John Gibson needs no introduction.
The renowned football journalist has been supporting, as well as writing about, Newcastle United for longer than he cares to remember.
Gibbo has been a voice of the Toon for the Chronicle since 1966.
The Mag’s writer David Punton sat down with John Gibson to talk all things black and white.
Newcastle United – its past, its present and its future (This is part one of the interview – part two of this epic to follow at noon on Friday)
What words would you use to sum up what it has been like covering Newcastle United for so many years?
First and foremost a rollercoaster. More ups and downs than a pogo stick!
However, it’s been a privilege too, because like all Geordie fans I’m a cradle to grave devotee, not a fair weather supporter, or as Roy Keane succinctly put it, one of ‘the prawn sandwich brigade.’ Still, I could do with us winning a bit more silverware.
The man himself
Fairs Cup in 1969 – what was that like to cover?
Ruddy fabulous. We were all so naive – the players, as well as the hacks and the fans. We just saw it all as a great adventure and before we knew it we were in the final.
The memories will live with me forever….Geoff Allen’s destruction of Feyenoord in Newcastle’s first ever European match, Setubal players in gloves and woolly hats some of them never having seen snow in their lives, playing in Zaragoza on New Year’s Day after trying to get some sleep the night before, the riot when Glasgow Rangers supporters realised they had lost, and of course the two legged final against Ujpest Dozsa, who were at the time the best team in Europe. Bob Moncur scoring a hat-trick and then bringing the trophy down to my house in Whitley Bay and sticking it on the lawn while we sat outside and had a few cans.
If somebody had told you back then, that 55 years later Newcastle United would still be waiting for their next trophy, what would you have said to them?
You’re a slate short of a full roof! When I came back from Fleet Street in 1966, to cover my club I negotiated a deal with the Chron that I would also report on England in the World Cup and European finals as well as go to the Olympic Games.
My first job before United was to cover the World Cup over here that summer which we won of course. Then two years later we embarked on that glorious Fairs Cup run. United and England had claimed two silver pots. I thought ‘wonderful I’m going to have a glorious life watching both win a cabinet full of trophies’. Except that neither has won a blinkin’ thing since.
If only one thing had happened in the 1960s, would you rather it had been Newcastle lifting the Fairs Cup or England winning their trophy?
Oh, United winning without question. I’m loyal to my country but my heart has black and white stripes. It’s NUFC above all else. First, second and third.
The 1980s were pretty bleak for United. What went wrong?
Everything, but then when the club has a total lack of ambition you are only going in one direction (don’t we know it from Mike Ashley’s decade and a half).
The Eighties ended with United selling three Geordies who had wonderful England careers ahead of them – Chris Waddle, Peter Beardsley and Paul Gascoigne. If you cash in on them instead of building a side round them then you get what you deserve and United were inevitably relegated.
The three were ambitious if United were not. A playing career is short so they went off and were hugely successful elsewhere. When you cannot hold onto Geordies what chance have you got? Alan Shearer turned his back on Man U and walked here years later but then there was ambition inside the boardroom. Beardo also came back under KK.
What was it like on the United beat when Sir John Hall was attempting to buy the club?
For me in particular it was a unique experience. I was part of his Magpie Group so I was on the inside throughout a two year bloody battle. And I mean bloody. I was used as a go between dealing with the current board at secret meetings to see what wiggle room there was while also fronting the publicly. It was imperative to have the fans on board by keeping them in the loop.
I remember one meeting with a sitting director. It was at his place and after informal chit chat he asked me into the kitchen to talk business. We stood over the sink with the tap full on so the sound of running water would kill any attempt at recording the conversation if I was wired.
Right at the start I received a phone call from a board member telling me that when the fight was over I would never be allowed into St James’ Park again. I told him that when we won HE and his cronies would never set foot in the place themselves.
The Keegan years at United – tell us some anecdotes and what it was like when Special K was in Toon? And why he left.
It was a nosebleed ride from the brink of the old Third Division to Premier League runners-up while breaking the club’s transfer record virtually every month.
I of course knew he was joining us and I went in the office at the crack of dawn to set up my page one lead for the Chron before the Newcastle Press conference at around 9am.
Chief executive Freddie Fletcher, known as the Rottweiler, was dispatched up to Ossie Ardiles’ house to sack him minutes before KK was unveiled. Ossie was an absolute gentleman… he made Freddie breakfast and Fletch asked him if he would leave the curtains when he moved out as he rather liked them.
King Kev was a man manager par excellence. The only other NUFC manager who was as good at getting the best out of players was Joe Harvey. Neither could coach but they didn’t have to. They got somebody to do that.
Keegan used to call Terry McDermott ‘The Gopher’ because he would go for this and for that but he was much more. The pair were incredibly close. Two totally different people, apart from a joint love of horseracing, but they went together like fish and chips.
Kev was always likely to leave. He had done it four times before without it getting into the public domain. Each time Terry Mac shot after him and brought him back. The final time was political, the way United were planning to be a public company, but I believe in reality Keegan never got over losing the title to Man U after blowing a 12 point lead, and certainly he never enjoyed the same success or freedom in the rest of his managerial career, be it at club level or with England.
Tell us your recollections of the story that Newcastle were breaking the then world transfer record to sign Alan Shearer from Blackburn Rovers in 1996?
When it actually happened on July 30 I was in America covering the Atlanta Olympic Games. I remember it so well because a bomb went off in the Olympic park and my family back home were frantic because I was in the park at that exact time and I had been in Munich at the 72 Olympics when the Black September gang killed all the Israelis.
Shearer caused quite a stir himself. Even in America where it made headlines despite at that time soccer not being a major sport to them.
Over the years I became good friends with Big Al. We worked together many, many times and if you are loyal to him, don’t let him down, then he is loyal to you. Without question he is No.1 in the list of legendary No.9s. Considering how close I was to Wor Jackie and how close I am to SuperMac that is a big statement from me but Shearer was the best of the best.
Five NUFC people (managers, players, directors) that you most liked to interview?
In no particular order SuperMac, Shearer, Joe Harvey, KK, and Bobby Robson.
SuperMac because everything he said was dynamic. He never sat on the fence. Big Al because he was, well, Big Al. Harvey because he did it all the hard way without particular financial backing and he was brutally honest and open in his answers.
Kev as a player and manager brought a breath of fresh air. As a player he negotiated a deal with United’s main sponsors Newcastle Breweries who doubled his wages with the proviso he did talk shows in their pubs. They employed me to share a stage with him. The only trouble was, Keegan would line up everyone who wanted an autograph afterwards (and that was everyone). He would sit on the edge of the stage and not just sign their books but have a chat. We were there all night. The signing session was longer than the show!
Bobby Robson was simply a gem. I went out to Porto to stay with him for four days to do an in-depth series. I lost my luggage when changing flights and he lent me a club blazer and a couple of shirts to get me by. Everyone in town thought I was Bobby’s new English coach because I was wearing the blazer. He had a handsome translator who would come out to dinner with us. It was Jose Mourinho.
(Our massive thanks to Gibbo for doing this interview. Watch out for part two of this John Gibson epic at noon on Friday)