Opinion

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 third of the four. Our thanks from The Mag to The Armchair Fan for this top quality interview with Andy Griffin)

Which manager would you say you learned the most from in your career?

That’s a hard one as I think you take a snippet from every manager you work with.

My first manager at Stoke, Lou Macari, was all about professionalism, looking after yourself and your habits off the pitch. He was huge on work rate, desire, putting your head in where it hurts, out-working your opponents, being as fit as you possibly can. He was no-nonsense, asking what you...