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I was irate in the Newcastle dressing room before big public apology but I have no regrets

John Carver celebrates
-Credit:2015 Getty Images


John Carver affords himself a 15-minute break from watching video clips of Lechia Gdańsk's youth team and takes a moment to look into the future. Then, briefly, the past.

It's evening time in Poland and Carver, now manager of the Polish top-flight side, has just completed a successful mid-season training camp in Turkey. Still working as Scotland assistant boss to Steve Clarke, Carver could very easily be on the golf course between international fixtures but could not resist the challenge of trying to keep a young Lechia team in the Poland's premier division.

He has very little to spend but he is rich in time on the training field and just like the challenge he was thrown a decade ago, when taking over as head coach at Newcastle from Alan Pardew, Carver is up for the fight.

As things stand, Lechia are four points adrift of safety and face two of the top sides following the mid-winter camp in Antalya. When asked if he can keep the young side afloat in Poland's Ekstraklasa, Carver told Chronicle Live from Gdansk: "It is doable when you talk about achievements in life, this one would be incredible. They have no experience of the top division and we've signed nobody yet.

"It's a challenge, but I like a challenge, and there's no reason why we can't have a right go at it. If we organise ourselves and have some structure we can achieve survival.

"If they believe it, they can do it. I know I believe it. I would not have come here if I did not believe I could pull it off. The facilities here are first class and the stadium is breathtaking. It's the Stadion Gdańsk, which was used for the Europa League final a few years ago when Man United got beat off Villarreal as well as Euro 2012."

Carver came through Newcastle's youth system before going on to work at the Academy under Kevin Keegan then had enjoyable stints as first-team coach with Ruud Gullit and Sir Bobby Robson, tasting the rise to the Champions League along the way. His return to the club in 2011 under Alan Pardew also resulted in helping the team into Europe with a fifth-placed finish before culminating with a nervy but successful Survival Sunday in which the Magpies beat West Ham 2-0 at St James' Park thanks to goals from Moussa Sissoko and Jonas Gutierrez.

Since Newcastle Carver has enjoyed at Omonia Nicosia and West Brom but more notably with Scotland after coaching the team to Euro 2020 and Euro 2024. This weekend marks the 10-year anniversary since Carver was handed the job as manager. He told me: "Is it 10 years already? Wow.

"It's flown by and it feels very vivid still. It feels like yesterday really but I have no regrets and never will because I wanted to do what was right for the squad and keep the club up.

"The challenge got harder and harder because we had no money and then one of the worst injury runs, we were down to no centre-backs at one stage and we had to sell Davide Santon and Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa. But we knuckled down and got the job done. It is great to see us doing well at the minute, some big games coming up, a second leg semi-final against Arsenal which they can't take for granted, they need to get the job finished off and get to Wembley.

"I have always been a fan and always will be - it's in the blood! It's great that it is all going well."

Newcastle players now arrive at Benton after a £10million refurbishment while the club have spent £450million on players since the Saudi-backed takeover. It's a far cry from the Mike Ashley era when Carver was told taking on the job as boss would be without a transfer kitty and on condition he sold Santon and Yanga-Mbiwa in his first week.

But that experience was banked and added to his coaching CV. The Cruddas Park lad said: "My Newcastle experience serves me well now, right now actually. I'm taking over a club that is in trouble, so it will be a big achievement to stay up.

"The biggest thing I learned from the Newcastle experience was to try to stay as calm as you can without letting outside noise affect you. You can't let it affect how you sleep, eat and recover for training and games. You have to stay calm when everything around you is going crazy. You have to keep a cool head. That was the biggest thing I learned. Especially the build-up to West Ham.

"The whole build-up was low key. I told the players to stay away from the media, social media, and watching TV. I take all that into this situation now in Poland. I suppose the consolation here is I don't read the media so I am a million miles away from what is being said. I can focus on the football and my players."

Yet Carver knows that his spell in charge was hardly a pleasure cruise at St James' Park. As the injuries sliced into his squad and he was left without the spine of his team as Steven Taylor, Cheick Tiote, and Papiss Cisse all lay in the treatment room, it was starting to look bleak.

Carver understandably blew his top at Leicester during a 3-0 defeat in which Mike Williamson and Daryl Janmaat were sent off then suspended when the club were down to the bare bones. The squad were locked in the dressing room for an hour, delaying a press conference in which Carver confessed he felt that Williamson had been sent off "on purpose".

It was drastic tactics to call a player out in public but designed to wake the players up for a slumber because they were staring the drop in the face. Williamson later issued a public apology for his part in the farce and a run of eight games without defeat was ended with a 1-1 draw with West Brom.

Carver reflected: "After Leicester, I was irate and angry, I said a few things to the guys in the dressing room and we locked ourselves in as it needed to be sorted there and then. I got a few things off my chest. We all had to stand up to the challenge.

"That was to stay in the Premier League, I told them I didn't want a relegation on my record and I didn't want that for them either. We'd had injuries, sold players in the window and not signed anybody. But we still stayed up.

"We needed to wake up. Sometimes you can get into a rut in football and think: 'We'll win next week or we will sort it out the next game'. But then you run out of games, and you are in trouble. In fairness to the players, they sorted it out, and we got a result against West Brom and then beat West Ham."

Carver's stint at Newcastle is also remembered by some for a comment made before the West Brom game - a quote that would go viral. Addressing the comments 10 years on, Carver said: "I was simply telling the players to believe in themselves more. And that I had to believe in who I was. That was: 'The best coach in the Premier League'. It was tongue in cheek, but seriously, what I was essentially saying was: 'What's the point in trying to win games in the Premier League if we didn't believe we were good enough?'

"Remember, the Premier League is the best league in the world, and you are competing against world stars. If you don't have that confidence and belief, you will struggle. The show had to go on."

Jonas Gutierrez celebrates scoring against West Ham 18 months after being diagnosed for testicular cancer
Jonas Gutierrez celebrates scoring against West Ham 18 months after being diagnosed for testicular cancer -Credit:(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)

Fast forward 10 years and Carver remains in touch with many of the squad that stayed up. Carver said: "A lot of the lads from that era have gone on to management, coaching or are doing their coaching badges. Funnily enough I sat with Ryan Taylor in the lounge and had a good chat with him.

"Ryan is doing his badges and he knows I will help him in any way by putting him in touch or stuff like that, same with any of that team. Mike Williamson, I've spoken to; he's at Carlisle now. I speak to Adam Armstrong still, Tim Krul, Paul Dummett, Jack Colback, Siem and Luuk de Jong and Rob Elliot. Look I was at the club a long time and you develop relationships.

"Andy Woodman at Bromley, I was so pleased for him to get the FA Cup tie at Newcastle, to see his side go 1-0 up at St James' recently. It's great to see so many coaching, I must have taught them something over the years!"

Carver's life remains at the heart of the game with both Lechia and Scotland with a two-legged Nations League clash with Greece to come in spring. Speaking about the dual role, Carver said: "We agreed I could do both, I'll go back for the Nations League play-offs against Greece and then I'll be on the first flight back.

"We will have four or five days before the next league game here in Poland and the lads will get time off during the international break. Then there's the World Cup qualifiers but that is not until September."

Between now and the end of the season, Carver will eat, sleep, and breathe Lechia Gdansk's survival bid. He reflected: "It's been incredible really, coming over to take over Lechia Gdańsk with a massive challenge of keeping the team in the Polish top-flight. I won my first game against Śląsk Wrocław in the Ekstraklasa (Polish premier division) and since then we have had our mid-season break in Turkey.

"This gave us the chance to have a mini pre-season, and we've won three games against the third-placed team in Serbia, the placed team in Ukraine, and eighth-placed in the Czech Republic and won matches. So that has got some confidence back going into the second half of the season.

"We've got an injury issue, and my captain is suspended for our next game, but we are confident that we can close the gap down of four points and get out of the relegation zone. I love being back on the grass and working with the players, we have a young team and they only came up this season.

"We're the youngest team in the league. It's probably like Ipswich getting promoted and getting to grips with the Premier League. The lads have given me so much, so I can't complain. They'd played 17 games, and they'd won two before I got here. So winning my first game was a nice little achievement if I am honest. And it's a great building block.

"Winning three friendly games has been incredible so I have had a little bit of impact but I know the real tests are still to come. We need eight or nine wins from 16 or 17 games. It is a challenge, but it's good fun, and I am looking forward to it."

As Newcastle fight for the Champions League, FA Cup and Carabao Cup, Carver has an eye on events back home too but insisted: "My dreams this season are simple, to keep Lechia Gdansk in the top division and see Newcastle win the Carabao Cup! That would be the perfect double!"