You don’t need me to tell you about the wonders of the North East, but Troy Deeney may require a crash course.
“It’s right at the top of the country,” he told CBS Sports Golazo ahead of Newcastle United’s Carabao Cup quarter-final win against Brentford. “I don’t want to be disrespectful, but it’s not a desirable place to go and live because you’re so far away from London. It’s like four or five hours.
“It’s difficult to get people there, to get investment there, but they’re going to have to do it. They must have known it before they bought it because these guys are not stupid people.”
Deeney was not the first pundit to peddle this myth and the former Watford captain certainly won’t be the last. Clearly, the 36-year-old has not stopped to think how this ‘undesirable’ area did not put off Alexander Isak, Sandro Tonali, Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman. On the contrary. The quartet are among those who love the city while Callum Wilson even chose to move to Newcastle in darker times in the Ashley era rather than returning home to the Midlands with Aston Villa.
There is a reason why Malcolm MacDonald, John Anderson and Olivier Bernard still live in the North East – long after retiring. There is a reason why Jonjo Shelvey sold a house in the capital, which had originally been earmarked as the family’s forever home, because the midfielder, his wife and kids love the region so much. There is a reason why Londoners like Rob Lee, Les Ferdinand and Warren Barton look back on their time in Newcastle as some of the happiest years of their lives as well as their careers. Even Mikel Merino, who only spent a season at Newcastle, once told ChronicleLive that the ‘city was really beautiful and the people there showed me a lot of love’, which helped the Spaniard to feel at ‘home’.
Eddie Howe previously said he was ‘very proud to be associated with the city’ after moving his family up from the South Coast and the Newcastle boss hailed the region as a ‘brilliant place to live’.
“Since I’ve been here, I’ve never experienced someone not wanting to come here because of the area where the club is situated,” he added earlier this year. “It’s trying to sell the complete package to players because the football for me has to be the most important thing. If a player is thinking about other things, maybe they’re not the right fit for us.”
Take note, Troy.
View news Source: https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/troy-deeney-gets-wrong-airing-30619685
