“It was a very intimidating atmosphere, the fans were behind the team”. However, Hamann, who featured on Tyneside for the 1998/1999 season, feels the club’s fans have found their “new messiah”.
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“Each club is different”.
“But we didn’t have too much time to prepare for Leicester so I said “listen, fantastic, we will have lunch any time”.
Newcastle is 19th in the 20-team league having won only six league games under McClaren, whose fate was sealed when Newcastle was beaten 3-1 at home by Bournemouth last weekend.
Interesting to see what Rafa Benitez makes of Siem de Jong, a player on who there was great expectation when he arrived – but 20 months on, we are still yet to see whether he will actually have a career at Newcastle United.
Now he has 10 games to save Newcastle’s season before he can think about building any sort of legacy at the club – which saw little return on its heavy spending in the transfer market under McClaren. “I’m here because I believe we’re good enough to stay in the Premier League”. I want to stay.
If we had to guess at how Benitez would line up his team against Leicester City on Monday, it would look something like this. I know that it is a hard situation, but believe me, I’ve done the maths.
Benitez has already overseen his first two training sessions and is determined to see Newcastle turn in a performance capable of surprising Leicester on Monday.
He said: “When you’re going for trophies, you don’t want to make mistakes and when you’re fighting against relegation, it’s the same”.
“That’s what he gets paid for, that’s his job so we leave that to him”. It’s exciting for us, and for the younger players as well because they can learn a lot from him. He has the utmost respect of all the players, staff and management and he leaves with our very best wishes and honest thanks.
The 55-year-old Spaniard, who has been out of the game since being sacked by Real Madrid in January, accepted a 10-match survival mission and whatever may lie beyond on Friday when he signed an initial three-year contract at St James’ Park.
It’s unlikely that neither Fabricio Coloccini nor Chancel Mbemba will be available for the game, while Andros Townsend has a chance – although Benitez said he did not want to take a “risk”. “But I am here to do my best and I’m convinced we can do well”.
“I have to concentrate on these 10 games”, Benitez told reporters yesteray at his first news conference since being appointed.
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“We hope that we can go in the right direction and be proud of what we are trying to build here”.
