🎧 Pop stars, nicknames and ketchup - 17 years covering Newcastle
The i Paper's northern football correspondent Mark Douglas has covered Newcastle United since 2008 and spoke of his dealings with previous Magpies managers on BBC Radio Newcastle's Total Sport podcast.Drinking wine with Alan Pardew:"Pardew was quite a character, a bizarre guy in a few ways. I remember one time we were sat in the board room with him drinking red wine and he came up with an analogy that Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba were the Madonna and Lady Gaga of the Premier League."You felt like he was someone you could fall out with but it wouldn't be a problem further down the line."I remember him looking at me and saying 'you know what I thought when I first met you? You look just like John Hartson' and that became my nickname at work."Talking tactics with Rafa Benitez:"The club use to invite the media up [to St James' Park] during the international breaks and briefings with Rafa would go on for six hours."He'd sit there with ketchup and water bottles on the table and ask what you'd do from a corner. He would always sit there and run you through it because he was such a football obsessive but he was brilliant."He was a character and I'm gutted he ended up leaving. He was the pick of Amanda Staveley and the pick of the PIF (Public Investment Fund) but he just got tired of waiting."Listen to the full episode on BBC Sounds
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