Don’t call me lazy
JONJO BLAST AT CRITICS
JONJO SHELVEY expects to be left out of the Newcastle side to face Watford at St James’ Park tomorrow.
And he will not blame boss Steve Bruce if he is relegated to the bench, despite revealing he felt like confronting him when he was axed last week.
The decision will not be down to the fact he missed a penalty in Wednesday night’s Carabao Cup shoot-out defeat against Leicester.
Within minutes of the final whistle, he issued a public apology to fans admitting it had been a “shocking kick” from him.
If Shelvey is omitted again, it will be because Bruce wants to stick with the nucleus of the team which shocked Tottenham last weekend.
There is a perception that for all his rich talent, Newcastle function better without Shelvey and that Isaac Hayden and Sean Longstaff are more effective as a pair than they would be with him alongside.
Shelvey has heard the whispers: he’s lazy, plays for himself, does not do the hard yards and wallows in his own misfortune.
The 27-year-old, though, said: “I get labelled lazy, maybe because of my body language and I’m quite a laid-back character,” he says.
“But you couldn’t call me lazy against Leicester. People can say what they want but at the end of the day, I’m the one that goes out there and trains every day as hard as I can.
“I’m playing for another contract at this football club and I need to keep performing and training hard.”
Shelvey accepts he may never match team-mate Longstaff’s stats – the Geordie ran almost 13K at Spurs – but insists every individual should be judged on his own merits.
“Stats are stats,” he said. “You can run 15K if you want. Did you see Gazza running 15K?
“I’m not comparing myself to him but I understand football is changing and I am evolving with it but I get labelled lazy. On that performance the other night, I’m not and if that’s what it takes to get into the team, I’ll do it.”
But he is not holding his breath that he has done enough to play this weekend.
“The team won,” he said. “If I was a manager, I wouldn’t change a winning team. That’s just the way it is so if I’m on the bench I’ll be ready.”