From Peter Beardsley Talk at the Earl Grey

by Magpies | April 3, 2008 7:55 am

I went to see him do a talk at the Earl Grey in West Kyo last night. For the first 40 minutes the organiser and Pedro engaged in what appeared to be a quite scripted set of questions and answers and then it opened up to questions from the crowd.

It was fascinating to hear what he had to say since he’s been a club insider so I’ll brielfy list what I can remember.

One interesting note from his speech was He doesn’t think Freddy Shepherd was all that bad. He says he made mistakes when appointed managers. Big mistakes. But it was then the managers in question that wasted his money. Money was always porvided.

Pedro also extremely critical of Allardyce and Sounness who just think they can shout their way to the top. Said there’s no way he would have responded to their team talks had he played under them.

When asking which of Allardyce’s signings was the best, the answer is Habib Beye. About the other signings He commented that Enrique is slow but is starting to impress him, he also doesn’t think Alan Smith is as bad as everyone thinks he is.

About Nicky Butt, he is past it (despite his goal) in terms of getting forward. We could keep him to play a holding role as long as he knows he musn’t get forward! Meanwhile, Damien Duff is rubbish, his first touch is always backwards and about Steven Taylor, Beardsley think he is not as good as he thinks he is. Basically called him a big head. Doesn’t think Keegan will keep him this summer!

More about our current players. He doesn’t rate Milner as high rated player, but thinks that Milner is a no end product. The fact that we don’t need him has been proven by the results since his absence! He also doesn’t support what Barton has done off the pitch but thinks he looked great vs Tottenham and has progressed a lot under Keegan.

When I asked him towards the end whether or not he thought Shearer would make a good manager. I got a very reserved response. He’s not sure he will ever be manager of NUFC. Doesn’t think Ashley will give it to him with no experience. Then he started questioning where else he could go. Big four clubs would never take him and Beardsley doesn’t understand why has he turned down whatever Keegan offered him? Cushy TV job?

Couple more things, Beardsley make rediction for Reading. Jokingly said 4-3. Pointed out that they never go away and look for a point. He’d be amazed if they don’t play 4-4-2 and really have a go at us. (Which he admires them for)

One other person asked him if he’d ever consider a management job at any club. He said NO on the basis that with the kids, they’re just interested in playing football. All they want to do is make the first team. Whereas he can’t stand the fact that there are players who are only motivated by money. He said when he played it wasn’t like this. From what he said I assumed he was still working with the kids but I’m not certain.

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