The Sun Newspaper

NO ONE needs to tell me what a massive club Newcastle are… a few years ago I very nearly took the manager’s job.
It was 2008 and I would have been Mike Ashley’s first appointment after Sam Allardyce had gone.

Steve Bruce has a huge fight onto save Newcastle from the dropCredit: AFP

The Magpies face a huge game with West Brom on SundayCredit: AP:Associated Press

I was at Portsmouth at the time but very, very close to taking it. But at the last minute I decided I had a better team where I was, changed my mind and stayed put.
I reckoned unless they were going to spend loads of money, I’d be better off where I was. We won the FA Cup that season, so I got that right.
There’s no doubt Newcastle have the potential to be huge, it’s all in place — apart from one thing.
Basically, they are a top-eight club with a bottom-eight squad.

I know Ashley’s been trying to sell for ages, and I do think if you were a multi-millionaire looking to buy a club then this would be the one, for sure.
But it’s also a tough, tough one to manage right now and poor old Steve Bruce is on a hiding to nothing.
The fans were against him from the start but the bottom line is the players aren’t up to it and nothing will change until a lot of money is spent.
They go on about Rafa Benitez and how great he was. Well, he did a decent enough job but he never had them in the top six.

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I don’t care if you’ve got Bruce, Benitez, or whoever, no manager is going to come in with a magic wand and change that.

That’s why I feel for Brucie because it was no different under the other fella. They were not playing great football or challenging at the top.
In fact they have not been involved at that end since Alan Pardew finished fifth nearly ten years ago.
It’s a world away from the days when the likes of Alan Shearer and David Ginola were tearing it up.
The ones they have now aren’t up to it, and I don’t care if you’ve got Bruce, Benitez, or whoever, no manager is going to come in with a magic wand and change that.
Only one thing will — and that’s if some mega-rich new owner buys the thing and throws money at it because the best teams have the best players.
The way football is now, Newcastle could actually win the title in four years.
But only if a Sheikh Mansour- type spends huge amounts and brings in the top stars.
Ashley’s not going to do that and, to be honest, I don’t blame him. He’s done a fortune already so why throw more money at it?
He’s trying to sell and you wouldn’t spend absolute fortunes on your house if you were going to flog it.
There are thousands out there who want to own a football club but Ashley’s had loads who have basically been messing about and won’t — or can’t — put up the money.

Famous nights against the likes of Barcelona are a far cry for the Toon nowadaysCredit: AP:Associated Press

The current squad are miles behind Alan Shearer, Michael Owen and CoCredit: PA:Press Association
It doesn’t matter how big you are, whether you’ve got 55,000 supporters — in normal times — every week, or not.
If the players aren’t good enough you will struggle, and they’re not.
If you were picking the likely bottom half-dozen at the start of the season, Newcastle would be in there.
Bruce will know finishing out of the relegation places is about as good as it gets with that lot. Especially now, with Allan Saint-Maximin, Miguel Almiron and Callum Wilson all out.
And that business with Matt Ritchie hardly helped, either. A little right winger and a big centre-half, whatever the age gap, there’s only one winner there.
I must admit I never had a clash like that on the training ground as a manager. Everyone remembers the one with me at West Ham — or rather John Hartson and Eyal Berkovic.
John was going through a difficult time in his life, just lost it, and kicked him. And it just happened to be when we’d allowed the TV cameras in as well.
It was a complete mismatch, a 15-stone, hard-as-nails centre-forward and a guy not much bigger than a jockey.

John knew I had to fine him two weeks’ wages and that was that. But as for a player taking on the manager? That’s very unusual.
Right now Newcastle need everyone pulling together and their game at West Brom on Sunday is massive.
Personally, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t want to play for Brucie and I think he’s getting the best out of what he’s got.
Unfortunately, though, what he’s got is a bunch who aren’t good enough.
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LAST season, it felt as though Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool could dominate English football for years.
The German appeared to have built the ‘bastion of invincibility’ Bill Shankly used to brag about, as his world and European champions won 26 of their first 27 Premier League matches.

Liverpool lost their fifth successive Premier League home game on ThursdayCredit: Reuters

That relentless winning run is a distant memory after an unprecedented fifth straight home league defeat, by Chelsea on Thursday, left Liverpool seventh in the table.
And Klopp now claims that the idea of reigning for a generation was always a pipe dream.
He insists that only Manchester City, with their magic Abu Dhabi money tree, are capable of winning the title year in, year out.
Klopp said: “If your problems are not getting bigger than solutions, you can have it.

“But it’s the most difficult league to stay on top for a long, long period, in England.
“It could happen. There is one club that maybe has everything for it — the quality of players, the manager, the money and everything — and that is Man City.
“All the rest have to fight with all you have to get close.
“When you are close enough you can maybe do what we showed last year.”

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Klopp raised eyebrows by substituting Salah while Liverpool were looking for a goal against ChelseaCredit: EPA
Many in the wider Liverpool family cling to the club’s corporate mantra of ‘This Means More’ — with Jamie Carragher and Jason McAteer claiming the Reds have suffered far more than others in the behind-closed-doors era because their supporters are more passionate.
Yet Klopp is far more realistic about his fallen champions.
While his central-defensive injury crisis is clearly debilitating — with new boy Ozan Kabak joining Virgil van Dijk, Joe Gomez and Joel Matip on the missing list for tomorrow’s clash with Fulham — Klopp admits Liverpool should still be doing far better.
He said: “There is a big difference between the situation we are in now and the situation which could have happened.
“Coming second or third, in a year when it’s not perfect for you, is, I think, for everybody, absolutely OK. Then you have the chance to go as far as possible in the cup competitions and the Champions League.
“But our situation is different. I think we all agree it is a really strange one, injury-wise, and football is much more a rhythm game than people might think.
“When you can rely on different things and build on different things, you can reach your personal best as a team.
“We’ve never had that situation this season — that we could really build on something because we’ve had to change too much.”

Liverpool drew with Fulham at Craven Cottage back in DecemberCredit: Andy Hooper-The Daily Mail
If Liverpool fail to defeat relegation-threatened Fulham, their winless home run would be close to three months.
And so Klopp is demanding his team learn to win ugly.
The Anfield boss said: “It was clear that it would be difficult for us, but the job we have to do is to fight with all we have to get results anyway — maybe not with your absolute best football.
“And that’s the point where we didn’t do well enough.
“In an average game, you can still win it or draw it — but we lost even games when we were actually good.
“And this is exactly the opposite of how it should be.
“We are very self-critical and we take all the criticism, that is absolutely OK.”

Liverpool boast the most-valuable squad in the Premier League
Klopp talked up 18th-placed Fulham and their manager Scott Parker.
Yet the Londoners have scored just nine goals in their past 12 league games and so this fixture must surely be viewed as a perfect opportunity to end Liverpool’s worst home run of all time.
The Liverpool boss said: “We have to improve our decision-making in decisive moments — that’s clear and obvious.
“Chelsea had more shots on target than we had — it’s a sign. A lot of things were good but the last pass was not good enough and that killed these situations.”
Klopp again claimed that he has no problem with Mo Salah after the Premier League’s 17-goal leading scorer showed an angry reaction to being substituted against Chelsea.
He said: “We were 1-0 down, which makes no player happy. And, as a striker, you think you should stay on the pitch — that’s not an issue.
“Mo still has a great scoring record. He knows himself that even he could have scored more goals — but Mo’s scoring record is not our problem.“In general we have to improve, 100 per cent.”
 LIVERPOOL (likely): Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Phillips, Fabinho, Robertson; Thiago, Wijnaldum, Jones; Salah, Firmino, Mane.

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IF Crystal Palace want to move on, then they need to do it without Roy Hodgson.
That is the view of Eagles legend Andy Gray, who fears his former club are getting stuck in a rut.

Roy Hodgson’s future has been subject to much discussion at Selhurst ParkCredit: Getty Images – Getty

Crystal Palace legend Andy Gray, who played more thna 200 games for the Eagles in two spells at Selhurst Park, has called on the club to make a changeCredit: PA:Empics Sport

Hodgson, who turns 74 in August, took charge after replacing flop Frank de Boer in September 2017.
Brought in to steady the ship in South London, Hodgson has always beaten the drop.
Gray hit 51 goals in 242 Eagles appearances over two stints in the 1980s and 1990s — before leaving to join London rivals, and Sunday night’s opponents, Tottenham.
He feels Palace may not be able to aim any higher than survival with the ex-England manager at the helm.

Gray said: “It’s not a case of sticking with him or letting him go. Roy Hodgson is 73 and he came into the club to stabilise it. But that’s all he’s going do — stabilise the club.
“The club haven’t given him plenty of money to spend, so it’s not just the manager but it’s everyone connected with the club to recruit and buy players.
“Roy has got the squad that he’s got and it’s a squad which will stay in the Premier League. But it’s not going do anything other than that.
“This squad has got more chances of staying up than going down anyway because he hasn’t got the worst squad.”

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I just think the current Palace side have got one star and rely on him heavily.
Andy Gray

Palace hero Gray, helped them reach the 1990 FA Cup final and finish third in the top flight a year later — but he feels they now need to address their over-reliance on Wilfried Zaha.
The Eagles lost a staggering 18 times in 20 Premier League outings without the Ivorian before winning 2-1 at Brighton on February 22.
They are now unbeaten in three but have put in two goalless home draws since — against Fulham and Manchester United — as they still struggle to find the net.
Gray, now 57, added: “I just think the current Palace side have got one star and rely on him heavily.
“It just doesn’t free up anybody else to put their authority down. If you look at Palace you look straight to Zaha.

Christian Benteke was defended by Gray for his role in the teamCredit: Reuters
“It’s not really a team where you say there’s like five players, that even if Zaha is having a bad game, they can make Palace a very, very good team — which we had back in the day.
“No one ever said that without Ian Wright we wouldn’t do this or do that. Zaha is great but Palace need to build a squad that doesn’t rely on one player.”
Zaha, 28, is set to return for the trip to Spurs — but whether he makes a big move in the summer or stays put, Gray believes Palace should embark on an overhaul regardless.
He added: “They are not going get £100million for Wilf, are they? Forget about the money for Zaha and rebuild the side regardless, with him in mind or with him out of mind.”
Belgian striker Christian Benteke has often been criticised for his lack of goals but for Gray the lack of service to feed off is to blame.

The Palace legend wants to see more of Eberechi Eze to elevate the team’s creativityCredit: Getty Images – Getty

He added: “If you don’t rely on one player and you’ve got other people doing their bit, then people like Benteke will get chances.
“Benteke in the system doesn’t get the chances he got at Aston Villa. The Crystal Palace system doesn’t suit him and it shows.
“Everybody can see that Christian isn’t getting the service. But when he does get service, he performs.
“They also have Eberechi Eze who is a good prospect but one swallow doesn’t make a summer, he’s got to do that season after season.”
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SOUTHAMPTON need only look back to the 2004-05 season to see how you can slip out of the league if you get sloppy.
Harry Redknapp’s side were out of the bottom three in mid-March thanks to a Peter Crouch-inspired win at Middlesbrough.

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl has overseen a difficult run of resultsCredit: AFP

But five defeats in their last eight saw them finish bottom of the pile.
They missed out on safety by only two points in one of the most tightly-contested relegation scraps in Premier League history.
It serves as a warning to Ralph Hasenhuttl’s current crop that if they do not buck up their ideas, they could suffer the same fate.
Kevin Phillips was part of Redknapp’s squad that year, along with the likes of Crouch, Graeme Le Saux and Jamie Redknapp.

The 47-year-old, one of only nine players to score 30 league goals in a season, told SunSport: “We had some good players then and shouldn’t have gone down.
“But just because you’ve got good players, you can still get sucked in and get relegated. You can’t take anything for granted. If Southampton want to learn anything from that season, it’s that, yeah, they’ve got good players, but that doesn’t mean anything.
“People can quickly come up from behind you and overtake you, if you don’t perform. Hasenhuttl will know that.”
Phillips thinks Southampton will have enough to get themselves out of it but is alarmed by his old side’s current slump.

Kevin Phillips was part of the Saints side relegated in 2005Credit: Rex Features

Hasenhuttl’s men were top of the Premier League after beating Newcastle in November.
They looked ready for a European push when seeing off Liverpool 1-0 at the start of January — a game which saw Hasenhuttl break down in tears of joy at the final whistle.
But it is the Saints fans who have wanted to cry since, with a shocking run of eight defeats in their nine league games since that famous victory.
That includes the 9-0 battering at Manchester United which, amazingly, was the second time Hasenhuttl had suffered that record-equalling scoreline in his St Mary’s tenure.
During that run, Phillips has been carefully watching star striker Danny Ings, who has netted just once in his last eight league games.
The former England forward added: “When you’re playing for a team where they rely on you so much, the pressure is immense.

I have noticed recently that Danny is snatching a little bit more at his opportunities
Kevin Phillips on Danny Ings

“It doesn’t help when the club is in the slump that it’s in.
“I have noticed recently that Danny is snatching a little bit more at his opportunities and pulling the trigger a little bit too soon. Against Everton, he was dropping way too deep for my liking.
“I want to see Danny Ings playing on the shoulder of the defenders and let the other players do the other side of the game.
“It’s natural when you’re playing in a side who are not keeping the ball to go searching for it.
“All I can suggest is you go and look at your videos of when you were scoring and try to be a bit more composed in front of goal. He still gets in decent areas.
“Maybe he should take a leaf out of Jamie Vardy’s book.
“Jamie’s not bothered if he only has five touches in a game but they normally occur around the box and often result in a goal.”

England hopeful Danny Ings has struggled for goals of lateCredit: AFP

Jamie Vardy has retained his goalscorer’s instinctCredit: Reuters
Southampton’s bad run has left them seven points above the relegation zone.
It intensifies the pressure ahead of Saturday’s trip to Sheffield United.
Phillips added: “Southampton will have seen Sheffield United’s fighting spirit against Aston Villa. They’ll be looking over their shoulders in terms of Fulham, who play some really good stuff and are capable of beating anyone.
“Like Hasenhuttl said in the week, maybe they’ve got to get a bit nastier. Instead of this free-flowing, exciting team that they have been, maybe it’s time to roll the sleeves up, rough teams up and try to win games that way.
“Seven points is nothing, really. It can be made up in the space of a week.
“I think Southampton will surprise someone along the way where they’ll just nick a result where no one expects them to.
“But confidence is very low and Sheffield United is a huge, huge game for the football club.”
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