Rolling back the Newcastle United years
There were some lovely cameos in Newcastle United's latest adidas kit launch video – and a welcome nod to three players who will never be forgotten on Tyneside.
My mobile phone’s camera roll is full of photographs. Many are photos of football grounds.
The stadium photos were mostly used on social media, and online, in during my time as a Newcastle United reporter for the Shields Gazette.
Having covered more than 900 games for the newspaper, there are a lot of images.
Even now, as a freelancer, I still take photos of stadiums. I even took a few photos of Morecambe’s ground, the scene of one of Jacob Murphy’s most important Newcastle games, when I took in a game there late last season while on a family holiday.
I am a stadium obsessive who endlessly leafed through books about football grounds, and memorised capacities, growing up.
But the photos of grounds, when I scroll through my camera roll, are not memorable. You can only look at a photo of a Premier League or EFL ground so many times, though St James’ Park is a different matter.
Some of the grounds I have reported from are long gone, and the photos of St James’ Park we all have on our phones could one day taken on an added significance should the club decide to move to an all-new stadium on Leazes Park amid unprecedented demand for tickets.
But the hidden gems in my stadium-clogged camera roll are photos of players, personalities and people.
I am not a photographer – for professional photos, follow brilliant club photographer Serena Taylor on Instagram – but even an amateur with an iPhone can capture a moment in time. Some of these images are on my Instagram account.
Geordie legends
This week, the club launched its new adidas third kit with a promotional video filmed in the Tyneside Irish Centre, a goal kick away from St James’ Park.
There were some lovely cameos from Faustino Asprilla (recognise anyone else in the photo below?) and Jonas Gutierrez, two South Americans who wrote themselves into Geordie folklore during their spells in North East England, along with present-day captain Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali, his team-mate.
Local hero Sam Fender, fittingly, was on stage at the club as Mark Knopfler’s Going Home (Theme of the Local Hero) was played.
There was also a welcome nod to three much-loved players who are sadly no longer with us – Gary Speed, Pavel Srnicek and Cheick Tiote – in the video.
I was fortunate enough to meet them all during my time as a beat reporter.
Speed was arguably one of the most impressive people I have met in my life, and I loved ghostwriting his weekly column in The Pink in my early years as a sports writer at the Evening Chronicle.
Incidentally, I have just finished reading Unspoken: The Family's Untold Story, written by John Richardson, who was a close friend of Speed. It is worth a read.
Having watched Srnicek from the stands during his first spell as a Newcastle player in the 1990s, I relished the opportunity to interview him when he returned to the club late in his career. They say never meet your heroes, but meeting Srnicek was not a disappointment.
Tiote, like Speed, was a fearsome competitor on the pitch. Off the field, he was a lovely guy. He was not always a man of many words with a microphone in front of him – he preferred to let his feet do the talking – but he was thoughtful and always spoke well.
They are tragically gone, but they will never be forgotten on Tyneside, along with Christian Atsu, who lost his life in an earthquake in Turkey two years ago. I still vividly remember the day Atsu tearfully told his moving life story ahead of a fundraiser on Tyneside to help children in his native Ghana.
Life is precious.
The football world, mourning the tragic loss of Liverpool’s Diogo Jota this week, has again been reminded of life’s fragility.
Heading for Ukraine
One of my favourite photos was an out-of-focus image of the back of Tiote’s head. Yes, the back of his head.
I was seated behind Tiote, sporting a very distinctive haircut, on a club flight to Ukraine for a Europa League tie against Metalist Kharkiv in 2013. Suffice to say I would not have said a word if he had fully reclined his seat.
Behind me, Gutierrez and Fabricio Coloccini happily played Uno, I think, for the entire flight to a vibrant South American soundtrack.
The aircraft, which we were told was often used by musicians and bands, had a bedroom with a comfortable bed in the middle. That came in useful on the late-night return for Tim Krul, who suffered an ankle injury in Kharkiv and was in some discomfort.
Gutierrez, Atsu and Krul have also popped up on my camera roll over the years.
I will always remember speaking to an emotional Gutierrez after he set up one goal and scored another in a dramatic season-ending win over West Ham United. The team had gone into the game needing a result to be certain of Premier League survival, and, thanks to Gutierrez, they ended a troubled season on a high.
A ‘sliding doors moment’
Then-head coach John Carver gave a fascinating insight into the extraordinary pressure on him and his players that day in an interview with The QT last year.
“I remember saying to Jonas on the Monday ‘you could be the hero here – I’m going to play you. What a fitting reward after what you’ve been through’,” said Carver. “It was quite incredible how it worked out. His mum thanked me, and gave me a big hug, after the game.
“I did the press, which was a good feeling. I’m not sure what I would’ve done if we’d got relegated. I’m not sure how I would have coped with it mentally. It’s a sliding doors moment.”
Months before that season-defining game, I had interviewed Gutierrez in a deserted car park at Whitley Park after an appearance for the club’s Under-21 side. Gutierrez spoke openly about his cancer battle and comeback – and his determination to make a first-team return.
The contrast between that low-key outing in front of a few hundred fans – and his final appearance at a sold-out St James’ Park – could not have been greater.
So, as we wait for the players to return for the start of pre-season training (and the first transfers of the summer), I thought that I would dig out a few old camera photos.
Phones and cameras will be capturing new memories up and down the country very soon.