GAME ON United back in action in three weeks
WING-BACK AN IMPORTANT ALLY FOR ALL
JUST minutes before Steve Bruce took his seat in the media suite at Newcastle United’s training ground for what proved to be his penultimate pre-match press conference before football was suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, a statement dropped. Jonjo Shelvey and Matt Ritchie had both signed contract extensions that will keep them at the club until 2023.
Those deals had been in the pipeline for a while but if the Magpies’ prospective takeover eventually gets the thumbs up from the Premier League, they will be among the final batch of contracts signed off by the club’s current hierarchy.
With so many players entering either the final year or year(s) of their deals when he took charge, Bruce made it one of his medium-term priorities to tie down a number of key figures in the dressing room.
Rather than seeing this as an opportunity to completely overhaul the squad, and reshape it, Bruce was keen to keep hold of experienced heads and some proven Premier League players.
Handing Martin Dubravka a new deal was a no-brainer and, as far as Bruce was concerned, so was keeping hold of Federico Fernandez, Shelvey and Ritchie
– three players he rates highly. The quartet have been important figures on and off the field. A Spanish speaker like Fernandez, for example, played a key role in helping Miguel Almiron settle in and adapt so quickly following his move from Atlanta United in January, 2019.
Fernandez, Dubravka, Shelvey and Ritchie are all aged 28 and over but if Newcastle were going to continue to target younger players on the continent, having a settled dressing room to welcome these new signings was going to be important.
Even when you just take coronavirus into consideration, let alone the prospective takeover, it remains to be seen how those summer plans will change. Ed Woodward, Manchester United’s executive vice-chairman, has already warned it “may not be business as usual”.
Whatever happens, Bruce has certainly tapped into the spirit of 2017 – a number of members of the current squad helped Newcastle win the Championship that season – and Ritchie has been an important ally.
While Ritchie has valued Bruce’s man management style, and how he helped him through a frustrating spell on the sidelines earlier this season after suffering an ankle ligament injury, the Newcastle head coach has welcomed the wing-back’s “effervescence”.
Ritchie sets high standards and, just as the vocal 30-yearold was struck by the sight of Jamaal Lascelles and Salomon Rondon effectively wrestling each other on the training ground every day last season, Rondon certainly took note of the wing-back’s desire, too.
“Ritchie’s very competitive and the energy and the passion he has in training, he has in the games,” Rondon told The Chronicle.
Ritchie has also been a guiding light for a number of his younger teammates, including Sean Longstaff, and Jamaal Lascelles certainly welcomes his input.
Indeed, during Premier League captains’ discussions about Project Restart, Lascelles turned to Ritchie – which shows you how much he values his thoughts.
“Pretty much since I’ve had the armband, he has been there and guided me and advised me,” he told NUFC TV. “I rarely make a decision without running it through him just because he’s so switched on and smart.”