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Sir Alex Ferguson “That impressed me, Geordies do travel”

7 years ago
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Sir Alex Ferguson has been expressing his admiration for Geordies.

The former Manchester United boss says that the willingness of young boys from Tyneside to move away from home at an early age, shows how much desire there is amongst them to make it in football.

Ferguson was talking specifically about Michael Carrick, who instead of going to play for Newcastle, chose to move to West Ham as a 16 year old.

However, he was 25 by the time Sir Alex Ferguson signed the Geordie midfielder for Manchester United, with a move to Spurs in between.

The former Man Utd boss was talking in advance of Michael Carrick’s testimonial and spoke at some length about other examples that back up his argument.

Ferguson saying how the likes of Alan Shearer, Bryan Robson and Sir Bobby Charlton are all prime examples of this desire to make a name in football.

As a Newcastle fan it is gutting to see players of that calibre who could/should have been stars at St James Park from an early age.

Newcastle of course did eventually bring back Shearer but it took a World record fee to do it.

The same with so many others, including Peter Beardsley, having to bring him back from Canada after he somehow slipped through the net.

Whilst Sir Alex Ferguson celebrates the confidence Geordies show to travel as young kids, we are all wishing that they’d had a decent bout of travel/home sickness and who knows what could have been achieved.

Sir Alex Ferguson:

“One of the things that stuck out for me was that as a young boy, 16 years of age, he (Michael Carrick) goes down to play for West Ham. That shows the boy had confidence that he was going to make it.

“A 16 year old kid going all the way down from Newcastle to East London, that is a trek, and it epitomised for me the confidence the boy had in himself.

“That impressed me, Geordies do travel.

“You think of Alan Shearer went to Southampton as a kid, Bryan Robson as a kid to West Brom, Sir Bobby Charlton came here at 15 years of age.

“So they have got a bit about them, Geordies, in terms of travelling and wanting to be players.

“It’s a great football area, the Wallsend Boys Club Where he (Michael Carrick) came from, has produced so many fantastic footballers.

“Ever since he (Carrick) joined us, he has had a fantastic career.”

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