Former Newcastle United hero predicts when the Magpies will get back where they belong

Ex-Newcastle United hero Chris Waddle believes it will be a long time before his former club get back ‘where they belong’.
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: Ex Newcastle player and media pundit Chris Waddle looks on during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Liverpool at St James' Park on November 1, 2014 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.  (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: Ex Newcastle player and media pundit Chris Waddle looks on during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Liverpool at St James' Park on November 1, 2014 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.  (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - NOVEMBER 01: Ex Newcastle player and media pundit Chris Waddle looks on during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Liverpool at St James' Park on November 1, 2014 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Waddle, who played for the Magpies in the early 1980s, thinks unless Mike Ashley is bought out at St James’s Park the good times could be some way off.

“It will be a while before you see a club play the way Kevin had us play – unless someone takes over at Newcastle. Unless that happens, the way modern football is, it will be a long time for the club,” he said.

“As a club they are top six – the fans definitely are.

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“Newcastle fans always want 100% effort and entertainment. If you can give them that, they will put up with losing. I remember drawing 5-5 with Newcastle after we’d been 4-1 up – most fans would have booed us, but the fans talked and talked about it for months.

“The fans want to win.”

When Waddle was at United Kevin Keegan first joined the club to breathe life into a sleeping giant.

Keegan lit a fire on Tyneside, that did not go out for more than a decade.

“I think it was good for the area at the time,” he said.

“I played for two years before Kevin arrived and it was dire! We could not score, we were lucky to have a shot, if we’re honest.

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“At that time the fans were a bit disillusioned. Obviously we had a lot of local lads in the side and lads like me who had come from non-league.

“The fans did not know where the club were going. But when Kevin walked in it was like ‘wow’!

“We looked around and were like ‘Kevin Keegan is playing for Newcastle?’ – we were very, very average, below average even. We wondered what was all this about?

“It took about a year to realise that you were not going to wake up and it was all a dream.

“The crowds went from 17,000 and 20,000 to more than 30,000 sell outs. Always had great away fans but everywhere you went other clubs were filling out because Kevin was playing.”