Jump at chance to join Newcastle – Guthrie

Jan 9 2010 by Mark Douglas, The Journal

Guthrie stresses that whoever does come on board will need to sign up to the new ‘philosophy’ that has driven United’s promotion push this season.

With its genesis in the no-holds-barred team meeting that followed the 6-1 thrashing at Leyton Orient, Newcastle have profited from a new-found togetherness after a troubled summer.

And that has helped them out of some tight spots in their bid for an immediate return to the Premier League following relegation heartache at Villa Park on the last day of last season.

It is a policy that makes few concessions for the ‘big time’ ego-driven stars that have upset the balance in the United dressing room in the past.

And the class of 2010 are in no mood to change their outlook for anyone.

“Newcastle United is a different club from the one I joined, particularly in the dressing room where we are all so together as a group pulling in the same direction,” former Liverpool youngster Guthrie revealed.

“It is a good place to be. It is a really strong dressing room here now and only the right players should be brought in – they must have the right mentality and attitude.

“Anyone coming in will have to become part of that spirit because I can’t stress enough how we are all working so well together.

“We all want the same thing and every week everyone goes out and plays for each other.

“Anyone who comes in will have to do the same.

“It’s a very happy dressing room. You notice it in the little things like you can have a go at one of your team-mates and it’s not going to cause any problems – nowadays whatever is said on the pitch is left out there and makes it a good place to work.”

Without a game this afternoon thanks to the Reading trip’s postponement, United’s players were summoned to their Benton training headquarters for a light work-out before being given the rest of the weekend off.

However, Guthrie is not worried about the prospect of playing two games in a week for the forseeable future.

“There are a lot of games coming up so having the odd postponement isn’t anything to be too worried about,” he admitted.

“We drew a couple of games that we’d have liked to have won but people seem to have forgotten that we’ve gone 12 matches unbeaten.”