Manchester United legend Gary Neville has made a big claim about the strength of the atmosphere at St James’ Park.
Neville watched Newcastle beat his old club Man Utd 2-0 in the Premier League yesterday, and it’s fair to say he noticed a big change in the atmosphere at the Magpies’ home ground, which used to be a fortress before some very flat and downbeat years under previous owner Mike Ashley.
Things are different now, though, and Neville is seeing that old atmosphere back at St James’ again.
“I have to say, when I played against Newcastle United, even beyond the Kevin Keegan years when they were going for titles, there was a big atmosphere up here and you knew you had to weather that and deal with it. It was a proper football club, a proper ground,” the pundit said on his podcast.
“Then all of a sudden, I finished my football career and came up here for 10 years working in this capacity, it was morbid. There was no connection between the team, the fans, the owners.
“Everybody was just low, the energy had been sapped out of the place and I don’t know how many times I said it that actually I didn’t look forward to coming up here and that’s actually a crime, to be fair.”
“That re-emerged for me today, it’s the first time I’ve been up here for quite a while and that’s the best atmosphere I’ve seen in my days working for Sky and that’s 11 years,” he added.
“I have to say, looking back to my playing career when I played here, I lost 5-0 one Sunday afternoon. That atmosphere at the end reminded me of what it was like for us as Manchester United players back then, probably worse in some ways because obviously five is a proper doing.”
It was a Wednesday evening not a Sunday
No it wasn’t 🤷♂️
Wrong it was 100% a Sunday
That was barceloba
No it was a Sunday 100^
Sunday October 20th 1996
Barcelona was wednesday night