An exclusive interview with Andy Griffin.

I spoke to the former Newcastle United and England Under 21s star via zoom on Thursday March 26th.

The one-time NUFC defender is currently running the Andy Griffin football academy near Stoke.

We began by talking about him signing for NUFC in 1998 before moving on to his memories of playing under three different managers until 2004, as well as his thoughts on Newcastle United in the present day.

(ED: This epic interview covers a lot of ground and has been split into four parts. This is the first of the four, with the other three to follow in the coming days. Our thanks from The Mag to The Armchair Fan for this top quality interview with Andy Griffin)

When Newcastle United approached you in 1998 with a view to signing, did it take much persuading for you to agree to join the Toon?

It didn’t take much persuading, actually it took no persuading at all!

I was still a teenager at the time and was playing in the Stoke City first team. Stoke were struggling near the bottom of the Championship and both Newcastle and Leicester were interested in me. Leicester had...