The 20 Questions
1.
|
Favourite Player of all time? |
|
Maradona |
|
2.
|
Best Player Played Against? |
|
A close one, Zidane probably edges out Rivaldo. |
|
3.
|
Best Player in Your Position? |
|
Roberto Carlos, by a mile. |
|
4.
|
Best Captain? |
|
Tony Adams, a natural leader. |
|
5.
|
Best Mate in the Game? |
|
Hate to say it, but Peter Swan. |
|
6.
|
Best Atmosphere Experienced? |
|
Newcastle 3 Barcelona 2, Champions League 1997 |
|
7.
|
Best Fans (other than own clubs) |
|
The Glasgow teams, both Rangers and Celtic fans are
fantastic. |
|
8.
|
Favourite Ground? |
|
St.James Park, Newcastle. |
|
9.
|
Biggest Regret? |
|
Leaving Newcastle when I should have stuck it out. |
|
10.
|
Team Supported? |
|
I'm a blade, Sheffield United. |
|
11.
|
Team I Love to Hate |
|
Not a club team, but Germany. |
|
12.
|
Best Goal Scored |
|
It was a goal against Man Utd at Old Trafford in my
last season at Portsmouth. Schmeichel punched a ball out and it came to
me a few yards outside of the box, I hit it on the volley and it screamed
into the net. I tried to get a copy of the goal from Man U, when I got the
video, all you see is Schmeichel punch and then the ball flying back and
into the goal - it could have been anyone hitting the shot!! |
|
13.
|
Best Match and Why? |
|
Newcastle 5 Man Utd 0 1997 for the best football, everything
clicked that day. But as I've mentioned, the Barcelona Champions League
match was also a fantastic occasion. |
|
14.
|
Worst Match and Why? |
|
The Charity Shield in the same season, August 1997.
Man U easily beat us 4-0 and all the expectation was for nothing. It was
such a let down, we felt sorry for ourselves but even more for the fans. |
|
15.
|
Funniest Football Incident? |
|
This is cruel, but you had to see it to believe it!
I was playing at Barnsley when a lad called Darren Foreman went down with
a serious injury, the whole ground knew it was nasty and he had actually
broken his leg. The St.John's Ambulance men eventually managed to gently
place him on the stretcher and as they carried him off, the crowd and players
applauded him. Then, they just dropped him! You can imagine the pain he
was in. This wasn't particularly funny, but what happened next, well we
couldn't believe it. As they put him back on, the applause started again,
they got off the pitch and approached the tunnel…and the stretcher wouldn't
fit!! They made the poor guy get off the stretcher before he was able to
get back on when inside the ground!! |
|
16.
|
Best Manager? |
|
Kevin Keegan |
|
17.
|
Favourite Foreign Club |
|
Barcelona, I went over there as a kid, bought the Maradona
shirt and was just blown away by the place! |
|
18.
|
Best transfer at any of your clubs? |
|
The best was probably Peter Beardsley returning from
Everton to Newcastle. He was great for us and his partnership with Coley
(Andy Cole) was phenomenal. It was so important to bring both his experience
and skills to the club at that time. We did very well on our retutn to the
top flight, but if Peter hadn't picked up an injury that kept him out for
quite a few of the early games, we'd have done even better.
|
|
19.
|
What was your ambition in football when you signed
your first professional contract? |
|
To play for England. I made it through all the levels
and captained England Youth, but could only get as far as the bench at full
international level. I've no complainst about my career, it's been great,
but l;ets just say that if I've played in the team, I'd have died a happy
man. |
|
20. |
Best advice given? |
|
This wasn't directly given to me, but Sting was being
interviewed at about the time he released 'An Englishman in New York', he
basically said "Have no regrets, be who you are". I thought this
was appropriate to me and especially as a footballer. You should never lose
track of who you are and not let either positive or negative opinions or
attention ever get to you.
|
|
|
|