I arrived at Newcastle United for £2.5m & was left shocked by the amateur surroundings

The French winger left Paris Saint-Germain to join Newcastle United in 1995 for £2.5million. Ginola had serious interest from Spanish giants Barcelona but a deal failed to come to fruition.

Ginola joined an ambitious Magpies side that had finished third and sixth in their first two Premier League seasons under Kevin Keegan and headed into the 1995-96 season with title ambitions. Although Keegan was putting a title-challenging squad together, Newcastle were training at Maiden Castle in Durham which was also being used by Durham University students at the time.

“When I arrived at Newcastle and saw the training ground, it was like standing in an amateur club,” Ginola said via The Overlap. “It was a very low profile, having breakfast in the morning and sharing a dressing room with students from the local university because the training ground was in Durham.

“So, you jump into a world today where when you look at the facilities, training grounds, and stadiums, everything is top. You need to adapt yourself to this new chapter of football, but the thing for me is the mentality, the mentality has changed so much all through those years – the passion and the love of the shirt and the meaning of it.”

Newcastle left Maiden Castle in 2001 and moved to Darsley Park, which is still the club’s training centre today. The training ground has recently been given a £10million upgrade with updated facilities throughout though relocating to a new state-of-the-art training centre has also been discussed.

Ginola went on to make 75 appearances for Newcastle, scoring seven goals, before leaving to join Tottenham Hotspur in 1997. But the now 57-year-old has maintained a strong affinity to the club, even sporting the new Adidas 2024-25 Newcastle away shirt for its launch this summer.

He also filmed an advert for Nike and JD Sports with Newcastle midfielder Sandro Tonali in the city centre last year. The advert involved Ginola teaching Tonali Geordie sayings and phrases such as ‘why aye man’ and ‘howay the lads’.

“When I arrived at Newcastle, the first thing I thought was, ‘Am I in England?’ The way that they were talking and all these things, for me it was like a discovery,” Ginola added. “When I signed from PSG to Newcastle I thought about the Premier League and England and thought it would be like this and that, but I discovered things like baked beans and toast – things I’d never think about in Paris.

“I was used to eating croissants and pain au chocolats and a nice glass of wine. Talking about football these days, I don’t think we realise how good it was at that time. Less money but more passion and appreciation to play for someone who really wants you, like Sir John Hall – what a man.

“He was a Geordie, very successful businessman who bought the club because it was his passion. Nowadays, people buy clubs because they just want to be in football, I don’t know if they are enjoying themselves.”