NorthanMonkee
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"Good Morning, it is 7th August 2009 and the time is currently 8.03am - I am still Alan Brazil and I am sitting opposite the new kid on the block Duncan Edwards who, as you may have read about, has made the transition from player to manager in just a few short months to take over the reigns at Newcastle United. Duncan, hello."
"Hey Alan, great to be here"
"So much to talk about Duncan, so much to get through in our short time together this morning, but I feel my 1st question has to be... How did the Newcastle job come about?"
"Well Alan, as you well know, it was only this summer that I hung my boots up on my career and I had decided, with the family that I would take a long summer off and really think about where my future lied. Most talk from within the Edwards household was of me scouting around to take on a lower division club, because although I have my UEFA Coaching badges, I dont however come with any of the experience. Then one Tuesday, i think it was, Chris Houghton stepped down from the Newcastle manager post stating he didnt think he could continue on in this role and the next thing I know my name is in the papers linking myself with the club"
"Now how much of a shock was that, having your name up in lights as it were, next to the club you love?"
"It was a huge shock, I mean a great player doesnt always mean a great manager plus I didnt know how much to truly believe, I was in the Ardennes with my family reading these headlines day after day and I was getting calls from Andy, my agent asking if I had heard anything. Now when your agent is asking you that, that's when you know its just talk"
"Well clearly it wasn't just talk as a week later you were approached and obviously you said yes - how difficult a decision was that for you?"
"Many people may not understand how hard it was for me to say yes to Mike (Ashley) when he called, 1st of all there was the plain shock of being asked in the 1st place, then you have my family to consider and on top of all that you have the nagging doubt that you dont have the experience for this role and that you dont want to do anything to harm the club you love - in the end after some long discussions with my wife I accepted the post as Newcastle manager"
"Ok, so you have taken the post at a club you know inside out and yet now you are in charge of it all - what is the 1st thing you do as manager?"
"Well the 1st thing I did as manager is revaluate our team, this is a team that yes managed to get out of the the championship and alot of that credit goes to our former manager Chris Houghton for that - but I needed to think about this team differently now, I needed this team to perform in the premiership. So I looked into the team to see who could continue on and who we could raise the £9m transfer budget with"
"Now anyone who has been reading the papers and following your progress will know who came in, who came out - but just for those who aren't quite as up on their news as others, just give us some bare details to the player movements at Newcastle over the last month"
"Very well Alan, well the 1st business transaction was to offer a contract to William Gallas, I knew he had been let go by Arsenal and from playing against him I knew he would be a player who would sure up our defence. We offered him everything we had and just had to wait as every club under the sun would be offering him a contract. While we wait for that I offered a few of our players to other clubs and managed to raise some funds."
"Now as I stated, we all know the in's and out's but for those viewers on our website and anyone who is listening to our enhanced podcast - here are a couple graphics depicting the major moves in and out of Newcastle"
"Any words about those transfers being shown there"
"Well what can I say, the lads there that I let go gave everything last season and really helped our club out but with the offers on the table, they were opportunities I couldnt pass up on and they helped fund the players that I wanted to bring to this club - the likes of Tom Cleveley & Michael Kightly I feel will have a strong season and what I hope to be a stong Newcastle career. With the Alan Smith shaped hole left in my midfield I needed a combative midfielder to take his place and with Gavin not getting much use out of the Bolton reserves, I thought it a great snip to bring him to Newcastle for less than 500k. Christian Wilhelmsson speaks for himself, a seasoned international and has played at some of the biggest clubs around Europe, he will help our midfield and a couple of players that weren't mentioned in your graphics there were the likes of Gary O'Connor from Birmingham and Javier Garrido from Man City - all players who I feel can help strengthen our team in the way it needs and also adding much needed experience. The only other player that isn't mentioned there is that of our biggest coup"
GALLAS SIGNS FOR NEWCASTLE
William Gallas has ended weeks of speculation by signing a 2 year deal with newly promoted side, Newcastle United. What may come as a shock to many seems a calculated and well thought out decision by William. Speaking outside his home in London, Gallas had this to say...
"I have had alot of fantastic offers from various clubs around the world, but I have decided to stay here in England and more so than that, sign a contract with Newcastle United. I feel that this is the right move to make at this stage of my career and having spoken with Duncan Edwards at length, he has shown me the plans he has for this club and he has shown me a reason to show, how you say, passion once more. I am looking forward to meeting up with the squad and flying out with them on the tour
"Now there are some kind words from your new recruit, William - but one point I would like to make is that he states that you 'spoke at length' so what exactly is it you say to a player such as William Gallas who is used to the big bright lights of Madrid & London, to convince him to move to Newcastle, no disrespect to Newcastle - but you are also a newly promoted side with, and again I mean no disrespect, an inexperienced manager"
"No disrespect taken Alan, I find it hard to believe myself sometimes but in this case I just had to be open and honest with William, let him know how much of a key figure he would be in our team and despite the recent promotion, there are alot of hungry players with the experience to do well at this level."
"Beating off some tough competition?"
"I should say, from the reports I read, teams such as Roma, Villarreal, Juventus, Bayern Munich & Manchester City had all put in offers for his services, but thankfully he chose the Magpies"
"Well i'm sure the Newcastle fans are happy with William, and all the other arrivals at St James' Park and will be even happier if they have something to show for it at the end of the season"
"We will do all we can to give them something"
"Right, so you have your team in place, what next? What needs organising now?"
"Well while all that was going on, what we needed to do was organise our pre-season tour. When I came into the office, there had already been several pre-planned fixtures arranged but I made my apologies to the teams and their managers and cancelled them. This is a new team and although I am new to the management side, I knew I needed to take the team away and have a dozen matches on foreign soil, thats when we organised Tour Scandanavia"
"Tour Scandanavia? Sounds pretty self explanatory"
"It pretty much was, we played 4 games in Denmark, then moved on to Sweden for 2 matches, Finland for 2 and then back to Norway for a further 2 matches"
"And how was the experience?"
"Well I think the lads really enjoyed themselves, I mean it was hard work, but aslong as you can work with a smile on your face, then you know you are doing something right. The lads managed to experience all things out there, even suffering one defeat in our 3rd match to AaB. But I felt the lads gelled together and showed me a lot of promise"
"So your boys landed from Norway with 10 games under their belt and preparations taking place for the up and coming season - any nerves regarding your opening fixtures?"
"Not so much as nerves but anticipation, I am excited about the team I havr built and I am excited to be finally getting down to starting the season, only a month before all this it was a shock to see my name even considered, now though, now that I am here and this is my team - it is so very much serious, and I cant wait to get involved"
"Well Duncan, thank you for taking the time to come see me, I am sure we will here all about your opening fixtures in the press and I wish you the best of luck"
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