Jamaal Lascelles insists that both him and his teammates ‘can’t dwell’ on the uncertainty at Newcastle – despite the fact we’re heading into the Asia Trophy without a manager.
The skipper admits that he would far rather know what’s going on regarding our potential new manager, but accepts it’s something he can not control.
Instead he believes it’s his responsibility to get both his and the player’s mindsets right for whoever does end up arriving and taking charge of the team ahead of the new 2019/20 season.
Here’s what he’s had to say when speaking to NUFC.co.uk:
“We can’t dwell on us having a manager or not. You would rather know than not know but you can’t control it.
”So it is my job and the job of a few of the other boys to make sure everyone is on it so when the manager comes in, whoever he is going to be, we are ready for whatever instructions he has to give us.
“The only thing we can control is getting the right sleep, training well, resting well and making the most of it and enjoying ourselves because when the season starts it is going to be tough for us.”
He’ll be biting his tongue here – that I’m almost certain.
He’s one of our most honest and outspoken players when things aren’t right, so, even though he’s a good professional who’s good at ‘getting on with it’, you know full well he and many others will be highly frustrated.
Bruce’s appointment would be equally shambolic, but it’s time we got something sorted on the managerial front before we run out of time.
After all, there’s now LESS than 4 weeks left of the transfer window – and without a few decent buys, this side has very little chance of surviving.
Here’s what Lascelles then had to say ahead of our involvement in the Asia Trophy, saying it could be a good thing that they’re against 3 very capable Premier League sides:
“It could be good in a way. Normally in pre-season you start with a lesser team and play two 45s with rotations to give everyone a game.
”But we are straight into a game against a Premier League side. I am not sure if Wolves have already had a game but I know West Ham have so they will be flying so we need to make sure we are ourselves.
”Some of us will be playing 60-70 minutes which is quite a lot for us in our first game back.
“Everyone is looking to play and we are looking to win the game. Last year against Wolves, we were quite hard done by at their place so that is in the back of our minds as well.
”We will be looking to win. We know Manchester City are involved in it so it is going to be tough but tournament football is anyone’s game.
“They might not like the heat, we may be on it on the day, so we are just going to approach it as it would be any game.”
