upon leaving. Simeone knows Trippier is a diamond.

Mind you, Newcastle had better sign a centre-half and a centre-forward this month or they are still in trouble. We cannot keep the ball out of our own net and cannot score goals especially with Callum Wilson out.

In the meantime United must face up to Cambridge in the FA Cup before getting back to the much more urgent situation of collecting Premier League points.

It is truly astonishing the club has sold 52,000 tickets for a game against

League One opposition when because of Covid and the Cup we don’t know the strength of team Howe will put out.

The best way for the players to repay that sort of blind faith is to go out and put Cambridge to the sword. I expect them to do that regardless of which players are picked.

Dwight Gayle ought to be able to score against Cambridge with all due respect to them, having already scored a pile in the Championship, and if Jacob Murphy is out wide to provide crosses then he should be in business.

I’m looking for a victory at St James’ Park to lift spirits and confidence before Watford follow the same route over the Tyne Bridge.

This could well be lift-off – if no one gets carried away and if others follow Trippier through the front door on Barrack Road.