Jermaine Jenas shares what Alan Shearer would do in Newcastle dressing room which left him stunned

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Jermaine Jenas has shared what it was the Alan Shearer used to at Newcastle United if they were losing that really shocked him.

Jenas had played just 33 senior games with Nottingham Forest before he joined Newcastle in 2002 and some of the things he experienced while in the North east really helped to shape him as a player and person.

Speaking on That Peter Crouch Podcast, Jenas shared how Shearer would come into the dressing room if Newcastle were losing at half-time and ‘be in your face’ holding players accountable.

Jenas had never experienced anything like Newcastle

Jenas was just 19-years-old when he joined Newcastle, a young player who still had his whole career ahead of him and a lot to learn from the senior members of the team like Shearer.

It’s fair to say that his time at the club was mixed having started very brightly but not quite reaching the potential that many thought he would, yet still made over 100 Premier League appearances for the Geordies.

Looking back now, Jenas was grateful that he had such experienced teammates in Shearer and Craig Bellamy who would not let you get away with a lack of effort and forced everyone else around them to raise their game.

That’s something that Jenas had previously believed was the manager’s job, but Newcastle were doing things a little differently at the time.

On Shearer, Jenas said: “At half-time if we were 1-0 down, Shearer would come flying in and he’d be in your face and say ‘you need to sort yourself out’. I’d never had a player who was in your face telling you what you should be doing. It’s always the manager usually. Then Bellers would come flying in, pointing at someone else, the accountability in that room made you raise your game.”

Newcastle need more of those players now

In the modern era it’s very rare that you find players who are always holding their teammates accountable, they just don’t make them like how they used to anymore.

Newcastle have a very tightly knit group under Eddie Howe and it really shows on the pitch, but there’s still not many who you could imagine having a go at someone for not playing to their best ability.

Perhaps that’s how the manager wants things, for his team to be a unit pushing each other to be better rather than getting in their face to motivate them, and it does seem to be working so far.

But Newcastle are still lacking that bit of ruthlessness, someone who knows what it takes to win a trophy, and could really look to add that to their squad in the summer window.